Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Montessori Toronto Area Schools Have Been Available Since The 1960s

By Annabelle Newton


A desire to boost the education prospects of their children brings parents to a Montessori Toronto area school. This unconventional philosophy has taken root in Toronto since the 1960s. The result has been a branding embrace by schools not actually following this method. Parents need to be cognizant of this reality when they explore schooling options for their offspring.

The growing interest in type of schooling has led to an expanded market. But, this is where the confusion can arise. Parents need to ascertain first that the schools they are considering have official recognition from authoritative Montessori organizations. They should be aware there are differences in emphasis even within schools following the principles advocated by the founder of this education philosophy.

Such schools have an interesting history in Toronto. The first school on Canadian soil was started in the city. In fact, it played a pivotal role in generating the spread of such schools throughout North America. This pioneering school was founded by a student of Dr. Maria in 1961. Her name was Helma Trass. She arrived from the Netherlands. In 1971, she established the Toronto Montessori Institute to train educators. As a result the city is still considered a base for this type of teaching in North America.

Each school accepted by an accrediting organization reflects this legacy. Properly trained educators employ the techniques and tools that reflect its guiding philosophy. For each lesson, teachers design their personal manuals adhering to the prescribed norms. Classroom settings are planned so that they nurture social skill development in the process. The teaching method and material encourage an inherent desire to learn that is believed to exist in each child. The founder of this technique complained traditional education failed to nurture this quality.

The founding educator of this unconventional teaching method was a pioneer for her gender as the first female physician in her home country of Italy. She was also a psychiatrist who worked with mentally challenged children and delinquents at the turn of the last century. It was this experience which developed her interest in educational theories.

The observations made by the Italian physician and her studies made her question the prevailing methods used to educate these children. The work she did bore fruit with her breakthrough determination that children naturally learned and interacted with their environment without an adult imposed structure. She subsequently devised a method of education that endeavors to do just that.

What she learned is termed experiential learning in our time. Pediatric scientists now know this type of learning uses the way a brain develops its neural pathways to encourage scholastic development. Experts have proclaimed that her concept is the superior example of a brain based educational model. Yet, a century prior to development of MRI technology enabling us to observe brain functions, this method was devised through a simple process of studying youngsters.

Typically students can remain in this system until they are twelve years old. This is because the Italian founder did not set many guidelines for educating children beyond this age. By this time the students have a love of learning and they know how to pursue their own interests. They have also developed an ability to work with others. The child centered method found in Montessori Toronto schooling contrasts with the way students learn in traditional classrooms. In the traditional scheme all students typically learn the same thing concurrently in the same way. They are also typically the same age, whereas in this scheme children of different ages learn in the same classroom.




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