It’s not often that we’re able to apply 100-year-old educational practices for preschoolers to today’s modern workplace.

But that’s exactly what Barbara Atkinson of Evernote was able to do in a recent reflection, “How the Montessori Method Applies to Today’s Workplace.”

Atkinson dives into the life of Maria Montessori and the events that led to her revolutionary philosophy on early childhood education. But how do the lessons from a preschool classroom apply to the workplace of today? We’ll give you our thoughts, then point you in the direction of Atkinson’s conclusions to compare.

Collaboration

The success of a Montessori classroom hinges on the strength of the community. For a classroom to run smoothly, everyone must do their part!

The same applies to a successful workplace. If even one member of the team is out of sync, the work suffers and so does the well-being of the group. Collaboration takes practice though, and sometimes we, as adults, forget the power of working together towards a shared goal.

Problem-solving

Consider a child spilling a cup of dry rice on the floor. In the Montessori classroom, they know they have a few options to clean it up: Grab a broom, clean it up by hand, or maybe ask a friend for help. The adult in this situation would never say, “I’ll do it for you” in order for the child to do some crucial problem-solving on their own!

Problem-solving is integral to the classroom, and in our rapidly changing work environments, crucial to a successful workplace as well. The ability to innovate and solve problems is often more important than any technical skills that can be learned on the job.

Creativity

The Montessori classroom is careful not to restrict a child’s creativity with adult-imposed limits. Painting is done on a blank piece of paper versus in a pre-made coloring book, writing is done without topic parameters, and work is chosen on their own time as opposed to an adult schedule.

We might not consider creativity a necessary skill for the modern workplace, but in the age of technology, creativity is becoming more important than ever. We’re not as limited by the availability of tools as we are by our ability to create new solutions or ideas.

The Montessori classroom does an excellent job of preparing children to thrive in their future workplaces by helping them learn how to collaborate, solve problems and think creatively.

For more inspiration from Montessori, we invite you to compare our reflections with Atkinson’s in the Evernote blog. Do you think adults can apply the lessons from the Montessori classroom to today’s workplace?

Join us in the discussion in Guidepost Parent Chat, or email us at hello@montessorium.com.

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