About Us
Welcome to the MMS website! We hope that you will visit us and learn more about the special qualities of our school.
MMS is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools http://www.nysais.org/ and the American Montessori Society http://www.amshq.org/. Our school equips children to meet the challenges of their contemporary world, but the underpinning of our philosophy reflects the vision of Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician born in the 19th Century who formulated an educational philosophy based on her observations about child development.
Dr. Montessori believed that education is an internal process whereby children learn through experience. She observed that children find joy in work; that they naturally learn with their hands; and that confidence, resilience, and independence develop through practicing and perfecting skills.
Every year, our school has a theme that inspires us to reflect on our values as a community. Our theme for the 2010-2011 school year is “Celebrating Differences.” Our MMS community is exuberant, nourishing, and empowering, due, in large part, to the differences among us. There is so much diversity in our community that encompasses skin color, socio-economic realities, various belief systems, gender, sexual orientation, learning styles, physical characteristics, different types of intelligence, and so on. Differences among the students, families, and faculty enrich our human experience in untold ways. Celebrating differences in the classroom allows the students to express and eventually define their whole self.
The Montessori path rests on the awareness that through practice, a child can miraculously integrate all of life’s little lessons into a growing consciousness. We are grateful to experience living and learning everyday at MMS on a slower, deeper plane that we call an “Education for Life.”
Mary Gaines
Head of School