Maimonides and Montessori
now go hand in hand
Beginning with the 2019 - 2020 school year, Maimonides Jewish Day School launches its new Montessori-inspired program and curriculum. The core of Maimonides’ mission is to inspire life-long learning and to ensure a personal, meaningful, and empowering education to its growing and diverse community of Jewish children, grades kindergarten through 8th grade.
Maimonides’ administrators and faculty asked, could they make Maimonides even more personal, meaningful, and inspiring? Enter the Montessori Method of education.
Maimonides made its decision after requesting and receiving input and encouragement from scholars, its board of directors, faculty, and local community members, and engaging in site visits to schools around the country that have initiated Montessori-style programs and curriculum.
“Our community and our world continue to grow and become more diverse,” Rabbi Shneur Wilhelm, past principal of Maimonides, said. “Maimonides is committed to evolve to meet today’s challenges while maintaining a strong commitment to the teachings of the Torah and the Jewish way of life.”
He continued, ”Integrating Montessori-inspired practices means increased trained staff for greater individualized attention for our students and the creation of student work plans, just to name two updates, all of which strengthen our already robust core values and mission.”
The Montessori Method of education, developed more than a century ago by Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children, and it is employed in educational institutions worldwide. Maimonides will roll out over the next three academic years its Montessori-inspired program.
What does this update mean?
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Three-year cycles: This provides a rich community atmosphere where young children can learn from older children and older children can be teachers and leaders.
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Increased staff-to-student ratio: As our students navigate their learning experience, an increased number of trained teachers, classroom assistants, and staff are on hand to support the needs of all children.
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The prepared environment: The physical classroom space is carefully planned and prepared to be beautiful, inviting, and orderly and appropriate and flexible for the age group it will house.
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Student work plans: Work plans are self-directed learning guides that students work through on an individualized schedule to help foster independence, self-awareness, self-evaluation, and problem-solving skills.