Our Philosophy

A philosophy of education in service of lives fully lived.

Featured Content

Core Philosophy

Benevolence Without Compromise

A core benevolence is a foundational pillar of good character. It underwrites all thought, all action, all relationships. It’s the ultimate “secure attachment”.

This is what school shootings threaten.

Core Philosophy

Why Have Children?

Parents partially delegate to us the upbringing of their child—an inherently serious, complicated, fragile decision that demands of us that we fully understand their reasons, reasons that have to do with their aspirations for their children, and even their reasons for having children in the first place.

Here, we explore that root question a bit: Why be a parent? Why have a child?

Core Philosophy

Effecting Enlightenment in Education, 400 Years Late

The Enlightenment engendered an unprecedented amount of intellectual, scientific, industrial, political, and social change. After a century, the world was a fundamentally different place in a multitude of aspects.

Education, though? It’s changed, but not that much. In many respects, we’ve regressed in terms of clarity.

Core Philosophy

Practice

Practice is not just about learning math, learning to draw, learning to drive, learning to speak a foreign language. It’s also core to learning to be a parent, learning to have a friendship, learning to be brave—to learning anything at all, up to and including living life itself.

Start With These

Core Philosophy

Our Story

Montessorium's origin story, from a creator of Montessori apps to a Montessori think tank.

Core Philosophy

Our Lanterns

Education is done with a view to the good life. Drawing from Montessori, we offer five lanterns, five constant and guiding values, for understanding what constitutes a good human life: knowledge, work, agency, and trade, all adding up to a life fully lived.

Core Philosophy

Culture of Work, Culture of Knowledge

Knowledge and work—thought and action—are the two fundamental manifestations of human agency. An education that supports agency does so by embodying a culture of knowledge and a culture of work.

Core Philosophy

Place-Value as Soulcraft in Montessori

When children learn column addition and multiplication, they understand why it works, because they understand—because it’s been part of their physical environment and activity since they were 2—what place value is.

Why does any of this matter? It adds up.

Core Philosophy

The Montessori Multiplier

Everyone learns, constantly, over the course of their lives. What Montessori does is multiply the value of this learning. Done right, school isn't a substitute for life experience, it's a multiplier on it.

All Core Philosophy Content

Core Philosophy

Our Story

Montessorium's origin story, from a creator of Montessori apps to a Montessori think tank.

Core Philosophy

Our Lanterns

Education is done with a view to the good life. Drawing from Montessori, we offer five lanterns, five constant and guiding values, for understanding what constitutes a good human life: knowledge, work, agency, and trade, all adding up to a life fully lived.

Core Philosophy

Culture of Work, Culture of Knowledge

Knowledge and work—thought and action—are the two fundamental manifestations of human agency. An education that supports agency does so by embodying a culture of knowledge and a culture of work.

Core Philosophy

Knowing Stuff

We live in a world that is generally skeptical of the value of conscious knowledge in education. Arguments in favor of prioritizing skill-building—skills such as critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving—over building a bank of concrete knowledge are commonplace among educators and theorists.

Building a specific, internalized knowledge base has immense value, and is a necessary pre-requisite for developing thinking skills.

Featured Author
Executive Director of Montessorium

Dr. Matt Bateman

Dr. Matt Bateman earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 2012 from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught and continued his research at Franklin and Marshall College in the Department of Psychology, on topics ranging from neuroscience to evolutionary theory to philosophy, before joining the LePort Schools as Director of Curriculum and Pedagogy in 2014.

In 2016, Dr. Matt Bateman became a founding member of Higher Ground Education. He is now Vice President of Pedagogy for Higher Ground and the Executive Director of Montessorium.

View other authors

Become a Montessorium Insider