You Need Maria Montessori in Your Life
My name is Aliyah. I’m the mom of an almost 14 month old girl and I’m a Montessori teacher. Have you ever heard of Montessori? Most people associate the name purely with preschools and the fact that it’s “different”, but their knowledge tends to stop there. If that’s you, or you’ve never even heard about Maria Montessori’s revolutionary contributions to the fields of child development and education, then please keep reading!
Maria Montessori could be the topic of an entire blog every week, so I’m just going to drop little crumbs of information about her here and there throughout my posts. Just enough to get you hungry to know more about this kick-ass woman, and lead you to learn more about her on your own. The fact is, if you need things like good ideas, inspiration, positivity, hope…. then you just plain need her in your life.
Born in 1870, Maria Montessori was a scientific genius and creative visionary, putting forth barrier busting ideas well ahead of her time. She was one of Italy’s first female physicians, and used her scientific mind to flip the predominant view of children and how to educate them totally upside down. Long story short, she used the power of observation to design materials and classroom environments which brought out children’s natural desire to learn. News of what was happening in her school spread all throughout Italy and soon, worldwide.
Many years later and far from Italy, I went to a Montessori school in Ohio. From about age two and a half all the way through my eighth grade graduation, I loved everything about going to school. Though I didn’t see it coming or plan on it until much later, I actually ended up getting my Master’s of Education in Montessori Education and started teaching.
And now…back to the “mom” part. My academic and professional familiarity with Maria Montessori’s child-centered approach to education continually shows it’s usefulness in my everyday life as a parent. When you’re getting to be a new parent, you may get hundreds of book recommendations on the “how to?’s” and the “why?’s” and the “what the hell?!’s” of parenting, but Maria Montessori’s books are too often left out of the list for the general public. It’s not all specific pedagogy that would only interest educators! My aim is show through each post I write, that this method is for you! You who thinks it’s only relevant regarding preschoolers, you who thinks it’s for “crunchy” or “hippie” types, and you who thinks it’s just for that expensive private school’s classroom! I’m learning every day how my background in Montessori philosophy influences how I mother…so come learn with me.
In my next post, I’ll tell you all about one Montessori mothering win: How my daughter started doing a regular household chore, at around 11 months old.
