The great science of childhood development as discovered by Maria Montessori

Philosophers for millennia have looked for the means of establishing a better union of human beings to prevent tyranny, foster good will progress and peace.

Maria Montessori found her own solution where others did not.

She found that in children, and the natural development of children, is the preservation of mankind.

Because Children are unique spiritual beings that develop into adults.

And her discoveries compose perhaps the greatest body of applied scientific discovery of the 20th century - in tandem with all the physical and biological, and arguably of greater importance.

Mankind has - until her work was developed and proven in practice - had no deep heartfelt systematic observation plus applied experimental basis to reliably help children become independent, free, and capable persons.

Her discoveries include detailed study of the common phases that all children - outside of severe physical disability-  go through at the same time within (give or take a year). That if like a caterpillar you provide the proper input at the proper time, each child can go through the metamorphoses that each is naturally inclined to.

4

For a parent who has gone through the development of their child already, these phases are perhaps familiar from personal experience.

But, the detailed development of specific environments, techniques and principles of inquiry of Maria Montessori’s lifetime of work in scientific inquiry are extraordinary - perhaps unparalleled in detail - in the phases of child development.

She discovered and put into practice what no person before had accomplished on a wide scale. The teaching of teachers to foster children that would become freely able to learn on their own.

------

The world of today is one in which people have participated and become accustomed to pressure, reward and punishment as a way of life as an adult. And a presupposition that the same system of pressure, reward and punishment scholastically are they way they know for better or worse. That children have to survive through this to grow up.

What result do we have then? Adults who rarely choose freely to learn after they are done with the institution of school.

Perhaps they occasionally read professionally, or keep up with news, or the occasional light fiction for entertainment. However, how many people do you know outside of that who read to better themselves and those around them in diverse and personal interests with any degree of consistency?

Those who do, most of us know of one or a few such persons, are probably fortunate ones who through a special parent or teacher or mentor or by their own gifted abilities found passion for learning.

To hope that a child will get lucky in this way is akin to rolling the dice with the future of our children and society.

A key principle of Montessori: “Every act of true choice is preceded by an act of judgement”

Montessori children learn with materials that they are naturally inclined to be able to learn at their phase of development, and as such as they development their abilities in sizes or shapes or colors, they can freely choose to work further to get better and better and distinguishing colors as ‘internal work’.

As new or upcoming parents, or even as parents with children at any age - unfortunately we the tools for that phase of life as Parent are not widely and reliably disseminated in our society. Yet it is of the utmost importance to know what we can learn from the sake of our children. So that we can make an informed judgment of the types of education available and chose based on that well informed judgement.

You do not have to gamble in the hopes that your child will get lucky. This does not have to be!

The principles of childhood development and how to help any child reliably reach innate developmental potential are well known and in practice for the better part of one hundred years.

It is my goal for the benefit of all mankind to help parents become educated during their phase of parenthood in the science of child development so they can make well informed choices in the future of their child with the best resources available, tailored for the caring inquiring parent.

A parent who is likely busy, with little exposure to child development science,who is apprehensive, who wants the best for their child.

My desired outcome is that you will develop a firm understanding of how your child develops and what the available resources are to best help your child. We will present contrasting viewpoints and observations so you can make you own choices having seen a spectrum of findings and the people behind those findings.

And we will do so in an intuitive way in which you personally learn things of value for yourself and your family.