About

Welcome to Montesecrets.com!

This blog was created to spread the word about Montessori education and provide helpful resources to parents, teachers, and aspiring Montessorians all over the world. My goal is to create a cross cultural dialogue where people can share stories and ideas, while giving thought to how we can better the lives and education of our children today.

Another reason why I wrote this blog was to get rid of the stigmas attached to Montessori. Here are just a few:

1. Montessori children can do whatever they want. They can’t do “whatever” they want. They are given free choice, but within certain perimeters. Montessori described this in Chapter 19 of The Secret of Childhood. Read it before you knock it!

2. Montessori teachers are mean, strict, and have stoic faces. I have heard this one many times, and I wonder which training centers are producing robots as teachers?! I can tell you from my experience that I am not mean, strict, or have a stoic face. Montessori trained her directresses to blend into the environoment, and interfere with the children as little as possible. I just think some Montessorians have taken that a little bit too far! Come on! Be human! Show emotion!

3. Montessori stifles creativity. This one irks me! Montessori believed that in order for children to have a great imagination, they must have a solid base in reality first. This doesn’t mean that you won’t find markers and crayons in a classroom! Creativity is EXTREMELY important, and children should be given every opportunity to explore their inner talents. I do agree, that there are some schools that don’t value creativity, but that’s not the case for all Montessori classrooms!

Browse through the various pages to find Free Downloads, Albums, Classroom Ideas, and much more! If you are still craving for more, check out our Online Courses offered throughout the month.

About Montesecrets.com Author:

Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I always wanted to be a teacher. When I finally got the chance to teach at a local Public High School, I nearly had a heart attack. I couldn’t begin to explain the horrors I saw, and started to think that maybe teaching wasn’t for me. I thought that maybe it was the school, so I decided to give it a second try, and teach at a Middle School. Boy, was I wrong! It was just as bad, if not worse. I couldn’t believe that I had 12 year olds flicking me off, and cursing me out! All I wanted to do was teach, but I found myself half of the time, trying to manage the class and making sure the kids weren’t killing each other. Everyday I would come back home mentally and physically exhausted. I’d had enough. I was just about to throw in the towel to teaching, when my mother suggested I try teaching younger children. She reminded me that I was always so good with kids, especially when she had a daycare in our home when I was younger. I started to reflect, and remember that it was in my mother’s homeday care where I developed my passion for teaching. I knew I didn’t want to get back into the Public schools…I felt that I had paid my dues. If I was going back into teaching, I wanted to really make a difference. I thought long and hard, and decided… Third times a charm, right? At least I won’t have to worry about getting beat up by a three year old! (well, so I thought!) Last summer (June 2008), I registered for a Montessori Training course and have been hooked on Montessori every since. For the past few months, I’ve been eating, breathing, sleeping, and dreaming Montessori! I am so happy that I found it (or it found me)! Montessori is truly an education for life, and I strongly stand by it. I hope everyone can benefit from this blog, but most importantly, I hope that this blog gets people to take a deeper look at our current educational practices and examine how we can change our ways in order to make a better future for our children.