A foundational cornerstone of Montessori education is concentration. We all understand that for children to learn, they need to cultivate the ability to sustain focus on the task at hand.
How do we help children develop and strengthen this quality?
In Montessori classrooms, we begin fostering concentration through our Practical Life activities. Once concentration is developed, they use this skill to sustain focus to learn reading, writing and math and do longer and more complex projects.
There is substantial research that has found that when children can choose what they want to learn, their ability to stay with an activity increases. In addition, one of the critical roles of a Montessori teacher is to protect a child who is concentrating. We do not interrupt them for corrections nor do we allow other children to interrupt either.