Montessori and Mixed Age Classrooms

 

Montessori and Mixed Age Classrooms

By Gail Moore      April 2006

            When Maria Montessori first opened her Casa de Bambini over a hundred years ago, she was working with children in the poorest slums of Italy.  The parents of these children were working 12 hours or more a day, and the children were left alone without adult supervision.

            It was Dr. Montessori’s goal that her schools would give these children not only an education for the mind, but would also provide them with a place of safety, security and support.  Her classrooms were truly a home away from home.  Children of all ages came into her schools.  They learned to care for themselves, each other and their environment – emotionally, mentally, physically and academically. 

            Dr. Montessori observed the children interacting with each other as if in a family.  The oldest children helped the younger children.  The youngest children looked up to the older children to serve as role models for behavior and life as well as a source for academic lessons.  All Montessori classrooms today adhere to Dr. Montessori’s principle of mixing ages of children toddler, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12 and 12 to 18 years of age.  This principle is the very foundation of Montessori education.

Montessori Education views children as valuable, capable humans,  each one as a unique individual with their own special needs and abilities.  Each child deserves as many opportunities as possible to become a happy, fulfilled, independent, and successful human being.  In a classroom of mixed ages, a child has the opportunity to become part of a cooperative community.  He can learn from children older than he and offer assistance to those younger than he.  He can begin to see himself as a contributor to society always trying to make the highest choice for himself and others of the classroom, the family, and the community.  

            Our purpose as Montessori educators is to assist children to discover who they are as people, what their capabilities are so that when they become adults they will have the clarity and confidence to make great contributions to their families, their communities and to the world.  The mixed aged classroom experience gives young children and early awareness about the world and their place in it as valuable independent human beings, and as part of the greater community. The Montessori classroom is a microcosm of every greater community of which the child will become a part.  The Montessori environment offers each child the most elemental lessons he will need to be successful in his life.  Because of this it is our belief that the Montessori mixed age groupings provide each child with a most realistic and holistic approach to education

The typical American Montessori classroom in a school, which has been in existence a number of years, is a classroom of three to six year old children. Some of these children are in their second and third Montessori years with the same teacher.  Some of these classrooms had what seems to be a very large class sizes.  Maria Montessori believed that the more children in a class the more opportunities for learning are available for learning.  

Children who return each year to the same classroom serve as role models and peer guides for our newer students.  An example would be as follows:

•      In one of my first experiences as a Montessori Directress, I had a young 4-year-old girl who would not interact with others in a large public school Montessori classroom.  Getting this child to state her needs was a challenge.   Every day she would stand behind me watching, listening, clinging but rarely participating in the daily classroom activities.  I was puzzled and had many conferences with the parents who assured me she did not stop talking about it at home.   I continued to invite her to lessons.  She continued to watch.  This continued for most of the year.    At the beginning of the next year, her kindergarten year I hardly recognized her.   She walked into class, shook my hand and went to another child who was struggling with his backpack and helped him find his name and hang his backpack.   She worked independently all day.  It was obvious to me that she was reading.   When I asked the parents, they were thrilled at the discovery.  By the middle of the year, she was reading chapter  books and became a leader and role model in my class. 

To conclude, we invite you in to our classes.   Please observe how our children work together to problem solve, to create and to socialize.  It is a wonderful part of belonging when you can follow a friend as well as lead a friend to success.  Come in and see it for yourself.