SARAH EDWARDS, PRIMARY DIRECTRESS, is co-founder of Midtown Montessori School and native of Midtown. She received her B.S. in Education with a focus on Early Childhood Education from the University of Memphis. Guided by one of her favorite quotes from Dr. Montessori, “Only the best for the smallest,” she has taught in a Montessori classroom for eight years and has served the children of Midtown as a lead teacher for the past five years. Sarah is an Association Montessori International (AMI) certified Primary Directress having trained at The Montessori Training Center of St. Louis.
FAIQA KHAN, ELEMENTARY GUIDE and SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR
Faiqa is a co-founder of Midtown Montessori School and a proud resident of Midtown. Starting as an assistant and then a lead guide in a Montessori environment, Faiqa has been learning and growing with children ranging in ages six to twelve since 2012. Having received AMI accreditation at the Montessori Training Center of New England in Hartford, Connecticut, she is grateful for the opportunity to offer the option of an elementary level Montessori education to families in Memphis. |
WHAT IS MONTESSORI?
Imagine a learning environment that prizes wisdom, curiosity, moral development and intellect. This place is beautiful, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. Children work in a way that energizes them and fans the flames of their curiosity. Children are active participants in developing their intellect in this place. They learn freely and joyfully in this beautiful environment which considers them as whole being - a sum of many parts - not simply as a repository of facts. This place is one where the dignity of the child is paramount. It is a place where the child can learn to be free, yet become mindful of their responsibilities to themselves, their community, and their planet. This place is the Montessori classroom. In a time when the general trend in education focuses more on assessment and less on true learning, the Montessori Method considers the dignity, potential and grace within all children. Children who have been educated in Montessori environments tend to do very well academically and socially when they move on to more "traditional" schooling, The reasons for these successes are many, but at the heart of that success is the philosophy and careful execution of this method as it was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori at the beginning of the 20th century. The Montessori Method rests upon the idea that between the ages of 0 to 24, we occupy a particular plane of development that affects how we learn and also what inspires us to explore, invent and create. Children ages 3-6 in our environments are exposed to a variety of experiences. They are guided towards physical independence and foundations are laid for further work with language, math, history and other legacies of knowledge that have been handed down for thousands of years. Our commitment to the mixed age group continues as children in the 6-12 range show particular sensitivities to the development of constructive imagination, reason and moral development. With both specially prepared environment and materials, children in elementary aged Montessori environments are given the chance to be active participants in their own intellectual and spiritual construction. A Montessori education seeks to develop the moral wisdom and curious intellect that already exist in children, too. Dr. Montessori said, "The child is a hope and a promise for mankind," and the staff, teacher, parents and children believe that peace is possible. "Our care of the child should be governed not by the desire to make him learn things, but the endeavor always to keep burning within him the light which is called intelligence." Dr. Maria Montessori |