Why Montessori?

Learning Begins at Birth

The earliest years of a child’s life are those most critical for building foundational cognitive skills, social and emotional skills, and patterns of engagement in school and learning. Studies show that children who attend high-quality early learning programs — including high-quality child care — are more likely to do well in school, find good jobs, have fewer interactions with the justice system, and have greater earnings as adults than those who don’t. Increasing the supply of high-quality, affordable child care can help parents balance work and family responsibilities while also investing in young children.

—Fact Sheet: Helping All Working Families with Young Children Afford Child Care. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, January 22, 2015

For the past century, Montessori schools around the world have successfully implemented programs to serve children from infancy to adulthood. Comprehensive Montessori learning environments designed to serve the specific and changing needs and characteristics of children, have been proven effective in both the public and private education sectors. To date however, Montessori education at the early childhood level has been primarily available only in the private, tuition-based education market.

The widespread recognition of the need for quality early childhood education and the trend towards publicly-funded early childhood programming reinforce that the time has arrived for Montessori services to be available for all children and families. Based on the experiences of exemplary models of Montessori programs for children in underserved communities, there is strong evidence to suggest Montessori as an important choice for early childhood programming to serve children and families across the nation.