What is Montessori?

The Montessori Method is an approach to education that focuses on using a structured environment for self-directed, hands-on learning and exploration. The child makes creative choices while the classroom and the teacher serve to guide and facilitate the process.

It is based on the premise that children are born with an innate desire to explore and learn. The prepared environment, which possesses a sense of order, facilitates exploration so that each child can develop at his own pace in a noncompetitive atmosphere.

The Montessori Method also utilizes mixed age classes so that students can help and learn from one another. Older students frequently help the younger students with their work, and students who excel in one subject can help others in that same area. Everyone learns from one another and everyone contributes.

Doctor Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, developed the Montessori Method of Education in the early 1900s. She believed that children who are provided with adequate stimulation during the unusually “receptive periods,” between the ages of three and six, naturally move toward learning. She invented an array of materials and methods based on her scientific studies.

The materials and process are designed to correspond and adapt with the child’s physical and mental development. Great emphasis is placed on Motor and Sensory Education, as well as Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Music, and Art.

Butler Montessori was founded in 1974 by Sister Mary Giuseppe, R.S.M. of the Sisters of Mercy. Sister Giuseppe was the driving force behind the success of the school until 2001, when the new director, Mrs. Paula Mack, continued the tradition. Presently, Butler Montessori enrolls 20 students in two classes each year.

Every parent who has enrolled a child in the Butler Montessori School program – and any student who has attended – can attest to the value and endurance of what they learned and experienced in their time here.

The school is state certified by the Pennsylvania State Board of Private Academic Schools, and is a nonprofit organization. Butler Montessori is a lifetime member of the National Center for Montessori Education.

Interested in learning more about the Montessori Method, it’s history and more? Check out these helpful links below!