Elementary

Stewart Elementary Philosophy 

At ABC-Stewart, learning is fun. 

Montessori principles teach us that knowledge is its own reward.

The staff strives to: 

• Provide a caring, diverse environment in which knowledge is readily absorbed. 
• Observe each child and provide careful guidance. 
• Stimulate each student to pursue topics eagerly and independently. 
• Encourage learning to occur as much as possible through independent discovery. 

ABC-Stewart  offers non-graded, individualized, programmed education. It resembles a  one-room schoolhouse. It is a feeling, a philosophy put into practice,  an understanding between teacher and teacher, as well as between teacher  and child. It works.

Children  come to ABC-Stewart from many different home environments and diverse  educational backgrounds. Students come with varied strengths and  talents. At ABC-Stewart, they are exposed to an environment where the   growth of individual potential is the primary educational objective  rather than shaping or molding.

The  foundation of the school is the work of Maria Montessori,  turn-of-the-century  innovative Italian educator. The structure of the  school might be described as Montessori-and-more, or modified  Montessori, for it is built with concepts interpreted according to the  insights and experiences of the school's founder/directress, and it  grows with the special spirit and innovations which each teacher brings  to the school.  ABC-Stewart is not strictly a Montessori school.

Some  of the important precepts relating to childhood development which Dr.  Montessori put forth and which influence the structure of ABC-Stewart  program follow: 

• Education begins at birth. 
• The first few years of a child's life are the most important determinants of his/her physical and mental growth. 
• Gradually, through the normal learning process, behavior patterns are established. 
• As  a child develops, he/she enters sensitive periods when he/she is most  receptive to a particular set of stimuli. These periods follow a  prescribed order, but vary in pace from child to child. 
• The young mind absorbs knowledge at a very rapid rate from the environment. 
• The   teacher prepares an environment which is responsive to the needs of  the  learner and which gives the chlid liberty to learn at his/her own  speed and in line with his/her own interest. 
• Montessori's  theories hold that children pass through specific, identifiable,   unalterable stages of development in every culture and every  generation.