Elementary school

“We can greatly improve the human race by helping the child to build his character and acquire his moral freedom. One of the ways to achieve this goal is through a cosmic education that provides the child with a direction and guide in life. Such an education prepares the young child for his future responsibility as an adult, enabling him to feel at ease in his own surroundings and being able to live in it as an independent being.”

Maria Montessori

The basis of Montessori elementary education

The Montessori elementary school is intended for preschool children who are already functioning at an accelerated pace. We provide a smooth transition with an overlap of certain preschool activities as part of the first year. However, the elementary school’s objectives differ from those of the preschool. Children are now oriented towards abstraction by progressively distancing them from the teaching materials. The maturing imagination of a six-year-old child embraces more extended ideas that transcend the immediate environment. The program of studies becomes interdisciplinary: biology, geology and history concepts converge towards the study of the evolution of life from the origin of the universe to the emergence of human beings and civilization. The child’s studies arise from spontaneous humanistic questions that are universal to all children, according to Maria Montessori. Who am I? Where do I come from? What makes humans human? What are universal human needs? How can I cooperate with others?

An intellectual time

Children in the elementary classroom have very distinct characteristics such as increased mental capacity, great intellectual curiosity, the power of imagination, the ability to reason, moral development and gregarious instinct. Children’s training is no longer centred on their individual development; each is becoming a social being. Children exhibit the need to work with others and demonstrate greater independence from the adults around them.

A cosmic education

Our elementary class introduces “Great Lessons” to meet children’s needs and fire their imaginations. These lessons are, in fact, stories that provide an introduction to the universe: creation of the earth, the story of life, the story of mankind, the story of the alphabet and the story of numbers. The children’s reasoning ability and imagination are stimulated to create links between the various topics addressed. By means of cards, experiments and timelines, children learn that everything is interrelated and that they are part of this entity.

We do not focus simply on presenting details, but rather on forming associations between various study fields and facets. The natural sciences lead into the social and physical sciences. Mathematical and geometrical concepts follow naturally, from basic numerical operations to Euclidean geometry to solid geometry, and always on a fully integrated basis. Language becomes the final synthesis of all experience, with creative writing and grammatical analysis serving as the basis for the study program’s cultural content.