The "Prepared Environment"
Council Oak Montessori School is dedicated to helping children reach the best within themselves, using the educational philosophy, and methodology, developed by Maria Montessori.
The elementary level environment reflects the social and intellectual stage of development of children from ages six through twelve, and offers the following:
1. An integration of the arts, sciences, geography, history, and language to evoke the native imagination and abstraction of the elementary child.
2. The presentation of knowledge as part of a large scale narrative which unfolds the origins of the earth, of life, of human communities (agricultural and urban), of empires, and of modern history, always in the context of the wholeness of life.
3. The presentation of the formal scientific language of zoology, botany, anthropology, geography, geology, etc. which exposes the child to accurate, organized information while respecting the child's intelligence and interests.
4. The use of timelines, picture charts, and other visual aids which provide a linguistic and visual overview of the first principles of each discipline.
5. A mathematics curriculum presented with concrete materials which simultaneously reveal the correlations between arithmetic, geometry, and algebra.
6. Montessori-trained adults, who are enlightened generalists and are able to integrate the teaching of all subjects, not as isolated disciplines, but as part of a whole intellectual tradition.
7. Emphasis on open-ended research and in-depth study using primary and secondary sources (books) as well as other materials.
8. Ongoing use of community resources beyond the four walls of the classroom.
