Alive Montessori & Private School

Founded in 2001, the aim of Alive Montessori & Private School is to provide an environment where educational results can be achieved by children of all abilities and from all cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Students at Alive School develop high standards of integrity, with confidence in themselves and respect for others. We provide a friendly, caring and safe environment where students can grow in confidence and become successful. With a wide variety of activities, we help set students on their chosen paths.

Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870 and continued her work in education up until her death in 1952. Ahead of her time, she was the first woman in Italian history to earn a medical doctor’s degree. After practicing medicine for only a few years, she embarked on the career path for which she would become famous – as an enlightened educator for young children.

She was convinced that the conventional methodology of schooling left much to be desired and developed her own system to enable children to learn. This involved creating a carefully structured and stimulating environment where children are exposed to many materials and activities from which they learn. Most parents are amazed when they first see the richness of materials in a Montessori classroom; it is certainly different from the typical classroom in our public schools.

Maria Montessori designed her materials along “sensorial” lines to allow the children to discover, learn and develop using all their senses. Sandpaper letters and numbers, geometric shapes to manipulate and compare, wooden blocks and beads for adding and multiplying, and so much more all contribute to the child’s understanding of the world around him.

Dr. Montessori consistently taught reading and writing to children between the ages of four and six, well below the expected norm in our public school system. In fact, she was of the firm belief that this was the best time to do so. She believed that children must re-create whatever it is that they are learning in order to understand it, and for this reason, she taught these vital skills in the reverse order from our usual educational standard – writing, and then reading.

From a humble start in a single room teaching poor children using her educational ideas, the Montessori Method of education has spread throughout much of the world for the simple reason that it works. As a parent, there is no better gift you can give your child than a solid education that gives him the skills and confidence to be a success in his life. Julia Simon, the principal of the Alive School is a certified Montessori pre-school teacher (Maria Montessori preferred the term “directress”, as this more accurately described the function – to direct the children to discover and learn on their own).

Computers and electronic calculators are wonderful tools that did not exist until just a few short years ago. However, one unexpected consequence of their arrival seems to have been a general deterioration in math ability in our schools. For example, we often see grade 3, 4 and 5 children unable to do the simplest addition and multiplication without using a calculator (or their fingers). Why should this be?

Because students are now allowed to use calculators on their exams, it seems that basic drills of multiplication tables or adding columns of numbers are no longer considered important enough to be taught in school. Even worse, since problems can be entered into a computer or calculator without much thought, the basic concepts behind them are often not well understood. This becomes apparent when students “memorize” some procedure or formula and yet have no idea why it works. They may be able to rotely and mechanically work out problems, and even do well on exams, but without an understanding of why these procedures work, they eventually fall on their heads as the math becomes more difficult. Or they graduate not being able to use what they have supposedly learned in school.

By using real life examples and materials that clearly demonstrate the concepts behind all math procedures, our students learn that math is a valuable subject that can be applied to the world around them. With this understanding as a solid foundation, they can then gain skill and certainty by practicing and drilling.

We ensure that our students thoroughly practice all aspects of basic calculation – arithmetic – so they are not helpless if a calculator is not available. Far from being a drudgery, when math concepts are fully understood and practiced, students develop a good number sense and take pride in their new-found skills. Our modern world is full of distractions that can cause our children to have difficulty focusing. Properly taught, math is an excellent way of disciplining and training the mind that has benefits in all aspects of a child’s life that require the ability to concentrate.

Math, dealing as it does with quantities, shapes, measurements, numbers, calculation, and their relationships in the physical world, is important. Students must learn the basic concepts and develop a certain level of skill in applying these to their finances, their future jobs, and their lives.