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In this video, RPMS teachers and administrators explore Maria Montessori’s belief that child, teacher and environment work together. From toddlers on, classrooms are carefully prepared to promote independence, with child-sized tools and materials within reach.

What makes a child want to dive deep into a new topic? At Rogers Park Montessori School, it comes from uninterrupted work time, freedom of choice and the gentle guidance of trained teachers. Joy comes from inside the child.

As children become adolescents, they enter what Maria Montessori called the “social newborn” stage, with a new self-awareness and concern for their role in society. At RPMS, opportunities like the 8th grade internship week let them explore it.

One of the most delightful phrases to hear from a child in the Montessori classroom is "Help me do it myself" or “Help me help myself”. This assertion by the child embraces one of Maria Montessori’s foundational beliefs in just a few potent words.

Maria Montessori’s concept of Valorization is the term for an adolescent’s process of becoming a strong and worthy person, when they realize they are useful and capable of effort. But when do these concepts begin forming in a child? For Siobhan Moffitt, Children’s House Teacher, these roots form as very young children in the Montessori Education as they are continually in the cycle of independently watching, trying, and mastering in the classroom as a very young child.