My first encounter with the iconic Maria Montessori was as a young writer/researcher for TV station CHCH in Hamilton, Ont. I was in my twenties. I was fascinated by her humane approach to education and, apparently, the influence was profound. Read more
Toronto, Ontario — The Clover School's innovative curriculum combines Montessori essentials with heart-centred learning practices designed to nurture the mind, heart, health, and soul of each child. View School Profile.
Grades:
NS to 8 (Coed)
Type:
Montessori
Tuition:
$15,100 to $24,200
Living:
Day
Enrollment:
400
Avg. Class:
10 to 30
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Toronto, Ontario — Bond Academy is a private, co-educational, non-denominational independent school with students from Montessori Casa to Grade 12. Our educational process is Beyond the Books! Education as it should be. View School Profile.
Grades:
PS to 12 (Coed)
Type:
Liberal Arts
Tuition:
$7,000 to $16,000
Living:
Day
Enrollment:
350
Avg. Class:
10 to 15
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Authentic, CCMA accredited Montessori Schools located in downtown Toronto, offering programs for Toddlers, Casa, Elementary and Adolescent children in beautiful settings with large and expansive natural playgrounds.
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TRMS uniquely provides enriched French as a second language (FSL) instruction for all levels from Preschool to Elementary. We give students a head start in their educational journey by insuring they "Love to Learn"!
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CMS provides a quality Montessori education for Casa and Elementary students. Set on beautiful campuses children are inspired to learn their role in protecting the global environment and fostering peace and harmony.
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Established in 1974, Somerset Academy is an independent, not-for-profit private school that provides education to students in JK Grades 8. Somerset Academy has an average class size of 13 to 18 students.
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TMS is a leading, accredited independent school that offers a unique design of Montessori and International Baccalaureate programmes. Our students thrive in academics while building a foundation of Significance for life.
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Established in 1901, Hillfield Strathallan College is one of Canada’s leading co-educational independent schools, offering academic programs from Montessori Toddler and Pre-K to Grade 12, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
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The Element nurtures focused, engaged and internally motivated students who strive to do their best. The Element High School provides conditions that will put youth ‘in their element,’ in school and beyond.
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Northstar Montessori offers an accredited Montessori curriculum from Toddler age to Grade 8. Our goal is to develop strong character and contributing citizens who understand that their involvement makes a difference.
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We identify the experiences that facilitate education that empowers the individual and fosters a community of collaborative contributors through interdisciplinary, integrated integrated projects.
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Clanmore is one of the few schools offering authentic Montessori programming from Toddler - Middle School. Our culture is warm and inviting and our philosophy empowers us to support each child as a unique individual.
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OMS Montessori is a non for profit, independent school offering separate French and English programs within a world class Montessori environment.
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Enquiring Minds Montessori is a one-of-a-kind Montessori Art School. We have created a unique learning experience that fosters academic and artistic excellence in a nurturing environment while challenging young minds.
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Peel Montessori School and our Carrington College division students are encouraged to be engaged, inquisitive learners who think for themselves, display character strength, and learn to succeed on their own merits.
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Founded in 1990, Yip's Montessori Program cater to children from 1.5 to 6 years old. Yip's campuses are located in Markham and Unionville.
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Century Private School in Richmond Hill runs from preschool to grade twelve, with small class ratio to ensure best learning for our students.
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ABA based curriculum and individualized approach targets not only academic success but also emotional, social, vocational and life skills that are the core skills of life-long success of each student.
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We provide students with opportunities to explore real-world concepts and issues, broadening their sense of responsibility, develop their critical thinking skills, and empower them to take action in a global community.
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Trillium School is a private school that offers programs from pre-school to grade twelve in Markham with Montessori-based kindergarten.
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Rotherglen School - MISSISSAUGA is a montessori school that offers programs from JK to grade eight. The average class size is 18 students.
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ABC Montessori is one of Mississauga's premier private schools. We offers both Montessori and traditional school programs from preschool to Grade 5 with an emphasis on developing literacy, numeracy, sciences, and arts.
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Trinity Montessori School offers programs from toddler to grade six in Markham, Ontario. Its average class size is nine students.
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Humberside Montessori School is internationally recognized and accredited by Association Montessori Internationale (AMI). Our AMI certified teachers provide an authentic Montessori experience for our students.
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ATI is a school for ambitious teens who want to develop into independent, curious, self-motivated individuals who thrive in school and in life. Gain the skills, knowledge and agency to build the future that you want.
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The main objective of FMA is to provide your child with a planned and stimulating environment in order for them to be able to reach their own individual and highest learning potential while honouring the whole child.
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The Hatch House Montessori School is a very child centered school where each student is respected for their uniqueness and is guided through learning accordingly. Ask about our unique, fully bilingual elementary program.
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Braemar House School is a not-for-profit elementary school that proves each day that children thrive in a nurturing environment.
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Prince Edward Montessori School offers programs for various grades in Toronto. Its average class size is ten to 16 students.
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Located in Markham, Ontario, Town Centre Private Schools is an International Baccalaureate® World School and offers a Montessori Pre-School program as well as an IB Elementary School and optional IB Diploma Programme.
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Ashwood Glen offers a Montessori program for children aged 18months - 6 yrs. The Grades 1 - 8 Learning Program applies the IB framework to extend the learning outcomes of the Ontario curriculum.
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Our curriculum are designed to build essential skills and concepts that help with the cognitive, social, creative, emotional, and physical development of your child with the aim to be a successful learner for life!
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UC offers year-ahead advanced programs from pre-school to Grade 9. We blend high standards for academic success with the social and emotional development of the individual child.
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École Montessori is Durham Region's premier French private school dedicated to transforming your child into a BILINGUAL critical thinker with our enriched curriculum that fosters the genius within each student.
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Toronto French Montessori offers French and English programs from pre-school to grade 8 in York Region. Its average class size is 15 students.
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For more than 40 years, Kanata Montessori has been graduating students with self-confidence, critical thinking skills, respect, high academic achievement, and an international perspective.
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Bishop Hamilton Montessori School, a not-for-profit independent school in Ottawa, provides an authentic Christian Montessori approach for children 3 months to 14 years.
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Guiding Light Academy is a Catholic private elementary school in Streetsville, Mississauga. We offer an enriched curriculum for JK, SK and Grades 1 to 8. We are located just minutes away from the Streetsville Go Station.
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La Villa Montessori is an AMI recognized School that adheres to Dr. Montessori's principles. We provide a nurturing environment that fulfills the child's emotional, social, physical and intellectual needs.
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CHMS offers authentic supportive, vibrant, child centered AMI Montessori that is perfect for curious, inquisitive students looking to thrive in a social, hands on, collaborative, challenging environment.
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Western Heights offers an enriched Montessori program that fosters a love of learning. The school actively engages its close-knit parent community to offer an enriched curriculum that adapts to each student's needs.
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Cornerstone students love to shape the future. They INSPIRE learning, DISCOVER their potential, EMPOWER themselves to be innovative citizens. Our boundless learning strategies open doors for successful learning.
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Our objective is to guide children with respect and understanding, developing in them a love of learning. Our aim is to create a nurturing environment full of intellectual, social and moral learning and development.
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Authentic Montessori Preschool. Students completing our 3 year program at The Maria Montessori School test extremely well. We balance academics, exploration and skills guided by your child's natural interests.
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Located in Brantford, Ontario, Montessori House of Children (MHC) provides excellent programs for grades Nursery to 3 and helps young children reach their learning potential with both independent and self-directed learning. MHC also offers support for students with learning differences.
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Montessori Learning Centre of Pickering is a non denominational, inclusive school that offers programs from Pre-school to Grade eight. We acknowledge and celebrate religious and cultural events as part of our cultural program.
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Kaban Montessori School is a CCMA accredited school in the west of Mississauga area . We ensure that our environments foster each child's interests and abilities while supporting them to achieve their full potential.
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Bannockburn School leads in Montessori education by offering an exceptional, enriched Montessori curriculum in a nurturing environment carefully prepared to meet the needs of children in the formative years of childhood.
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Guidepost is a new Montessori school coming to Toronto, serving children from 10 weeks to 12 years old. We offer year-round programming and rolling admissions into our programs to meet the needs of every family.
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Richmond Hill Montessori Private School offers programs from pre-school to grade eight. Its average class size is 20 students.
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Shepherd Montessori Private Catholic School in Mississauga offers Casa Montessori programs for children a ged 2.5 to 6. Before- and after-school care and summer camps also available.
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NOW WITH LICENSED DAYCARE! Bring your child for a free trial to let him or her experience the difference. Don't be surprised if he or she doesn't want to go home at the end of the day! SUMMER CAMP PROGRAMS AVAILABLE!
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Kawartha Montessori School is the only CCMA-accredited school in the region. We offer an education that inspires academic excellence and develops socially responsible, independent, and confident individuals.
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Meadow Green Academy provides a strong Christian education in a nurturing environment. Strong academics combined with sports, enriched music, visual arts, and dramatic arts programs provide a well-rounded experience
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Rotherglen School - OAKVILLE offers programs for students age 4 to grade eight. The average class size is 18 students.
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Offering Montessori programs from Toddler to Grade 8, Dearcroft is accredited by CCMA and staffed by dedicated teachers.
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Situated on seven acres of rolling parkland and gardens, Country Garden Montessori Academy in Newmarket is a co-ed private day school for students in grades PS-12. The school provides a family atmosphere and is committed the intellectual growth and emotional well-being of students.
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At G.B.MS, D.E.P.S and Durham Academy Secondary school focus is on each individual student and helping them meet their unique potential and goals. We believe in excellent customer service and families have a voice. Throughout the year we enhance our programs through program enhancement and enrichment.
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Aurora Montessori offers an enriched Montessori program for students, Toddler to Grade 8, with an option of an OSSD credit in Grade 9 Math. A unique Mindfulness and Technology program develops key 21st-century skills!
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I was working on an interview series with Donna Soble Kaufman and, as the researcher-writer on the program, I had to familiarize myself with the work of the great Italian educator. I was mesmerized by what I read. What Dr. Montessori had to say about the enormous capacities of the child stayed with me over the years.
Eventually my career path led me to formal academic study. Peculiarly, in my research at Ryerson, McMaster and the University of Toronto, I never heard Maria Montessori mentioned in any of my lectures. In my years at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (where I completed a doctorate in curriculum), the great Italian educator was completely ignored. I've wondered many times about that particular void and I've come to the conclusion that what Montessori demands is too difficult. It is far easier, for administrators as well as teachers, to simply create a set of lectures and to endlessly talk to a captive audience. We are paying a terrible price for taking that "easy road."
It was during my teaching career at Ryerson that I had the chance to test Montessori's concept of experiential learning. I was dissatisfied with the standard lecture format. It occurred to me that we extended adolescence far too long in a type of unforgiveable intellectual dependency. I sensed that students actually wanted to engage in activities that would test their ideas and skills in a real setting. They were tired of platitudes and untested theories. They wanted to work with colleagues in a collective act of creation.
At that time I revisited books about Montessori and I began to change the standard curriculum in all of the classes I taught. In a sense, I did not know–with any assurance–what I was doing. But the results were breathtaking and even inspiring.
In the television production classes, I gave the students a degree of autonomy they had never before experienced, and they thrived. Instead of arid exercises I allowed them to select from original scripts. I further encouraged them to choose roles in the television production for which they had aptitudes. Access was provided to necessarily limited production resources and stringent deadlines were set. Absenteeism dropped, skill levels rose, and students happily worked around the clock on projects that were completely of their design.
In my coordination of the internship program, I created a "self-management" model that treated the students as capable adults who could deal with accountability. Students actually found their own internships, negotiated with the host company, and set up a contract outlining expectations on the part of the student and the sponsor. The students had maximum autonomy with a minimum of supervision. However, expectations were high and the final report from the sponsor and the student disciplined the entire experience.
It was in my media-writing classes, however, where Dr. Montessori's concepts made the greatest difference. Students studied existing dramatic models and then were brought in touch with front-line writers from Los Angeles to actually have their work adjudicated by "readers" who were, themselves, accomplished writers. The results were explosive and profoundly encouraging. Suddenly we found that students in the classes were being hired on front-line shows as junior writers. They had absorbed the theory and the craft from masters in a type of aesthetic apprenticeship. They were stunned to find that their work was being looked at by people of the calibre of Peter Mehlman (Seinfeld), Michael Schwartz and Al Joiner (The Simpsons), and prominent writers from Canadian dramatic series.
The CTV television network was so impressed with the progress of the students that they placed under my direction the expenditure of $200,000. The money was available as part of what is called a "public benefit" when CTV applied to the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) for an extension of their system. CTV felt that Canadian television needed more skilled dramatic writers and they decided that our program of study could meet that objective. With the new financial resources I hired professional writers to guest lecture and to review scripts. Contact was established with major shows in Los Angeles, and I set up a process where students would deconstruct existing series and then have their research assessed by writers on the shows they had analyzed. The students had never worked harder in their lives. They also felt confident and assured in their newfound, and profoundly tested, skills.
Recently I've been working with Clanmore Montessori School as an educational consultant, and I have become reacquainted with Dr. Montessori in a deeper way. The results have been two seminal articles for Dialogue Online. The first deals with Dr. Montessori's reaction to having a child out of wedlock, and how she turned tragedy into triumph. The second follows Mario and Maria Montessori's challenges when they were declared enemy aliens in wartime India. As part of my research I had the opportunity to look closely at the Montessori classroom experience and I have emerged from my practical experiences and my theoretical research with a deep conviction. I believe, completely, that Maria Montessori is the most important woman in history. I challenge my colleagues to nominate another candidate for this place in the whole range of development.
The Dialogue articles have clearly touched a nerve. The reaction has been amazing. There's so much that we do not know about Montessori. Even today no one really understands her. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with very senior academic leaders and not one of them had any significant knowledge of Dr. Montessori. Myths abound and her system has been distorted out of all recognition.
That distortion, however, is completely understandable. By any measure Montessori is a bizarre creature. She was born in a conservative Italy when Queen Victoria was in the very middle of her reign. She was a friend of Alexander Graham Bell, the first female medical doctor in Italy, and a woman who continued to write and study until the very end of her life in 1952. She had a child out of wedlock, was abandoned by her lover, and forced to deny the existence of her son. She was a superstar in America and then she was ignored. She was considered a revolutionary figure in education, and then she was lampooned as out of date. Through all of this she focused her whole being on addressing the educational needs of the child as it moved towards autonomy. In this she was unrelenting and she accumulated a range of knowledge (through study and observation) that is almost superhuman. Only now is modern science coming to terms with her findings. The tragedy is that so much of what she saw so clearly has been forgotten and, continually, has to be rediscovered. Over and over again I see her insights regurgitated as astounding new information. Occasionally this "new information" was completely understood by Montessori in the early years of the twentieth century.
Her critique of education at primary, secondary, and –perhaps particularly– university, deserves reconsideration. In the field of pedagogy, I would insist that we are "error prone." One of the best ways to set our professional compass, as educators, is to read (and re-read) The Absorbent Mind. It is pure Montessori: pugnacious, trenchant, disturbing and compelling. You cannot read this book without feeling that, even today, we are all wandering in the wilderness.
Some misguided souls think that Maria Montessori was somehow complicit with Mussolini in the educational system in fascist Italy, not realizing that Dr. Montessori spent the entire duration of the war in India as a "enemy alien" who was loved and admired by the people who, ostensibly, were her captors.
Others think that The Absorbent Mind was written early in the 1900's, not realizing that it was published in 1949 when she was 79.
Ultimately, what I find fascinating is that Montessori is a truly tragic figure who was buffeted by life and alternately wooed and abandoned by her sometimes admiring public. Nothing of this diminishes the fact that she is a towering figure in the field of education whom we ignore at our peril. I suspect, though, that we will continue to rely on the jaded lecture model not realizing the energy that can be released when young people work in a cooperative way in tasks that have a recognizable relationship to real life.
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Coed Montessori Schools
Find the top coed Montessori schools in Canada (June 26, 2019)
Montessori magic
Montessori schools are unique (May 29, 2019)
Benefits of Montessori education
Research shows that Montessori schools have many advantages (May 29, 2019)
Maria Montessori: a child-centred approach to education
The history of Montessori's student-driven model of learning (May 29, 2019)
