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The Importance of the Main Ingredients of the Montessori Method : the Directress and the Prepared Environment

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The Importance of the Main Ingredients of the Montessori Method : the Directress and the Prepared Environment
The importance of the main ingredients of the Montessori method : the directress and the prepared environment

Motto:’’ The teacher as an adult should try to interpret the child's needs and meet them as best as he can by preparing a really suitable environment. This may be the beginning of a new epoch in education, which will consider how it can assist the life of the child.’’ (Montessori, M., The Secret of Childhood, Part1, Chapter IV: Where adults impede the question of sleep, 1963, p.79).
The child in the Montessori school needs the best conditions for his development and for achieving this, he needs a link between him and the knowledge to come: this link could be represented by the directress who connects the child to the surrounding environment through a gradual and well - prepared guidance that helps the child to discover himself with the help of the materials introduced by the teacher as parts of a prepared environment.
Considering the fact that Dr.Montessori indicates that the absorbent mind of a child is being developed between 0-6 years of age, we shall discuss about the importance of the prepared environment and of the directress in a Montessori school according to this stage of development and to the sensitive periods that a child experiences when he is attracted to some specific activities.
The directress according to Maria Montessori is a stalker who guides the child towards the discovery of his self. The directress, herself is in the position of preparing the child for achieving his own work of becoming a man and in the situation of preparing the environment to lead the child to self-directed learning. The Montessori teacher – the directress directs the child towards the prepared environment.
’’In order to help the child it is not necessary to develop extraordinary powers of observation, or to be able to interpret it. Something much simpler will suffice: it is enough to have a mind prepared to assist the hidden mind of the child. Then common sense


Bibliography: 1.Gordon, S. (1981), The sociology of sentiments and emotion. In M. Rosenberg & R. Turner (Eds.), ‘’Social psychology: Sociological perspectives’’ New York: Basic, (pp. 562-592). 2.Montessori, M (1963),The Secret of Childhood,BarbaraBarclay Carter–transltr. Bombay.Orient Longmans. 3.Montessori,M (1965).The Absorbent Mind, Adyar, Madras, (India) Theosophical Pub. House, 4.Montessori,M (1966),The Discovery of the child , Madras, Kalakshetra Publications 5.Montessori,M.(2002),1946Lectures:Karachi,India.(L.A.Kripalani,Ed.).Macao,People’s Republic of China:Mammolina Press. 6.Rambusch, Nancy M.(1992) Article Title: ‘’Montessori 's "Method": Stewardship of the Spirit’’. Journal Title: Re-vision. Volume: 15, Issue: 2, p.81. 7.Standing,E.M (2009),’’Montessori Maria.’’EncyclopediaTitle: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. New York , Publisher: Columbia University Press.p.32960 8.7.Storr, Anthony (1998), The Essential Jung, London, Selected Writings Fontana Press 9.Walls Healy, Clare (2008).At the heart of Montessori. Core Principles, Dublin, Original Writing Ltd.
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