Pleasant Valley Montessori School

Montessori education is both a philosophy of childhood growth and a method for guiding this growth. It is based on the child’s developmental needs for freedom within limits, and a carefully prepared environment which guarantees exposure to materials and experiences through which to develop intelligence, as well as physical and psychological abilities. The Montessori classroom is designed to take full advantage of the self-motivation and unique ability of children to develop their own capabilities.

We emphasize the development of the whole child – emotional, physical, social, cultural, linguistic and intellectual. We give the child the opportunity to progress at their own pace and explore the prepared environment by their own choice. We recognize and respect each child’s unique abilities and talents and encourage them to develop to their fullest. We are committed in giving children the best education we can and believe all children have unlimited potentials. With Montessori education, children acquire a love for learning that lasts a lifetime, by learning how to learn.

Some of the premises of Montessori education are:

• Children are to be respected as different from adults, and as individuals who differ from each other . .. The child possesses unusual sensitivities and mental powers for absorbing and learning from his environment that are unlike those of the adult, both in quality and capacity.
• The most important years of growth are the first six years of life when unconscious learning is gradually brought to the conscious level.
• The goal of early childhood education should not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of study but rather to cultivate his own natural desire to learn .
• The child has a deep love for purposeful work. He works for the sake of the activity itself. It is this activity that is his most important goal: the development of himself – his mental, physical and psychological powers .
• In Dr. Montessori’s writing she frequently compared the young mind to a sponge. The child literally absorbs information from the environment. Acquiring information from the environment in this way is a natural and delightful activity for the young child who uses all his senses to investigate his interesting surroundings .
• Children learn best in an environment of love, security, understanding and consistency.

“A child’s different inner sensibilities enable him to choose from his complex environment what is suitable and necessary for his growth. They make the child sensitive to some things, but leave him indifferent to others. When a particular sensitiveness is aroused in a child, it is like a light that shines on some objects but not on others, making of them his whole world. It is not simply a question of having an intense desire for certain situations”