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Children's House
Purpose and Goal
Dr. Montessori believed that no human being is educated by another person. The young child possesses what Montessori termed "the absorbent mind" and seeks to build or construct his/her very being. Truly educated individuals continue to learn long after the hours and years spent in the classroom because they are motivated from within by a natural curiosity and quest for knowledge.
Dr. Montessori felt, therefore, that the goal of early childhood education should not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate the child's own natural desire to learn. Most lessons in the Children's House environment are given as individual presentations because the young child is creating his/her own intellect and personality.
In the Children's House environment, this objective is approached in two ways: first, by allowing each child to experience the excitement of learning by his/her own choice rather than by being led; and second, by helping the child perfect his/her natural tools for learning, so that the child's abilities will be maximized for future learning situations. Montessori materials have this dual, long-range purpose in addition to their immediate purpose of giving specific information to the child.
Oak Hill Montessori is an independent non-profit school accredited by the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI).