The Montessori Approach to Environmental Stewardship

The Montessori approach naturally builds learners into stewards of our environment. The journey begins in toddlerhood with the start of practical life work, it deepens in primary as they build a sense of ownership and respect for their environment and it branches beyond the classroom as learners explore the ecosystems around them. 

Environmental Stewardship Begins with Practical Life

In Montessori education, children learn to care for their environment through meaningful, everyday tasks. Activities such as watering plants, sweeping leaves, composting food scraps, or tending a classroom garden are not seen as chores, rather they are a part of the practical life work we do. These works build an understanding that caring for the environment around us is a shared responsibility.

Dr. Montessori felt it was important for children to know all about the outdoor environment right outside their door, as a way to facilitate affinity with the world around us. By building a sense of ownership and pride with the indoor environment we build habits and a sense of responsibility that extends beyond the classroom, through time. 

Montessori Cultivates a Deep Understanding of Interconnection 

Cosmic education begins in primary and extends into elementary. It is all about knowing our place in the world, not only as an individual, but also as a part of the human race. Montessori education emphasizes how living things depend on one another. Children are concrete learners, therefore, in primary classrooms you will see more work around the animals and ecosystems that are closely connected with the learners- ones in which they can see and experience for themselves. For us at Goldenrod Montessori, that looks like a lot of studies on local ecosystems such as woodlands, oak savannahs, prairies, and freshwater lakes first, before expanding into faraway things like polar bears, deserts, or whales. These more abstract ecosystems are introduced throughout later primary and elementary years. 

Stewardship Grows Through Respect

As learners explore the ecosystems around us, the life cycles and diets of their favorite animals, the anatomy of the birds they see outside their window, and explore the intelligence of life through migration, they grow a deeper sense of the interconnectedness of everything around them. When our understanding grows about something, our respect for what we know increases. Much like how Montessori’s practical life work teaches us a shared responsibility, our understanding of the world's interconnectedness does the same. 

Now that we are deep into spring and can observe the world coming back to life in so many ways, we urge you to reconnect with the world around you, to challenge yourself and your learner to see how you can further support our interconnected world. As Earth Day approaches, it is always a fun time of year to be an integral part in helping clean up our community, learn about composting or how you can support the local birds through feeding them or supplying them with nesting materials. 

If you find yourself wanting to know more about Cosmic Education, we encourage you to keep following along with our blogs, as this summer we will be writing to share more with you about the joyful learning in the cosmic curriculum!