Social Skills and Character

The Montessori classroom is a source of countless life-lessons in social skills, everyday courtesy, and ethics. The elementary classroom operates as a small social community in which children learn to work together, resolve conflicts, encourage each other, and work as committees to complete complex tasks.

 

Montessori children begin to seriously address the question of aid to the elderly, the handicapped, and the economically disadvantaged. They explore international issues from the perspective of building world peace. They study ecology, wildlife preservation, and conservation of natural resources. The class recycles, plant wildflowers, and may raise funds for charity.

 

Through these and many other efforts, the Montessori students are introduced to moral questions in personal relationships and encouraged to awaken their first efforts at trying to understand war, violence, poverty, and the crisis of the homeless. More importantly, they discover what they can do as individuals to make the world a better place.