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EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY | ||||
Centennial Montessori School was formed with the sole purpose of creating an exemplary program dedicated to assist the individual child in their quest to reach their full potential. As part of this mission, we trust in the child's innate desire to become more than he currently is and we see our role as providing a loving guide to help that child follow his natural inclinations and engage in an environment specifically tailored to his passionate quest to understand his world. | ||||
Teachers: The most important aspect of our program is our faculty because it is through our teachers, their nurturing relationships, and a true understanding of the child that each child is able to have the confidence to reach out to the environment. Observation is a cornerstone of our program because it is only when an adult truly knows a child that he can create a bridge between the child and the world she wants to know. Our teaching environment also provides a microcosm of the world. The child grows up exposed to the major world languages and the customs, celebrations, music and art unique to each. In this way we quite concretely offer the children the world. | ||||
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Montessori Philosophy | ||||
The Montessori philosophy was developed by the first female
Italian physician, Dr. Maria Montessori through scientific observation of
children from many countries and every socioeconomic class. Her method has
been supported by psychologists, educators, and cognitive researchers throughout
the last 100 years and her understanding of the developing child has formed
a foundation for the work of many developmental scientists including: Jean
Piaget, Anna Freud, Erik Erickson, and T. Berry Brazelton. |
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World Language Exposure | ||||
At Centennial, we believe that the benefits to learning a second language are much more powerful than simply being able to communicate. Research has shown us that learning a second language before five years old greatly develops the child's cognitive potential. Further, the bilingual program creates children who are respectful of cultural differences and at the same time cognizant of the unity of man. In a sense, they have grown up in a second culture and are thus able to generalize this understanding to the larger community of man. | ||||
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We have selected Mandarin and Spanish because along with English, the vast majority of the Earth's inhabitants speak one of these languages. In addition, Mandarin is a tonal language and Spanish is a romance language. Thus major linguistic varieties of language form are represented and form a foundation for later study. Finally, these three languages are present on five of the seven continents which allows us to quite literally bring the world to the classroom. | ||||
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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION MODEL
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We believe that peace begins in the individual and is
founded in that first contact of the centered individual with his immediate
community. We strive to create whole individuals who accept as part of
the normal course of their life the responsibility for caring for others.
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At Centennial, we promote this vision in the classroom
through the mixed age group which fosters a true sense of community and
many opportunities to help. We then extend that service to others into
the local community with a program that every child has the opportunity
to participate in planning and carrying out. In the future we hope to
extend this program internationally to create a children-helping-children
model of world involvement through partnerships with other Montessori
schools around the world.
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For more information on our Academic Philosophy, please follow this link. | ||||
©
Copyright 2006 Centennial Montessori School |