Our first priority at Park Point Montessori Academy is to care for your child. We
promise to provide a caring and nurturing environment where your child can learn
to grow and develop. We understand that each child is a unique individual.
Therefore, we use the Montessori philosophy to allow our program to adapt to
each child's individual needs. We provide each child with a challenge, regardless
of his or her learning style or stage of maturity.
We believe that the development of a child's mind is very important to his or her
overall well being. Therefore, we try to prepare our students from the first day
they enter our program to be ideal, self-motivated students by focusing their
minds on a life-long journey of learning and exploring. Our classrooms are
prepared so that your child is free to pursue his or her inherent love for learning,
spontaneously and independently. We provide your child with many
opportunities to grow and explore at his or her own pace.
Our teachers serve as guardians and observers of your child's progress. They act as facilitators in your child's learning
process without intervening in his or her independent journeys of exploration. Our teachers also build a calm and loving
atmosphere for your child to work and play in, while maintaining the order and discipline necessary to keep the
environment safe and productive. In this environment your child will develop the qualities of concentration, persistence,
discipline, motivation, and an overall respect for themselves and others.
We know that all of these factors combined will help to bring joy and excitement to you child's experience here at Park
Point Montessori Academy. We hope that we will be able to help your child through all of his or her precious, developing
years as they grow and mature.
Biography: Maria Montessori
A Brief Biography
Maria Montessori was, in many ways, ahead of her time. Born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy,
in 1870, she became the first female physician in Italy upon her graduation from medical school in 1896. Shortly
afterwards, she was chosen to represent Italy at two different women's conferences, in Berlin in 1896 and in London
in 1900.
In her medical practice, her clinical observations led her to analyze how children learn, and she concluded that they
build themselves from what they find in their environment. Shifting her focus from the body to the mind, she returned to
the university in 1901, this time to study psychology and philosophy. In 1904, she was made a professor of anthropology
at the University of Rome.
Her desire to help children was so strong, however, that in 1906 she gave up both her university chair and her medical
practice to work with a group of sixty young children of working parents in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. It was there
that she founded the first Casa dei Bambini, or "Children's House." What ultimately became the Montessori method of
education developed there, based upon Montessori's scientific observations of these children's almost effortless ability
to absorb knowledge from their surroundings, as well as their tireless interest in manipulating materials. Every piece of
equipment, every exercise, every method Montessori developed was based on what she observed children to do "naturally," by themselves, unassisted by adults.
Children teach themselves. This simple but profound truth inspired Montessori's lifelong pursuit of educational reform,
methodology, psychology, teaching, and teacher training--all based on her dedication to furthering the self-creating
process of the child.
Maria Montessori made her first visit to the United States in 1913, the same year that Alexander Graham Bell and his
wife Mabel founded the Montessori Educational Association at their Washington, DC, home. Among her other strong
American supporters were Thomas Edison and Helen Keller.
In 1915, she attracted world attention with her "glass house" schoolroom exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International
Exhibition in San Francisco. On this second U.S. visit, she also conducted a teacher training course and addressed the
annual conventions of both the National Education Association and the International Kindergarten Union. The committee
that brought her to San Francisco included Margaret Wilson, the daughter of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.
The Spanish government invited her to open a research institute in 1917. In 1919, she began a series of teacher
training courses in London. In 1922, she was appointed a government inspector of schools in her native Italy, but
because of her opposition to Mussolini's fascism, she was forced to leave Italy in 1934. She traveled to Barcelona,
Spain, and was rescued there by a British cruiser in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War. She opened the Montessori
Training Centre in Laren, Netherlands, in 1938, and founded a series of teacher training courses in India in 1939.
In 1940, when India entered World War II, she and her son, Mario Montessori, were interned as enemy aliens, but she
was still permitted to conduct training courses. Later, she founded the Montessori Center in London (1947). She was
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times--in 1949, 1950, and 1951.
Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland, in 1952, but her work lives on through the Association Montessori
Internationale (AMI), the organization she founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1929 to carry on her work.
* Biography provided by National American Montessori Teachers Association (NAMTA).