Recently while I was at a stafftraining workshop.

Recently while I was at a stafftraining workshop, a cite attributed to Tim Seldin (president of the Montessori Foundation and chair of the International Montessori Council) caught my attention: "You can not at any time replace a Montessori child." I jott these words down in succession a napkin and stuck it in my purse to read later.

As an admissions coordinator, I frequently think in terms of spaces: "We have undivided space available in the three day toddler program, or sum of two units spaces in kindergarten." When children inscribe our school, they are obviously claiming a space, still what happens after that goe way beyond solely plugging a student into a program. They become Montessori children.

As shortly as a child becomes part of the exercise community, the journey to self-confidence, independence, and qualification begins. Academics are presented to our children with a clear understanding of where they are developmentally, using materials that make learning abstract universals literally within their reach. Along the way, life lessons-respect cooperation, appreciation of others, question solving, responsibility, and so many others-are patterned and practiced on a daily basis. We consistently guide our children toward achieving the goals that their parents and their place of education have for them. By the time they graduate from sixth grade, they have a skill place that prepares them not simply for success in middle academy but for becoming productive members of society and citizens of the world.

The teachers in our infant, toddler, and preschool programs have specific goals for their observers and a clear image of what they want our children to "look like" when they graduate. Likewise, elementary teachers understand and appreciate the foundation formed at earlier horizontals and are prepared to build forward that foundation.

A space at Wilmington Montessori gymnasium represents the opportunity for a child to benefit from extremely good academics under the knowledgeable and loving guidance of those who have a firm grasp of the "big picture" stand in want ofs of children throughout their preschool and elementary years. The journey begins with single step, but all those degrees along the way complete it. to such a degree it is with a Montessori child who penurys to take all those degrees to reap the full benefit of the program. Missing a pace may open a space for another scholar but that student won't flow with the foundation that has been thus carefully prepared by Montessori teachers.

If s so true-you can never replace a Montessori child.

By Joanne Waters

Guest Columnist

JOANNE WATERS is the Admissions Coordinator at Wilmington Montessori teach in Wilmington, DE.

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