MCDC Montessori School Staff

The staff at Montessori Child Development Center are selected with the utmost care and scrutiny under the authority of Director Marijane Schafer, who is a Montessori Certified teacher.

One basic idea of the Montessori philosophy is that carried, unseen with each child, is the person the child will become. To develop to the fullest physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual potential, the child must have freedom-achieved through order and self-discipline. To aid this fulfillment is the teacher’s ultimate goal.

A young child’s world is full of sights and sounds that appear chaotic. From this chaos the child gradually creates order and learns to distinguish among the impressions which assail the senses, thus slowly gains mastery of self and the environment. The teacher guides and directs each child on their individual quest for order and understanding of the world around him.

Head teachers called “guides” or “directresses”. The Montessori teacher carefully prepares and maintains the aesthetic, enriched, orderly learning environment. She is essential in bringing together the child and the materials and in guiding children’s social and emotional development. She makes daily observations in order to follow each child’s initiative and capture his or her interest when introducing appropriate materials.

A material chosen by the teacher to present to a child is considered developmentally appropriate and is most easily mastered when it corresponds to a child’s particular “sensitive period” for learning. Spontaneity is the key to the learning process in a Montessori environment.

Our standards are uncompromising when it comes to the well-being of your child. Sound character, experience and demonstrated proficiency in the classroom, the required education and professional certification, but above all, a commitment to children and teaching – these are the criteria by which we have built an exceptional staff. Certified Montessori teachers direct each class. Our student-teacher ratio never exceeds twelve to one.