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Maria Montessori was born in 1870. Throughout her early years she was very interested in science and engineering. She wanted to become a medical doctor. Because she was a women, the establishment turned her away but she persisted time and again until she gained entry into Medical School.

Her initial work was with mentally challenged children in a psychiatric ward. In time, these hospitalised children learned to read and write and her work gained national attention.

In 1907, she opened the first Casa de Bambini (Childrens House) in Rome, Italy where slum children were brought in order to remove them from the streets. Her experimental work produced miraculous results with children blossoming far beyond their years into abstract learning through the use of concrete materials. It was a process based on observation of the child followed by the child's self education in a prepared environment.

By the time of her death in 1952, Maria Montessori had developed a comprehensive framework for revolutionising education - quite distant from the mainstream of conventional, governmental education.

  Her ability to observe and reflect on her observations created a totally new context for the child's learning. The context for Montessori education is a prepared environment developed on the basis of humanity's fundamental needs and tendencies.
 

The philosophical foundation of the Montessori approach is based on the premise that education should be an aid to life. Respect for the children's personality and trust in their inner potentialities are prerequisite to the establishment of a healthy learning ambiance.

Montessori asserts that education based on her discoveries would bring forth nothing less than the birth of a new human. She identifies the goal of education as "the development of a complete human being, oriented to the environment, and adapted to his or her time, place and culture."

Today we extend this by asking the children to question deeply what they see. We hope they will be able to explore creative solutions and develop personal integrity so they are ready to meet whatever life may bring.

Nova accomplishes this by preparing environments based on the age of the learner, so that individuals from birth to maturity are able to grow and understand themselves and their relationships to each other as well as the natural world.

In 'To Educate the Human Potential', Maria Montessori proclaims "the fundamental principle in education is the correlation of all subjects." By cosmic education, she refers to an approach to learning that provides the largest possible context for understanding how everything is related. Through this approach children come to realise humanity's relationship to the whole. At all levels, Nova teachers emphasise humanity's responsibility to the Earth community.

The Montessori approach to life and learning combines freedom with responsibility, a more active role for the children in their learning and academic excellence based on each person's potential contribution. It also provides for social awareness and moral development, as well as a vision of humanity's relationship to the whole.

Cultural historian and author of 'The Great Work', Thomas Berry says:
"Our educational institutions need to see their purpose not as training personnel for exploiting the Earth, but as guiding students toward an intimate relationship with the Earth... In this context we might consider the intellectual, political and economic orientations that will enable us to fulfill the historical assignment before us - to establish a more viable way into the future."

This is a 21st Century interpretation of Montessori's call for an education that would bring about a new human being.

 
Montessori Teaching & Learning  
In a Montessori classroom stimulation for learning comes from the total environment. There is no front of the room, and no teacher's desk as a focal point of attention. Maria Montessori referred to the teacher;s desk as a focal point of attention. Maria Montessori referred to the teacher as a 'directress' because his/her role differs considerably from that of a teacher. She demonstrates the correct use of materials as the children individually choose them. She carefully observes the progress of each child and keeps a detailed record of their work. Each teacher has been trained to recognise individual periods of readiness.

 
   
 

Through free choice children express and strengthen their individuality, fostering the development of self confidence and integrity. Freedom of choice reinforces the construction of a healthy and vibrant will as well as independent thinking. Montessori explains; "The child 'constructs' his (or her) own will by a process of self education... developing the will by making decisions."

According to Montessori, discipline is an 'inner discipline' - an inner control that children develop from their own work. Montessori noted that many so called undisciplined children were really frustrated by lack of proper stimulation and an inadequate opportunity to work at their own pace.

She noted that young people were happier and more self controlled and move towards what she identified as 'normalisation' - a symbiotic and restful connectedness to self, others and the environment brought forward through concentration and love of learning. The environment simply meets the inner needs of the child. Children experience challenging tasks, which not only absorb their energies but also result in a sense of achievement.
 
  The didactic materials that are found in Montessori environments are tools for reflective action. They are meaningful in that they draw the learner into relationship. They are not ' tools for teaching' as much as they are experiences upon which one constructs personalised theory. Knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.
 

 

 The boundary of liberty is the domain of responsibility. Every human being needs opportunities to acquire social, physical and moral responsibility. In the Montessori learning environment responsibility is developed through experience and natural consequences. Children are provided opportunities through social life activity to align themselves with the highest values needed in a healthy society.
 
  Montessori explains, "A teacher must not imagine she can prepare herself for this vocation simply by acquiring knowledge and culture. Above all else she must cultivate a proper attitude to the moral order." In every school subject there is an activity of love. It is this spiritual component that differentiates a Montessori class from a class that used Montessori materials. The latter operates at the ordinary level of manipulation while the former leads to expanded awareness.
 
 

Montessori identifies the goal of education as the development of a complete human being, oriented to the environment, and adapted to his or her time, place or culture.

Today we expand this by asking the older children to question deeply. We hope they will be able to explore creative solutions and develop personal integrity so they are ready to meet whatever life may bring.

To accomplish this we prepare environments base on the age of the learner, so that individuals from birth to maturity are able to grow and understand themselves and their relationships to each other as well as the natural world.