Roles and Responsibilities

Anne Burke Neubert, in A Way Of Learning (1973), lists the following elements in the special role of the Montessori teacher:

1. The Montessori Teacher is the dynamic link between the child and the Prepared Environment.

2. The Montessori Teacher is a systematic observer of the child and an interpreter of his needs.

3. The Montessori Teacher is an experimenter, tailoring the environment to meet his perceptions of the child's needs and interests, and objectively noting the results.

4. The Montessori Teacher is a programmer, preparing the environment and keeping in perfect condition, adding to it and removing materials as needed.

5. The Montessori Teacher is an evaluator, judging the effectiveness of her own work and the environment every day. She must also evaluate the progress of each child.

6. The Montessori Teacher is a respecter and protector of the child. He must know when to step in, set limits or lend a helping hand, and when it is in the child's best interests to step back and not interfere.

7. The Montessori Teacher is a supporter, offering warmth, security, stability, and non-judgmental acceptance to each child.

8. The Montessori Teacher is a facilitator of communication among the children and of the child's effort to communicate with her. She must also interpret the child's progress and her work to parents, the school staff, and the community.

9. The Montessori Teacher is a demonstrator, presenting clear, interesting and relevant lessons to the child. His role is to seduce the child into spontaneous fascination with the materials through his demonstrations.

10. The Montessori Teacher is a consistent good example of desirable behavior for the children, following the ground-rules of the class herself, and exhibiting a sense of calm, consistency, grace and courtesy, and demonstrating respect for every child.

11. The Montessori Teacher is a peacemaker, consistently working to teach courteous behaviors and conflict resolution.

12. The Montessori Teacher is a diagnostician, able to interpret the patterns of diversity, and non-judgmental acceptance to each child.

© 1996 The Montessori Foundation