Is the Montessori student-teacher ratio too high?
All Montessori classrooms include a three-year age span,20 months- 3 years, 3-6, 6-9, or 9-12 years of age. Thus every class has experienced as well as new students, each working at his own level and at his own pace. The variety of work being done creates a rich learning envirnoment which stimulates curiosity and interest. Students are encouraged to develop a high level of independence as well as to assist younger classmates. Class size is designed to be large enough to foster an optimal learning enviromnent, but small enough to allow for appropriate guidance and supervision. Montessori classes usually have between 20 -25 children in a classroom with two adults (a teacher and an assistant). The teacher is not the focus of the classroom; it is, instead, the Montessori materials and the “prepared enviroment” that are the focus. The teacher serves merely as a guide to help the children learn the materials and the social graces of belonging to a community beyond the family. The learning co
