For over 50 years, the author has taught children and young adults-from age two to eighteen years-parents and other adults in over thirty countries. Everything she shares in her books is based on firsthand experience with families, school staff, government officials, and others. She has been a guest lecturer in teachers colleges in universities in a variety of places including Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; San Francisco, California; Lima, Peru; Bangkok, Thailand; and Bogota, Colombia. Teachers report that they have been given practical ideas to implement immediately. Only a tiny percentage of families in the world can afford to send their children to a Montessori school, so the author works continually to make the most important elements of a Montessori education available for the home and community. Her writing helps parents prepare a child who will attend a Montessori school in the future, and it helps parents-whose child attends a Montessori school in the present-understand and support their child's experience. It supports teachers in Montessori-inspired classrooms move closer to authenticity.
There is an international crisis and education today, and Montessori theory and practice provides an antidote. As a result, it is the fastest growing method of education in the world. It focuses on the study of the human being at different stages of development and meeting the physical, mental, and emotional needs in an educational setting. The emphasis is on developing skills rather than following an academic curriculum; on providing experiences that require critical thinking, problem-solving, learning how to think and act independently and responsibiliy. It fosters periods of deep concentration which results in kindness and compassion for others. This is vital because there is no way to predict what professions will be useful in the future.
This is Susan Mayclin Stephenson's 14th book. For more information see www.susanart.net
