Many parents have heard of the Montessori method and probably even know of a Montessori school in their neighborhood. The celebrated form of education has been around since Maria Montessori founded it in 1907 in Italy and has continually grown in popularity over the past century. Today, there are more than 3,000 public and private Montessori schools in the United States alone.
But many people don’t realize that, along with some of the more well-known practical benefits associated with Montessori education, there are also a host of mental health benefits. These include improved emotional stability, increased confidence, better cognitive function and reduced stress and anxiety among children who attend Montessori schools.
Here’s what the Montessori method is and how it’s able to provides these and other benefits.
What is the Montessori method and why is it popular?
The Montessori method is a child-centered educational approach that’s taught in public or private Montessori schools. “The simplest way to describe it is that Montessori schools do not provide a one-size-fits-all approach to learning,” explains Lauren Franchek, a certified Montessori educator and the Head of School at Mountain Shadows International Montessori School in Colorado. “Instead, we allow each child to follow their own pace of learning.”
One of the ways children are able to set that pace is by having multi-age classrooms where younger children are able to learn from older peers while the older students are able to demonstrate mastery of concepts when teaching them to younger students.
“Our classrooms are broken down into three grade groups working together,” explains Angie Johnson, a certified Montessori educator and the principal at Mountain West Montessori Academy in Utah. At her school, these groupings include first through third grades together, fourth through sixth combined and seventh through ninth in the same classroom. “The oldest grade of each grouping is known as that child’s ‘leadership year,’ —the year where they’re expected to take ownership of the things they have learned,” Johnson says.
She explains that the added responsibilities for the older students also go beyond academic ones. “At our school, it’s the children who plan the class parties, not the parents or teachers,” she explains. “No matter the task, we believe that children develop best when they have responsibilities put on their shoulders; and time and again, we see them rise to the occasion.”
What do Montessori schools teach?
Montessori education covers the basics of math, reading, writing and science; but goes beyond many traditional forms of education by also including sensorial learning and teaching children to look beyond themselves and understand the world they live in—a philosophy known within Montessori learning as “cosmic education.”
“By introducing cultural awareness and teaching children human history and their place in it, they learn to grow up with a deeper sense of gratitude, empathy and understanding,” says Ally Altuna, a certified Montessori educator and school director at Bell Canyon Montessori in Utah for the past 7 years. She adds that the philosophy also allows for practical life subjects to be taught. “A few examples include the importance of having good manners, conflict resolution, and how to lend a helping hand when a mess needs to be cleaned up or a job tackled,” she says.
Classroom sizes and the roles of teachers can also look quite a bit different in Montessori schools. Even with several grades in the same room, the American Montessori Society recommends for Montessori classrooms not to exceed 20 to 30 children—but it’s not uncommon for there to be as few as 10 to 15 children in some classrooms. “The smaller classrooms make it so much easier for teachers to get to know each student and provide true one-on-one guidance,” says Altuna.
What’s more, instead of standing at the front of the classroom and teaching all students the same lesson, Montessori-trained teachers act more as guides and learning facilitators, explains Susan Locke, school director at Bellevue Montessori School in Washington and a Montessori-certified educator with 21 years of experience. “One of the reasons Montessori classrooms can be child-led is because the same teachers usually work with the same students for 2 to 4 years, so they know who they are and which learning approach works best for them,” she says.
Do Montessori schools have tests?
Locke points to another standard element of traditional education that’s missing from Montessori schools: rigorous test-taking. With the exception of higher grade levels where some state testing is required, Montessori schools don’t lean heavily on test-taking as a way of measuring a child’s progress. Instead, “children are given the opportunity to explore subjects at their own pace and prove mastery with more reliable performance assessment tools,” says Altuna.
This not only helps each child learn better but also reduces stress levels and fosters collaboration among peers. “Tests can be very stressful for younger kids, and we want to avoid that by keeping learning positive,” says Locke. “Montessori schools provide cooperative education, not competitive education.”
This approach doesn’t mean children fall behind their peers in more traditional schools, but allows flexibility for kids to learn many subjects in the order they want to, and at their own pace. “State standards tell you what you need to learn but don’t say how you need to learn it,” says Johnson.
The National Education Association recommends traditional classrooms follow a less conventional approach than is currently being used, as “standardized tests are an inaccurate and unfair measure of student progress.”
Angeline Lillard, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the director of the Montessori science program there, says the Montessori approach to performance assessment is not only better for the child but makes sense for how humans have evolved to learn.
“Many believe that part of the reason children today have so much stress and anxiety is an evolutionary mismatch between the way they are being raised and how humans evolved,” she explains. For instance, in indigenous cultures that are most similar to the conditions of our ancient ancestors, “children are quite free and have relatively little adult surveillance,” she says.
In such cultures, “children choose what they want to do, and they do things with their hands, bodies and objects.” She notes that these children also spend their days in mixed-age peer groups where “adults do not give them tests or grades.”
Lillard says that today’s modern deviation from this across much of the country is one reason children are often unhappy about going to school. “Montessori education is a much closer match to the conditions we evolved for, with research showing Montessori children learning reading, writing, and math as well or better than children in conventional schools,” she explains.
What are the mental health benefits of Montessori education?
Beyond improved academic performance, the less rigid teaching environment of Montessori education means “there is a lot less stress, anxiety, and pressure to perform,” says Franchek.
“A guiding Montessori philosophy is ‘freedom within limits,’” echoes Johnson. “Our children know that if something doesn’t work out exactly as intended the first time, it’s a good lesson learned to build on for the next attempt.” This approach builds confidence and improves executive function skills, says Lillard.
There’s also an element of growth that occurs when children are taught in an environment where manners, mutual respect and consideration for others is taught and exemplified. “Montessori really emphasizes psychological safety,” says Franchek. “The environment is highly predictable, so children have a space where they feel supported and respected.”
The approach seems to be working. “In one of our studies, we collected hair samples of students in public Montessori schools and compared them to ones from students in conventional public schools to test for cortisol—a stress indicator for the prior two to three months of a person’s life,” says Lillard. “We learned that stress levels were lower in students at Montessori schools.”
Even more compelling, the health benefits of Montessori education appear to have staying power. “Adults who attended Montessori schools as children have higher adult wellbeing than those who attended only conventional schools,” says Lillard, “and we’ve seen that the longer they attended, the higher their wellbeing.”
