Nursery World - Nursery Equipment: Montessori

Exploring Montessori - with its focus on nurturing the whole person
in a well-planned learning environment - can offer lessons for all of
us. Marianne Sargent takes a look.

An enabling environment that encourages children to fulfil their potential is at the heart of the Montessori philosophy. Edwin Mortimer Standing, close long-time colleague of Maria Montessori, offers a natural analogy for the underlying ethos of Montessori practice: 'When we look at a hive of bees, what do we see? We behold a society in which the whole energies of the adult population are devoted, with unremitting self-sacrifice, to the task of building a prepared environment for the coming generation.'

The Montessori method involves nurturing the whole person, emotionally, socially, physically, spiritually and intellectually. Children play within a carefully planned learning environment that aims to foster life skills and help them develop confidence, independence and self-esteem.

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