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The essential thing is to arouse such an interest that it engages the child's whole personality. —Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind, p. 206. We hear a lot about how Montessori focuses on educating the whole child. But what does that mean? How is whole child education different from that of mainstream contemporary education? Whole Child Education and the Montessori Environment A child’s mind must be educated before he is instructed that the true purpose of education is the cultivation of the intellect rather than an accumulation of facts. —John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) Dr. Maria Montessori was a woman ahead of her time. During the industrial age, the role of the school was to create workers who would work for the betterment of the state. In fascist Italy, children were taught to be citizens of the state, with each gender having very specific roles to fulfill. Obedience to authority was demanded without opposition. Dr. Montessori refused to allow the governm...

Follow the child, they will show you what they need to do, what they need to develop in themselves and what area they need to be challenged in. The aim of the children who persevere in their work with an object is certainly not to ‘learn’; they are drawn to it by the needs of their inner life, which must be recognized and developed by its means. —Maria Montessori In Montessori, we believe that the child is drawn to certain activities and that he instinctively knows what he needs. A child may try an activity and struggle with it initially. But he may return to it a little later with more success and then repeat it many times before mastering it. All of which may happen naturally without the interference of a teacher. Following The Child — Observing and Guiding Learning Montessori’s phrase “follow the child” does not mean you let the child do whatever she wants. Rather, it is an acknowledgment that the child has her own pattern. The key to understanding this idea is observation. As Monte...