A Beautiful Gift

A Beautiful Gift
Sandra Chowanec

Choosing the right preschool for your child ranks as one of the most important and difficult decisions for parents to make.  As a concerned parent myself, I know first-hand that we all want what’s best for our children.  We want to optimize their development and allow them to realize their full potential.  Educational psychologists, social researchers, neuroscientists, and pediatricians uniformly agree: the most important years of development are not that of higher education.  The time that really counts and “forms the mold” are those all-important years of the young child.  The message of the importance of early childhood education is loud, clear, and everywhere.  All you need to do these days is turn on the television, read articles in newspapers and magazines, or type “child development” and “most important years” in your favorite internet search engine.

Physician, educator, philosopher and humanitarian Maria Montessori discovered this a full century ago.  One of her most prescient and oft-quoted statements is “The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period of birth to age six.  The more fully the needs are met the greater will be the success of the next.”

Not all preschools are alike.  Anyone who has visited just a handful of schools in our area can readily attest to that.  Fortunately, Monmouth County has boasting rights to many of top quality preschools in the state.  With our demographics and educated populace, parents here have high expectations of preschool education.  There is no shortage of schools and educational approaches to choose from.

I am not only a parent, but also an experienced early childhood educator having taught in public school for many years including preschool, kindergarten and first grade.  Having searched out many of these preschools for myself, I was struck by and impressed with a major difference between the “traditional” preschool environment and the Montessori preschool environment.  It is what Montessori calls the 3-hour uninterrupted Work Cycle, an elegant learning model that distinguishes Montessori from other preschool settings.

Maria Montessori had the vision to see a 3-hour work cycle as vital to a child’s development.  What’s the traditional alternative?  A three-hour session chock-filled with structured activities such as music, arts and crafts, computer time, cooking, physical education or foreign language where the child dutifully moves from one timed activity to the next. An ideal learning environment for a preschool-aged child?  Not according to Dr. Montessori.

Maria Montessori was a pioneer in childhood education.  Her research and discoveries advanced our understanding of child development.  Perhaps most significantly, her years of study and observations of children worldwide all led us to the understanding of what she aptly called “The Absorbent Mind.” A child from birth to 6 years of age is capable of absorbing information with the ease of a sponge absorbing water.  The information is absorbed first in the unconscious absorbent mind from the ages of birth to three years of age and then in the conscious absorbent mind from three to six years of age.  Her theories have been consistently reaffirmed in modern childhood education and neuroscience studies.

The “Absorbent Mind” does not happen automatically and the right environmental setting dramatically improves the efficacy of this process.  That setting is the Montessori method.  At a Montessori school, the child is given the opportunity to be let alone and not be bombarded with ever-changing stimuli.  The child becomes completely absorbed in their work, so completely absorbed that they reach a point of full concentration and are unaware of what is going on around them.  This is the “Absorbent Mind” on full throttle.  It can only happen if the child is given the opportunity to concentrate on an activity that he or she – not a teacher — has chosen to work on and the child can stay with that activity for as long as they need to.  This level of concentration can only be obtained in an environment where the child is able to work undisturbed without interruptions.  This is how the young children construct themselves and develop the mental scaffolding for future learning.

Children yearn to be independent.  They have a rhythm quite different from adults.  They work slowly and will repeat an activity over and over again as an internal verification and a fulfillment of an inner need to model and understand the world around them.  Unfortunately, children live in an adult world that does not allow or encourage the slowness or the uninterrupted opportunity of a Montessori environment.  There are errands to run and appointments to keep.  For a child, the Montessori environment is a refuge from the hectic day-to-day activities of life.  The beauty of a Montessori environment is not in bombarding a child with a full platter of segmented scheduled activities, but rather it is in the 3-hour uninterrupted work cycle of learning through self-discovery and the ability to concentrate and “lose themselves” in some activity that he or she self-initiated.  The beauty of Montessori is in the respect that is given to the young child.  Each day, the child finds the materials exactly where they were the previous day.  The Montessori child has a joy and self-assurance from knowing that they may choose those materials that they wish to work with.  And they may work with those materials for as long as they wish.  No interruptions, no distractions.

A Montessori education that offers a 3-hour uninterrupted work cycle is the most beautiful gift you can give a young child.  There is no better way to foster a child’s natural development, well-being, and self-actualization.

You can read more about us and our staff. See how the Montessori Method can provide the ideal learning environment for your preschool or elementary school child. We offer an early preschool program and All Day Program to accommodate our parents needs.  Contact us to see Montessori in action at our weekly Open House. Learn more about how to observe a preschool in action.

Call Mastro Montessori Academy at 732-842-5816 and schedule a visit today.