Since
its founding by Lillian A. Shah and Penny Contractor
in 1971, the Elementary Workshop Montessori
School has grown from a small class of 28 students housed
in St. Mary’s rectory to about 75 children using
the spacious and well-equipped three-story building we
show off with pride. The present school is the result
of the work and love of many parents, teachers, friends,
board members, and students who have planned, carried,
painted, collected, and created the ELEMENTARY WORKSHOP
MONTESSORI SCHOOL. EWMS is our school in a way
few other schools can be – ours because our dreams
and frustrations, our work and laughter, our pride and
our hearts are built into every inch of it.
We are guided by the Montessori
philosophy and methods to:
Free the child’s
potential for self-development through increasingly
complex sensory, motor, and intellectual activities;
Stimulate the child’s development
through individual tasks and communal activities
in a multi-age environment;
Guide each child’s learning
based on a child’s innate readiness for physical,
mental, emotional, and social development; and
Provide an environment that protects
the learning process, promotes creativity, encourages
self-discipline, and prepares the child for abstract
intellectual decisions.
2.
We foster
close connections between the learning environment
and home. Parent involvement is achieved through
informal education, parent-staff cooperation, patent
participation in Elementary Workshop activities,
and by encouraging the use of Montessori methods
at home.
3.
We advocate
educational excellence, employing an experienced,
highly trained, sensitive and responsive staff.
We respect the high calling of working with children
and give full support to our staff.
4.
We openly
seek and honor ethnic, cultural, religious, and
economic diversity in the life of the Elementary
Workshop family and in the global nature of the
environment.
5.
We offer
a safe and comfortable learning environment at
a location easily accessible to diverse populations
in the surrounding urban and suburban communities.
The purpose of the Elementary Workshop
Montessori School is to provide the highest quality education
in a diverse, cohesive academic environment. In the Montessori
tradition we foster each child’s joy in learning
and enable each child’s fullest development.
Young children have an intense desire to
learn and they have unusual ability to absorb and learn
from their environment. The school must foster what is
natural, unique, and authentic in children. Since the
best preparation for being a happy and useful adult is
to live fully as a child, the school must be a community
where children can exist first and foremost as children
and not as future adults.
At the Elementary Workshop Montessori School
we assume the responsibility for finding the most effective
ways to teach young children. This requires us to understand
them, to know what is of vital interest to them, and
to be aware of their many different ways of learning.
It also means that we like them and always view them
in a positive light. If quality education is to become
a priority, it is important to provide good models, and
over the years the Elementary Workshop Montessori School
has gained recognition as an outstanding educational
and teacher training center. Children are educated well
here. They are at ease. As they explore and learn and
make mistakes, their dignity remains intact. Pleasant
and childlike, they grow and bloom in this extraordinarily
right place we have made for them.
Maria Montessori: Pioneer In Early
Childhood Learning
Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) was
an Italian physician-educator who spent a lifetime developing
an educational approach to meet the needs of very young
learners. In 1896 she became Italy’s first female
medical school graduate.
Her first work was with children with brain
damage and other cognitive impairments; this led to the
development of the unique teaching methods and materials
used in Montessori schools today. Dr. Montessori built
upon the findings of two French medical predecessors,
Drs. Itard and Sequin, who had developed concrete teaching
materials for children. Her results with this special
population of children were so spectacular that she believed
she could achieve similar results with typically developing
children.
On January 5, 1907 Maria Montessori established
the first “Casa De Bambini” (Children’s
House) in one of the worst slum neighborhoods in Rome.
These culturally deprived children were untended, dirty,
and illiterate. Dr. Montessori transformed one room of
a decaying tenement building into a unique environment
scaled to the size of the children. She furnished the
classroom with small tables and chairs, plants, flowers,
curtains, and most importantly, her precise educational
materials.
In a short period of time, her students
exhibited a remarkable improvement in their manners and
personal care. They maintained an orderly environment
and exploded into spontaneous reading and writing through
the use of her specially developed materials.
Montessori Philosophy Hands-on Learning “ The
hands are the instruments of man's intelligence.” - Maria Montessori
Children
learn first through their hands. In a Montessori environment,
new concepts are presented in as hands-on a way as
possible in order to give children
an authentic experience with new information. Thus, children trace the letter ‘a’ cut
out of sandpaper to “feel the sound they are making when they say /ah/.
They hold ten spindles or beads when they learn the concept of “ten.” They
use real tools for real activities such as tongs, pitchers, and vegetable peelers.
In this way, they build a strong conceptual base and learn independence while
learning.
The Prepared Environment The first aim of the prepared environment
is, as far as possible, to render the growing child
independent of the adult. That is, it is a place where
she can do things for herself – live her own
life – without the immediate help of adults.
It is an environment constructed in proportion to the
child that will also satisfy her intellectual, emotional,
moral and social needs. In the prepared environment,
the visitor will find:
Free choice of activity, which
is so vital a factor in the Montessori system, helps
children develop independence. That is why materials
are displayed around the room on low tables and bookcases
so the children can easily see, choose, take, and replace
them without any assistance from an adult.
Once the child has been introduced to the
materials, he is free to work with them either alone
or in a small group. This freedom to work at tasks of
his own choosing means that he will always be doing something
that interests him that satisfies his own needs at that
particular stage. It quite simply makes positive use
of the child’s natural enthusiasm and curiosity.
Multi-age
Groupings A Montessori class is a small
community of children of mixed ages. The atmosphere is
peaceful, non-competitive, and humming with purposeful
activity where work and play are indistinguishable. Younger
children in each class seek to emulate their older classmates
and the oldest in the class practice their leadership
skills, and cement their own knowledge by guiding their
younger classmates.
The purpose of the Elementary Workshop
Montessori School is to provide the highest quality education
in a diverse, cohesive academic environment. In the Montessori
tradition we foster each child’s joy in learning
and enable each child’s fullest development.
“ The
hands are the instruments of man's intelligence.” 
Free choice of activity, which
is so vital a factor in the Montessori system, helps
children develop independence. That is why materials
are displayed around the room on low tables and bookcases
so the children can easily see, choose, take, and replace
them without any assistance from an adult.