Some of the youngest students at Kyrene del Norte
Elementary School are a good two years from kindergarten.
Yet every school day, approximately 45 youngsters
barely past the toddler stage file in to Norte alongside their more mature
schoolmates.
They are taken to class by parents who want their
kids to get a head start on their education and to foster their individual
creativity, initiative, inner discipline and self-confidence.
These youngest students, many as young as three
years old, fill two special classrooms at Norte, 1331 E. Redfield Road,
under the Kyrene School District’s Montessori program launched in August.
With two classrooms filled, Kyrene is adding a
third for the 2005-06 school year. Registration for the Montessori program
is under way but there still is space available for the fall semester,
according to Shannon Andress, “directress” of the Kyrene Montessori
program.
“We have availability, but it changes daily,”
said Andress.The program is
open to three-, four- and five-year-olds, and Andress tried to balance the
age groups, she said.
Cost for three- and four-year-olds is $500 per
month for five full days per week or $350 per month for five half days per
week. Cost for five-year-olds is $250 per month. Five-year-olds must have
previously participated in a Montessori program to be eligible.
More
information is available on the Kyrene website--www.Kyrene.org/montessori--and
parents can call (480) 783-4054 to register their children.
Montessori
is a popular alternative to traditional public school education, according
to Andress.Montessori “looks
at the whole child” with a goal is to allow each student to develop to her
or his potential, she said.
Kyrene
began its Montessori program in the 2004-05 school year with a plan to offer
three classrooms. Construction delays forced the district to offer only one
classroom in the fall, however, and a second classroom was added in January
2005, Andress said.
The
third Montessori classroom will be ready for the fall 2005 semester, she
said.
According
to the Kyrene Montessori website, Montessori operates on the principle of
freedom within limits. Every program has its set of ground rules, which
differs from age to age, but is always based on core Montessori
beliefs-respect for each other and for the environment.
Each
Montessori classroom has a full complement of authentic Montessori
materials, Andress said. Classrooms will also have direct access to an
outdoor environment that encourages children to use their senses to explore
nature and interact with one another.
Kyrene’s
Montessori teachers are “triple-certified” by Montessori, the state of
Arizona and the No Child Left Behind Act, according to Andress. Each
classroom has one teacher and an instructional assistant for a
teacher-student ratio of 1:11.
Students
also are instructed in physical education and music twice a week.
The
Montessori educational program is named for an Italian educator, Maria
Montessori. who lived from 1870 to 1952 and, according to her biographers,
was Italy’s first female medical doctor.
Maria
Montessori began forming her educational theory in 1897 while working with
children she thought would be better treated by improving schools than with
medicine.
By
the early 1900s, Montessori was implementing her educational theories while
directing daycare centers for working- class children in one of Rome's worst
neighborhoods.
She
has been quoted as saying:
“I
studied my children, and they taught me how to teach them.”