Montessori calls this the “absorbing mind”, which means that the child's brain has a sponge-like capacity to absorb from the environment everything necessary to develop an individual from his or her specific culture. Marked by feelings of self-concern and self-evaluation, the third plane of development is a sensitive period for critical thinking and the exploration of deeper moral and social values. As a child transitions to this period, we can see that he is much more interested and able to understand complex concepts such as measures, equations, facts and theories. Montessori, a child now has the ability to participate in a much higher level of learning.
Verbs such as investigating, imagining, creating, reasoning and calculating are part of a child's daily learning throughout this stage. It is now the child's goal to take all the information he acquired during the absorption phases and organize it in a way that makes sense in the natural world around him. While Montessori continues to be known for the practical application of its ideas in Montessori schools around the world, it also developed a developmental theory that helps explain its approach to early childhood education. The Montessori method is an approach to children's education initiated by Maria Montessori, the first female doctor in Italy, who spent her life studying how children learn.
Regardless of what stage of development a child is experiencing, the Montessori Method ensures consistent principles at all times. Most of us are familiar with the Montessori Method, as it applies to preschool centers or grammar schools, but Dr.
