As the educational director of the classroom, the Montessori teacher, (referred to as directress or director), through careful observation, responds to the child discovering his/her own needs and assists each to satisfy those needs. “The first duty of an educator is not to stir up life, but leave it free to develop.”
At Valparaiso Montessori our focus is the development of the whole child, to the fullest potential, as an intellectual, physical, social, and emotional human being. The director allows each child to go forward as far as he/she can, linking the child and the prepared environment, together for purposeful activity. The educator does not have pre-established goals. He or she builds goals in the measure that he or she listens to children’s inner needs. The authentic educator is not a leader of children, he or she follows them. Respect comes before materials, before the school routine, before the presentations. The directress guides the child; not trains him.
“To aid life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself, that is the basic task of the educator.”
