There’s No Place Like Home:
Inside the Montessori Classroom
by Joe Zibell

As one spends more time investigating Montessori schools, the more fascinating tenets of the philosophy are unveiled. Connecticut Parent Magazine has presented our readers with an insider’s look at Montessori education for the better part of a decade, and every time, as we’ve talked with different schools in all corners of Connecticut, a new gem is revealed — a story, an anecdote, a particular practice in the classroom. However, there are ties that bind and remain strong among all Montessori schools we’ve come in contact with: the emphasis on having a sense of family and community, and the richness of the classroom environment, just to name a few.

Among the general population, there may be some misconceptions about a “typical” day in a Montessori classroom. That is somewhat understandable, as things aren’t easily funneled into simple catch-phrases, or “black & white,” so to speak. There is structure and plans for a given school day, yet there is room for freedom and spontaneity.

Children are encouraged to explore particular subjects, topics and items of interest, yet are kept under the watchful eye of the teachers to make sure their school day remains balanced. There is a focus on developing a child’s individual spirit and curiosity, yet there is wonderful interaction between students as they help each other and encourage each other on their respective educational paths. These daily interactions are all part of a plan that emphasizes the potential of children, and does everything it can to develop them emotionally, cognitively and even spiritually.

The materials in the Montessori classroom play an essential role as resources that open the door to learning.
Photo, Enfield Montessori School.

In the phrase above, the emphasis should be on the word “children.” In contrast with a traditional setting, where the teacher is typically front and center in the room, the life and spirit of a Montessori classroom is centered on the children’s activities and interests. It is not a free-for-all, however. The classroom is meticulously designed and each day is planned to foster this activity level and encourage creativity, wonder and investigation.

Cynthia Burnim, director of Great Beginnings Montessori School in Fairfield stresses that the children aren’t sat down and taught how to do something, but the learning process is based upon the use of the classroom materials, which are the catalyst for learning and development.

“The materials are prepared, and every day a child walks into the classroom, he sees what we call a ‘prepared environment,’” says Burnim. “Everything has its place and the child knows where to find materials. Some of the materials are changed a little so that we keep their interest heightened, but overall there is a great sense of order and predictability in the classroom, and the children find that very comforting. It becomes their classroom.”

Children interacting with each other, teaching each
other is a common occurance in the classroom.
Photo, Great Beginnings Montessori.

This mindset encourages a responsibility on the part of the children, as they take “ownership” of their own working space. According to Burnim, this is reflected in the fact that the children learn how to take care of their classroom, maintain its tidiness, cleanliness and order.

“It’s a very important aspect of Montessori — that they have ownership of the classroom,” adds Burnim. “In fact, Maria Montessori used to call it ‘the children’s house.’” So for the children, it’s their home and the teachers are the links to help the children learn how to use their home in an age-appropriate way.”

Kelly Moore, an elementary Montessori teacher at New England School of Montessori in Milford, notes that while the teacher plays an important role in setting up the overall structure of the classroom and the plans for the day, the children truly play an important role in making their learning environment their own.

“The children help to prepare the room, by cleaning, organizing, taking care of the pets and plants and in creating the rules of the room,” says Moore. “The room is filled with child-sized furniture and art that is positioned at the child’s eye-level. You will not find a teacher’s desk, because the entire room should be open and available for the child to use. Our children learn from their actions, experiments, materials, books, computers, other students, family members and the world, not just from one teacher following a scripted lesson plan. This empowers the children to be active learners.”

Having the environment fit the children (for example, having the chairs and tables child-sized) may seem like a simple theory in practice, but it truly ties into the larger, over-reaching perspective of Montessori education.

“Classrooms are set up for the child’s use, not for the adult,” stresses Sister Anastasia, a long-time teacher at Enfield Montessori School. “In what we would call the Primary Montessori class, which is preschoolers through kindergarten, everything is child-size. So the children sit down and their feet are touching the floor. The bathroom is their size as well. This allows them to become independent. If they need to move a chair, for example, they’re free to do it — they’re taught how, and then they pick it up and move it so no damage is done and no child gets hit on the way. There is a mobility with the furniture child-size.”

Sister Anastasia also points out that as the children get older and develop, the furniture becomes more and more adapted to their needs. And this routine, this practice, ties into their independence as Sister noted above.

“As the children get older, very often the younger children work independently. That’s typical of a younger child: ‘I am learning something, it’s mine and therefore I need to work with it.’ As they become a little older and mature, then they begin to share; they begin to work in small groups; and they have the freedom to do this as long as freedom goes along with responsibility.”

One of the characteristics of the Montessori classroom is that the teacher’s role is defined a bit differently than in a traditional classroom setting. They have a great responsibility in making sure the basic principles of independence and creativity flourish, yet at the same time maintaining guidelines and boundaries to ensure a successful learning environment for all the children.

“The teachers are guides in the classroom,” says Burnim, “as opposed to teachers that are just pouring information for the children. They are the link from the child to the environment, teaching children how to use the different materials in the process. And once the children learn that, they are free to work with whatever they wish in the classroom.

“There is a kind of freedom in the room, within guidelines, within boundaries, where the children can work with materials of their choosing. They can go from an art project to a building project to a language project to something to do with pre-math materials during the course of one morning, all on their own, without the teacher telling them what to do.”

The idea of “freedom within guidelines”
is an important principle in class.
Photo, New England School of Montessori.

The idea of “freedom within guidelines” is an important one and gets to the heart of how a Montessori classroom operates and functions. The teacher is right there, in-step with the children, but offers a quieter presence than being at the “head of the class.”

Moore put it in a succinct and clear way: a great teacher walks behind the child . . . guiding them and showing them the way, and when the child looks back, they see no one, only their own footsteps.

“In other words, they may say, ‘Look at what I taught myself!’” adds Moore, “after the teacher has spent two hours on creating personalized material and has given a multitude of lessons in different and creative ways. The child learns information by practicing, repeating and working with materials until they have that ‘eureka’ moment. Montessori teachers demonstrate the proper use of the materials on the shelves in individual or group lessons (depending) on the child’s attention span and ability to work with others). The teacher helps the child have that ‘ah-HA, I understand!’ moment that can only come from within the child on their own individual timeline for academic milestones.”

As Sister Anastasia made clear, there are expectations of the children at every level, and part of the teacher’s responsibility is to help the children meet those expectations, both in their work and how they interact with other students. As children are wont to do, individual students take interest in particular subjects that are of great interest to them, be it reading, math, science or geography. And, while the Montessori classroom is a great environment to grow these individual interests, there is a balance of how much time is being spent by a child on a particular area of interest.

“You need to guide them,” says Sister Anastasia. “They cannot be doing math all day, for example. There are other things they need to learn. So you let them do the math and then you very gently say ‘I think you’ve done very well in your math and it’s coming along nicely. Now we need to take a language,’ or whatever area they may need to work on for that day. And you say it very politely, but they get the message.

“It’s not a free-for-all that they’re doing what they want all day long. As they get older especially, the children learn to manage their time, which is a process. They begin to understand that a particular subject (writing for example) is easy for them, but geometry is something they need to work a little harder on. When they reach a point that they can manage themselves, the teacher still has to watch them in the sense of making sure they’re getting everything they need, but it’s a lot less direction.”

With the idea of the school being “the children’s house,” in the words of Maria Montessori, it is easy to see that there is a familial atmosphere that ties into the children’s school day. In fact, the schools interviewed for this story, and many other Montessori schools throughout Connecticut, are very much tied into the families of the children and their communities. In fact as Sister Anastasia alluded to and the New England School of Montessori points out, as children grow older the focus is less on the teachers and more on the entire classroom community of children and adults, much like one finds in a real family.

“We have wonderful families that work together and help support the school,” says Burnim. “As the parents work with the school, they get to know one another and have a very close bond with each other as well as with the teachers.”

As an extension of their family at home, these students find a warm, caring classroom — a place that gives them the opportunity to wonder, to investigate, to learn and prepare for whatever awaits them not only in their next school but in life.