CFUW hosts Montessori Lecture

Education

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Margaret Whitely Director of the Montessori House of Children in London Ontario gave a lecture at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre Wednesday night to a large audience of the Canadian Federation of University Women.

Margaret traced the history of the Montessori method of education from its beginning in Italy by Dr. Maria Montessori, who was born in 1870 in Italy. She placed great emphasis on the relationship between education and peace as envisioned by the pioneering visionary.

Margaret told the audience that children as they develop from infancy to maturity are 'tuned' to different methods of gathering information from the world around them.

One striking aspect of the method is its reliance on the tactile aspect and using all the senses and at the same time placing emphasis on the hands.

Of particular importance are the early 1 to 6 year old phase where children are sponges for information and 'gobble' it up from everything around them. 

Mrs. Whitely also mentioned that children don't like short learning sessions that are broken up into 10 and 15 minute units that change subject.  Instead of that learning sessions are extended to allow in depth acquisition of knowledge.  She illustrated this with a math problem that involved hours for the solution, but along the way exercised all the rudimentary skills of mathematics.

Margaret Whitely is an impassioned advocate for children and their education.

For more information on her school in London Ontario and the method see http://montessori.on.ca

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010