Dear Friends,

As I mentioned in last week’s bulletin column, it is important for our entire parish community to understand how unique and wonderful our school is. In that last column, I gave a brief description of what is meant exactly by “Catholic Classical” education. Please go back and read that if you didn’t get a chance.

This weekend, our primary teacher Mrs. Tracy Mannes provided me with a nice description of what is meant by “Montessori” education. If you look around the country, this combination of Montessori-Classical education is becoming very successful. In many places, this kind of education is being seen as an injection of new life into Catholic schools. The reason for this is that people are becoming disillusioned with overly-pragmatic, test-oriented and merely career-oriented schooling. Our culture’s demise is beginning to show people that our young people need something more profound in their formation - excellent academics of course, but also with *human* formation. Please read and reflect on the description below, and always feel free to contact me if you have any questions at all about our school!

Montessori education is a multi-aged environment in which  children from the ages of three to six years old spend a three-year work cycle in one Atrium.  In that time they are able to leisurely explore and learn in an organic, natural way. This individualized education allows the guide to embrace each child’s individual learning path, their interests, and their developmental process.   This type of education is based upon structure, sequential thinking, process and procedures. This education is a hands-on tactile experience that Maria Montessori believed was powerful because “from the hands to the heart” makes the biggest imprint on the mind. 

The direct aims of the Montessori Curriculum are Concentration, Confidence, Coordination, Independence and Order.  These five traits foster in a child the ability to become a life-long learner as well as encourage the child to think for himself, take ownership of his decisions and then to do his best work at what he has chosen. 
We teach at an early age the power of independence, making proper choices, leadership skills and problem-solving in gracious, peaceful ways.

What makes our Catholic Montessori program unique is that we are not just preparing a child for life - we are preparing a child for eternity.   Partnered with the lessons of Grace and Courtesy we also are studying virtues through the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. We teach for retention not just for short-term acquisition.

In Christ, 

Fr Marotti