“You learn what you do, and you can’t learn what you don’t do”.

You create meaning by doing.  It is that simple.  We, each of us, need to be our own meaning-maker.  You don’t create meaning by just listening.  Real learning requires you to be physiologically engaged, and to be physiologically engaged means to have the whole of you “on task” or engaged with what you’re learning.  This is not a memorization task like preschools and other traditional schools use.

Think of when you’re “in the moment” with learning something – you are engaged emotionally, you have to be.  You have great interest in whatever it is that you happen to be exploring/learning.  Why? Because you chose it, first of all. Montessori schools allow for this, which is notably distinct from daycare centers, preschools and even traditional schools, whether in Sugar Hill, Suwanee, Cumming or elsewhere.

Science has shown us the optimal conditions for learning, and key conditions are: control, choice, immediate feedback.  When these conditions exist you are primed to learn.  Traditional education turns its back to these, by its very nature.  This is why the typical student is not the least bit primed to learn.  They are not open to learning.  When you’re sitting in class, as a ten year old, taking out your social studies text because it’s 9:40 AM and “that’s what we’re doing right now” you’re NOT engaged or interested. It’s no different if you are a three year old in a preschool being guided to the play center that is assigned to that time.  No choice, no engagement = no learning.  Learning can’t be forced.

Meaning-making, which is what real learning is, requires you to be in-sync with what you’re learning.  Then you’re receptive to it – primed.  Stepping Stone Montessori School provides precisely this kind of environment.  We provide an educational experience that does this – and traditional education simply does not. It is, however, a cornerstone to the Montessori approach.

#Montessori #SSMS #Presschool #Learning #Environment #MakingMeaning