
Resources
A DIFFERENT KIND OF INNOVATION
INNOVATORS
“A number of the innovative entrepreneurs also went to Montessori schools, where they learned to follow their curiosity. To paraphrase the famous Apple ad campaign, innovators not only learned early on to think different, they act different (and even talk different).”
LEADERSHIP LESSONS
“One of the most important influences early on was being educated in a Montessori setting. The Montessori ethos was very formative for me because it built into me a belief in self-direction, in independent thought, in peer collaboration, in responsibility.”
TIME MAGAZINE
Time Magazine, covering an influential 2007 report on the American workforce, puts it bluntly:
“As Americans worry about whether some fraction of our children get ‘left behind’… an entire generation of kids [is failing] to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad, or speak a language other than English.”
And why? According to the report, our educational system is still focused on teaching skills in a world where skills quickly become outdated, automated or offshored-for-less. Value now lies in creativity and innovation, life literacy, global orientation and cross-cultural abilities. The study concludes, “The core problem is that our education and training systems were built for another era. …It is not possible to get where we have to go by patching that system.”
And so it is not.
Montessori is not an adaptation of traditional methods, it’s a completely different way of teaching and learning. Many of its core ideas correspond directly to recommendations in this and other studies. It’s an approach that acknowledges it is how—and not what—we learn that most shapes the developing personality. While independent studies show that Montessori students perform academically as well or better than more traditionally educated peers, we believe it’s their demonstrably better life skills that best prepare our young people for a complex and fast-changing world.
RECOMMENDED READING
- The Clio Montessori Series – Maria Montessori
- From Childhood To Adolescence – Maria Montessori
- Education For Human Development: Understanding Montessori
- Education and Peace
- The Child in the Family
- The Child, Society and the World
LINKS
- Montessori Today – Paula Polk Lillard
- Montessori Madness – Trevor Eissler
- Montessori Mafia – Peter Sims Wall Street Journal
- The Absorbent Mind – Maria Montessori
- Montessori:The Science behind the Genius– Angeline S. Lillard, PhD
- Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three – Paula Polk Lillard
- The Discovery of the Child- Maria Montessori
- Madam Montessori – Smithsonian.com
- Montessori, Now 100, Goes Mainstream – The Washington Post
- American Journal of EducationMiddle School Students’ Motivation & Quality of Experience: A comparison of Montessori and Traditional School Environments
- The Journal of North American Montessori Teachers Association Optimal Developmental Outcomes: The Social, Moral, Cognitive, and Emotional Dimensions of a Montessori Education
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