“The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn.”- Maria Montessori
Montessori education is a philosophy of education by Maria Montessori. It is an overall approach of child development to nurture the curiosity of knowledge in children. It strengthens the idea of self-dependence and belief that children are naturally eager to acquire knowledge.
Maria Montessori was born on August 31st, 1870 in Italy. She was always been fond of learning. She joined all-boys technical school with the aim of being an engineer but had a change of mind and shifted to medical school. She graduated with honours in 1896. Maria developed her education theories in early 1900’s. She researched and worked with disable children while she was developing her education ideology. In 1906, she decided to test her theories when she was invited to look after a group of children whose parents were working. She decided to use her educational methods with children who did not possess any disabilities. She observed every child in her class and noted her observation in order to develop her theory. Based on her observation, she came to conclusion that children requires wide range of environment and equipment that promoted long time of skill developing activities that helped the holistic development of a child. Using her observation skills she formulated various learning techniques that came to be known as Montessori Method of Education. She preached this techniques through various seminars and conferences. She also provided training in various places including India, Pakistan, Japan, etc.
Montessori education is defined as “A system of education for young children that seeks to develop natural interests and activities rather than use formal teaching methods.”
The approach of this education is to educate children from a younger age to be self- reliant and always be curious enough to acquire the wisdom around them. This practice believes that a child should not be constrained in any limits while learning and they should find ways on how they would like to gather any information in order to study something. Montessori education also avoid conventional teaching methods such as tests and grades to measure a child’s performance. In Montessori Method of teaching they educate children through various stimulations from environment. Montessori school requires a lot of facilities in order to implement the teaching method.
Some of the facilities demanded:
 Open and dynamic space for movement and activity
 The objects kept in the class should be child friendly and ignite curiosity in minds of children
 Clean and harmonious place
 Surrounded by nature.

The Montessori Method clearly identifies certain elements of human psychology and based on that Maria Montessori developed developmental plane that divides child on basis of age so that the child is able to learn what his/her age is capable of.
The planes of development are:
0 – 6 years
6 – 12 years
12 – 18 years
18 – 24 years
This is very carefully grouped by Maria Montessori to diversify the various cognitive, social and emotional growth that occur in a child so that the child can be moulded to unlock his/her full potential as grown human.
The basic and the most important developmental plane is from 0-6 years where the child develop various emotional and behaviour skills that makes core of a child’s character.
The montessori method believes in multi age classroom for better involvement of students in understanding various skills. Students easily learn things that they see and perceive rather than what is instructed them to be done.
The students who study under montessori teaching, develop their core skills such as memory, logical and reasoning and aptitude skills at a very early age. Hence, they become independent at a very young age.They complete their own responsibilities. They are also made to practice various moral values so that the students can cooperate with their surroundings harmoniously. Montessori form of teaching is training for students that helps them to be prepared for future.