Statement of Philosophy

    Montessori School of Tupelo, MS, Inc. is affiliated with the American Montessori Society.  The School's purpose is to facilitate the full development of each child enrolled while helping each child to find his place as a contributing member of the group.   We believe that such development can occur only through the mature and caring modeling by teachers who create a loving environment.  The teachers foster the children's participation in maintaining their classrooms and outdoor school environments.

    The classrooms are family-structured, open classrooms, with children of varying ages who have freedom to move about, to make choices within the prepared environment and to participate in conversations with friends.  The Montessori teacher acts as a catalyst and a guide to help children learn by doing for themselves always encouraging the children to extend their natural curiosity and desires to touch and experiment.  The teacher tries to remove all barriers to the child's learning - learning through exploration and manipulation.

    The child is allowed to work without interruption and to repeat activities as long as his or her inner timetable dictates.  The teacher tries to be an astute observer of each child's interests which may bespeak his "sensitive periods," times when one or more areas of curriculum may be of special interest and therefore easier to learn.  The children are shown, individually and in small groups, new activities relating to their interests and level of development, with the hope that each will motivate the child to progress to the next level of difficulty, thereby leading to an attitude of joy in learning.

    Rules for the children and teachers reduce to the simple attitudes of being kind to one another and to the environment.  Teachers see their role as guides for each child's self-development to full independence.  The children are respected as individuals and encouraged to make their own choices of constructive "work", as in Montessori classes the child's play is taken seriously as the work which will lead to the construction of the adult he or she will become.

    The School makes every effort to encourage the children to become aware of themselves as caretakers for the planet Earth and responsible members of the international family of mankind.  To this end, the children have lessons in "grace and courtesy" along with their academic lessons.  The School stresses the need for a spirit of ecological and social responsibility and tries to model its philosophy as a caring community for children, parents and faculty.  In the curriculum, therefore, ecological and international studies are emphasized.