Children learn, with or without teachers. They absorb knowledge from whatever environment they are in. The type of environment conducive to children's learning depends largely on adults. Adults have always professed to love children. Less often have they professed a need to respect them. Many are the adults who believe that the role of the child…

Elementary education has theoretical underpinnings based on cognitive psychology. Ideas from cognitive psychologists such as James, Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky coalesce to form constructivism (Cooper, 1993; Yager, 2000; Yilmaz, 2011). Among others, the Montessori Method (1912/1964) is an exemplar of constructivism. Currently, public education in…

Montessori education, at its best, is a combination of art and science, an exquisite balance of subjectivity and objectivity. When done well, a Montessori environment resembles a carefully crafted piece of art, a skillfully constructed laboratory for the study of life. The work of creating such a masterpiece is a labor of love and a commitment of…

"The Wiley International Handbook of Educational Foundations" features international scholars uniquely qualified to examine issues specific to their regions of the world. The Handbook provides readers with an alternative to the traditional texts in the foundations of education by taking aim at the status quo, and by offering frameworks…

This article offers a brief history of the establishment of the American Montessori Society (AMS) and takes a closer look at its structure. The history of AMS has essentially been a search for standards and a search for community in its efforts to further the welfare of children in America. It has been an indigenous effort by American parents, and…

The main purpose of this article is to describe the nature of imaginary play in Montessori classrooms. A transcript from a train ride shows how young children imagine and recreate ideas from their real world experiences and weave them into original new accounts. The author discusses how the play-like action of dramatizing "The Caboose Who Got…

Within the United States, there are a variety of early education models and curricula aimed at promoting young children's pre-academic, social, and behavioral skills. This study, using data from the Miami School Readiness Project (Winsler et al., 2008, 2012), examined the school readiness gains of low-income Latino (n = 7,045) and Black (n =…

This article presents edited transcripts of separate Skype conversations with Richard Ungerer, AMS executive director, in his office at AMS headquarters in New York and Andre Roberfroid, president of AMI, at his home in Vetraz-Monthoux, France. It also presents a discussion of the ways the two organizations can join forces to strengthen the…

"Understanding the Montessori Approach" is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the Montessori Approach and how it is used in the teaching and learning of young children. It will enable the reader to analyse the essential elements of this Approach to early childhood and and its…

This study compared word recognition for words written in a traditional flat font to the same words written in a three-dimensional appearing font determined to create a right hemispheric stimulation. The participants were emergent readers enrolled in Montessori schools in the United States learning to read basic CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant)…

The early 1960s was a critical, albeit chaotic, period for the revival of the Montessori movement, which had been recently rekindled in the United States. The success or failure of the movement can arguably be said to have rested squarely upon the backs of those founding members and early supporters of the fledgling American Montessori Society,…

This article presents findings from a qualitative case study of a public Montessori magnet school in the United States. It focuses on two teachers' experiences, identifying how their teaching is situated in school scripts, that is; ways of speaking about teaching and learning within particular school micro-cultures. The focal teachers utilized…

This study examines life in a Montessori classroom, with special attention focused on spontaneous episodes of imaginary play. The goal is to better understand what is going on when children engage in imaginary play and how this play assists young learners in their development. This article examines three play episodes, each from a different area…

One of the goals of Montessorians is to spread Montessori education and make quality Montessori education available for children. However, one of the obstacles is the lack of information in the world (and an abundance of misinformation) about the Montessori philosophy. In 2009, these two issues came to a head in what evolved into a battle of…

Providing a meaningful and experiential learning environment for all students has long created a concern for alternate ways to teach students who are reportedly demonstrating non-mastery on state standardized assessments. As the benchmark for showing successful academic achievement increases, so does the need for discovering effective ways for…