Practical Life and Mature Independence

Our children’s emotional, social, physical and cognitive growth has as its ultimate goal mature independence for life. “Mature independence” is acquired in small steps over time, day by day, month by month, year by year.
Maria Montessori understood that such independence was attained by providing carefully constructed experiences for children under the watchful eye of teachers [...]

Observation – The Clearest Classroom Data

Because I was speaking to parents at a Boston Montessori School this week about developmental stages of growth, I re-read one of my favorite texts, Dr. Montessori’s own Handbook, first published in 1914. (Schocken Books, 1965) In the introduction to that volume, Nancy McCormick Rambusch of New York Foundling Hospital noted some of the key [...]