The child from 6 to 12 years is, for Maria Montessori, a child whose goal is to discover the world.
Its greatest strength is its “imagination”, that is to say its ability to conceive the existence of realities that go beyond, like the geography of distant countries, the history of past eras, the infinitely large or infinitely small …. Maria Montessori speaks of “cosmic education” from the Greek “kosmos” meaning a world organized by rules, as opposed to “kaos”. This is the age of knowledge, the age when the child is thirsty for knowledge and experimentation.
The child from 6 to 12 years works mainly in groups of 2 or 3 to perform concrete experiences or conduct literature searches. This is the age of peer socialization, while the child 3-6 years is alone.
With its teacher training, the teacher can give the keys to the child to access personal and dynamic way to knowledge.
Children “are learning to learn”, but do not leave aside the important points of the program or more accurately, the progress since the acquisitions are by period and not by year, as in a conventional system. Apprenticeships are cut into narrow categories: language is based on the story, based on geography … everything is interconnected, never thought into separate units.
“Do not raise our children for today’s world, this world will no longer exist when they will grow up, prepare them for the future.”
Maria Montessori