Unlike many traditional classrooms, Montessori has dedicated methods to encourage the child’s overall growth, rather than just reading, writing, and solving arithmetic problems.
Being social creatures, we humans need social skills and development early in life to ensure that we have effective social skills later. And Montessori classrooms are the perfect setting where kids can develop overall with kids around them – both of age similar to them or younger or older.
Here are some of the ways Montessori classrooms ensure social skills development.
- Encouraging Kids’ Individuality
Montessori is always about learning at individual’s pace – no system or authority will push your child to learn something by a certain age. This is because Montessori strongly believes that our success in life is greatly defined by how well an individual knows themselves and their unique traits. The very idea of having a unique trait and embracing it is what makes your child practice a strong sense of self.
Growing up, your child will meet different groups of people – where they might or might not meet people with similar traits, interests or values. Still, with the development of individuality early in life, it becomes easier for them to blend and yet stay tethered to their individuality.
- Practicing Etiquettes and Gracefulness
There is a difference between children practicing etiquette and gracefulness within the classroom because of strict rules and learning these qualities through understanding the values like politeness and empathy. Montessori classrooms help learn and practice etiquette and gracefulness, where your child learn manners, speaking etiquette, listening skills, disagreeing or following directions.
Learning etiquettes makes it easier to have conversations and reach a conclusion with minimal misunderstandings and awkwardness.
- Learning to Accept Differences
We have already talked about how Montessori encourages individuality and accepts uniqueness. The same goes for accepting other individuals, communities or cultures. The Montessori classrooms focus on the outside world and give a glimpse of the life or world we live in.
With these, your children have an idea of how the world operates or what they should expect once they are out of the classroom. Learning that each person is unique in their own ways and accepting rather than making them the odd ones is encouraged. Your child’s behaviour will eventually help many others feel comfortable and grateful in a group.
Montessori classroom helps the children get familiarised with this philosophy and practice the same throughout their life.
Conclusion
One of the best parts about Montessori classrooms is that they have children of different ages learning together – which is one of the reasons why their methods are so effective. The older children contribute a lot to the learning process of younger children – where the younger children tend to grow up feeling they can do certain things that their older classmates do. These Montessori practices have been proved to be extremely effective in social development of the children.
