Montessori and IB: The Perfect Duo
Montessori and IB: The Perfect Duo
T he famous Montessori system of education, started by Maria Montessori is a well-established successful approach to building confidence and nurturing eager young minds through feeding their curiosity.
The world-renowned International Baccalaureate or IB, strives to promote international-mindedness and create global citizens, but empowering students to inquire about themselves and the world around them.
"While different in their approach, the multiple intrinsic common themes in the two educational formats strengthen the overall impact when they are blended to result in a best-of-both design."
Key similarities in the two formats include:
High engagement: Active learning and participation are instrumental in both the Montessori and IB formats. From the onset, children are taught to ask questions; to feed their curiosity and learn through experience and inquiry.
Individuality: Uniqueness and individuality are visibly celebrated while simultaneously instilling values of tolerance, patience and acceptance of colleagues and peers. Students are also encouraged to make choices about what and how to learn creating awareness of the self and personal achievement.
Empowerment: Leadership opportunities both inside and outside of classrooms, empower children to take action to achieve goals. Mentorship for colleagues and friends is highly encouraged, rewarded and essential to building confidence and life-long bonds.
Holistic development: The mind, body and soul must all be nurtured and fed to yield a confident and capable individual. The combination of these approaches helps achieve, academic prowess with an inbuilt focus on social skill development and character building.
Life Skills: Critical in the world today is practical application of one’s knowledge and abilities. Learning through doing or experience creates a strong sense of accomplishment and teaches children the importance of personal effort and the value of the reward.
Global focus: Both formats promote social awareness and involvement. They strengthen bonds between individuals from different cultures and backgrounds, widening horizons and removing boundaries and obstacles to community and interpersonal cohesion.
A Better World: Perhaps the most important outcome of a good education is for students to emerge with a burning eagerness to create a better world. This objective is ingrained in every aspect of these educational systems; reinforcing the criticality of personal and communal effort as beacons of peace and harmony in a world much in need of global citizens.
