Montessori Moment: Mixed Ages

Montessori wrote in the Absorbent Mind “The charm of social life is in the number of different types [of people] that one meets…To segregate by age is one of the cruellest and most inhuman things one can do, and this is equally true for children. It breaks the bonds of social life, deprives it of nourishment.”  

There are many benefits to the three-year cycle in Montessori, but one of the greatest is the mixed age environment. Children not only have the opportunity to be the youngest, middle and then oldest children, but also receive the benefits of learning to play, teach and learn from children that are older and younger than they are.

To read more about these benefits both in preschool-aged children as well as one organization in Minnesota that has youth and elders working together to make Montessori materials for their community.

Read more here.