The World Learner School

A Statement of Our Educational Philosophy

Our Philosophy

World Learner School is a public (charter) Montessori school serving children from 6 to 14 years of age. World Learner School practices the Montessori Method of education. For us Montessori is a view of and an attitude toward the whole child. The curriculum consists of a physical environment, a psychological environment, materials, presentation of the materials, and the children’s chosen work, all within a Montessori framework.

The Montessori Philosophy and Curriculum

“The essence of independence is to be able
to do something for one’s self.
Adults work to finish a task, but the child works
in order to grow, and is working to create the adult,
the person that is to be.”
- Maria Montessori

The general philosophy for each child in our school is to provide Montessori education, which is an education of independence and freedom. In order to develop physical, intellectual and spiritual powers to the fullest, the child must have freedom. This is obtained in our classrooms through the practice of independence, order and self-discipline. We believe that self-motivation is the single most important impulse to guide the children through their learning.

Each child is viewed as an individual learner, with unique learning style and capabilities. The children are allowed to move through the elementary curriculum at their own pace. This is why the multi-age grouping works so well. Something that may have held little interest for a first-year student, may become fascinating in the second or third year. In this way children experience the freedom to make choices in their work, and develop a sense of control over their education. This also virtually eliminates the child’s fear of being “behind.”

The mixing of ages also helps to strengthen the social development of the child. The relationships formed between the younger and older children are invaluable. The younger children look to the older children as inspiration in both behavior and work. The older children take pride in guiding the young ones through the ways of the classroom. The three-year cycle also helps the children build an extremely strong bond with their teacher. The teacher and child get to know and trust each other in a most profound way.

The teacher is responsible for helping guide the children to find their own motivation for learning. By preparing the environment and observing each child carefully, the teacher “follows the child.” Children expand their knowledge by being guided toward materials that reflect their interests.

The Montessori teacher has, what Maria Montessori calls, a “Cosmic Task.” This task is to work with the children’s imagination to help them realize the interconnectedness of the universe. One of the foundations of Montessori education is to present the concrete, which leads to the abstract. By first striking the child’s imagination with a wonderful story or lesson, the teacher taps into the child’s self-motivation to begin a search for more information.

In short, the Montessori elementary and middle school classrooms provides the children with the freedom to learn at their own pace in a varied age group, with a teacher to help guide them through the curriculum. There is much more to know about the Montessori Method in addition to what is mentioned here, and we encourage all parents to educate themselves about this philosophy by reading about it, attending parent education nights, and observing in our classrooms. We assure you that the more you know about the Montessori philosophy, the more excited you will be to have your child join this community!

We WLS teachers share a number of beliefs which underlie our practice of Montessori Method. We try to act based on those beliefs:

What We Believe:	Each child is an individual whose interests and abilities are unique.
What We Do:	Teach each child at his/her own level. Remove any obstacles to growth, irrespective of the rate at which that growth occurs.

What We Believe:	Communities are based on respect. Respect as an individual is a right of each community member.
What We Do:	Show respect to the children, our colleagues, parents, animals, and our belongings, and protect everyone's right to be respected.

What We Believe:	In order to teach the child, we must understand the child. We follow the child. We observe the child closely, and determine from the open-minded observation what we can do that will be most helpful to the child's mission.
What We Do:	We practice to become keen observers. We observe all the time, noting signs that tell us the child's needs. And we move quickly to meet those needs, or to remove the obstacles in front of the child's own pursuit of those needs, so as to catch the child at his/her most sensitive period to whatever the need might be.

What We Believe:	The natural sequence of work moves from the concrete to the abstract.
What We Do:	Guide the child through a sequence of work opportunities from a base of hands-on, quantitative activities toward more mental work.

What We Believe:	The best work involves many senses.
What We Do:	Encourage work that involves as many senses as possible.

What We Believe:	Children often need to move when they work.
What We Do:	Set up a child-oriented environment in which children responsibly assume the freedom to move around the classroom however they need to, as long as they respect others.

What We Believe:	Childrent need to socialize when they work.
What We Do:	Encourage and teach children to communicate with each other and work together.

What We Believe:	Children learn best when they do what interests them.
What We Do:	Provide a framework for children to choose work in which they are interested and competent.

What We Believe:	Responsibility and freedom come in a delicate balance.
What We Do:	Cultivate an environment of freedom, in which children are competent to meet their responsibilities.

What We Believe:	All subject areas are important.
What We Do:	Ensure that children are exposed to a wide variety of subject areas and approaches to the same subject.

What We Believe:	Some, but only some, sequences of work are essential.
What We Do:	Prepare to follow the sequence when that is appropriate, and to depart from it when that is appropriate.

What We Believe:	Being accountable means being able to show progress using standardized, objective measuring tools that are faithful to our principles and understandable to parents and other interested people.
What We Do:	Prepare our children for required tests, while influencing change where we can, and accepting rules when we have to. We develop and use our own tests as part of the compilation of each child's portfolio, which consists of the child's work history (with examples), our observations, a record of parental questions and concerns, and test results.

What We Believe:	Individual adaptation and self-construction are fundamental to human development.
What We Do:	Help the child find the work he/she needs to do to best build their own minds, and then allow them the opportunity to do it.

What We Believe:	Children are driven to develop their capacities for orientation, exploration, and order.
What We Do:	Involve the children in a fundamental way in the organization of the environment, including the schedule, the meals, transitions, maintenance, everything. And go out whenever we can, on field trips, walks, to play on a nice day, etc.

What We Believe:	Elementary-age children have a burgeoning imagination (intelligence) that allows them to contemplate beyond the here and now into the remote past, the future, the fantastic, the unreal, the logical, the negative, and the hypothetical. Adolescence is characterized by a surge of intellectual power and social sensitivity.
What We Do:	We plant small seeds of interest in a superordinate context of nature and humanity, and encourage the children to pursue their own interests as far as their imagination allows.

What We Believe:	The children retain some of their earlier drive toward perfection, exactness, repetition, and control of self.
What We Do:	Recognize stages of development as having distinct characteristics, but a lot of overlap as well. Recognize any positive tendency within any child as that child's mission of the moment in their journey toward self-construction.

This is a brief summary of our beliefs and practices at World Learner School. We hope that it gives you an idea of how we approach the education of children. We welcome visitors into our classrooms to see for themselves how we implement our beliefs. We encourage our visitors to read the literature on Montessori and related subjects.

Thank you for your interest in World Learner School and Montessori Education!