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Our Mission and Approach to the Montessori Method

Durango Montessori was founded in 2005, our School’s mission is to provide an education center for children in grades preschool through fifth grade according to the principles and philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori. It is the adopted belief of Durango Montessori School that appropriate education received at these ages is the most valuable education in the whole of a lifetime, and Durango Montessori Inc. intends to provide each child with warm, nurturing, didactically prepared environments supervised and maintained by teachers trained in the Montessori Method and consistent with Montessori philosophy. Durango Montessori Inc.’s goal is to promote emotional, social, and intellectual development in order to meet the needs of the whole child.

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When you enter a Montessori classroom, you know that something different is afoot: you see children working independently and in groups, often with specially designed learning materials. They’re deeply engaged in their work and respectful of themselves and their surroundings. The Montessori Method fosters rigorous, self-motivated growth for children and adolescents in all areas of their development—cognitive, emotional, social, and physical.

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For more than a century now, the child-focused approach that Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, developed for educating children has been transforming schools around the globe.

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Montessori education takes into account the nature of the child. Through scientific observations, Maria Montessori discovered universal traits all children possess.  For the past 100 years, children worldwide have benefited from Montessori education.  Maria developed teaching techniques and materials to entice the child to explore his/her world. These techniques are based on how children acquire knowledge complementing the child’s inherent desire to learn.

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Maria Montessori found through her research as an educator that children:

  • Are curious by nature​

  • Have a thirst for knowledge

  • Seek to understand the world and their place in it

  • Need to actively pursue knowledge

  • Learn by doing

By interacting with the environment, their peers, and with materials, students in Montessori classrooms establish learning practices that lead to overall comprehension. Children learn by active participation through the manipulation of materials, therefore the Montessori classroom is full of precisely engineered materials designed to teach concepts in a cohesive, concrete manner.

Through their experiences at Durango Montessori School, children develop incredible skills, including: 

  • Academic success

  • Love of learning

  • A positive self image

  • The capability to overcome challenges

  • Problem solving ability

  • Excellent communication skills

  • Ease at adapting to change

  • Respect and appreciation for the community

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Core Montessori Components

At Durango Montessori School, we offer a well-rounded curriculum in the spirit of Montessori education and utilize a wealth of Montessori materials and tools. Furthermore, we incorporate additional learning tools and strategies for comprehensive, engaging education, for best practices in mathematics and Daily Language Instruction (DLI). As we prepare our children for an ever-changing, evolving world, we find teaching inspiration and ideas through the adoption of new philosophies along with Montessori methods, which were not meant to be static. We also offer a robust program of “specials” education, including Spanish instruction, physical education, peace works, and music.

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The American Montessori Society recognizes 5 components as critical to high-fidelity implementation of the Montessori Method:​

  1. Montessori-trained teachers

  2. The multi-age classroom

  3. Using Montessori materials, specially-designed for a hands-on approach to learning

  4. Child-directed work: students are given the agency to self-select work, leading to intrinsic motivation and sustained attention.

  5. Uninterrupted work periods that enable students to focus deeply and work at their own pace

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You can read more about the components of a Montessori education at the American Montessori Society.

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