Montessori Academy at the Early Learning Center

Montessori Academy at the Early Learning Center is a preschool in Milledgeville, GA. It follows the Montessori method of education, a child-centered approach that encourages self-directed learning through hands-on activities and collaborative play. The method was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and educator who opened her first classroom, the Casa dei Bambini, in Rome on January 6, 1907, with 50 to 60 children ages two to seven enrolled. Distinctive components of the approach include three-hour time blocks for activities, mixed-age classrooms, and specific learning materials and curricula. The philosophy emphasizes independence and choice, on the understanding that children have an innate interest to learn and will do so in a suitable environment, and it aims at a child's optimal intellectual, physical, emotional, and social development rather than maximum achievement in particular academic subjects. Montessori classrooms are arranged to feel orderly, clean, beautiful, and harmonious. The method spread from Italy to France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom before reaching the United States in 1912, and the first American Montessori school opened in Maine in 1913.

The school is located on Stadium Drive. Lakeview Academy is about 0.1 miles away, Oak Hill Middle School about 0.4 miles, and Central Georgia Technical College about 0.5 miles. Glynn Street lies roughly 0.5 miles from the school, Fishing Creek about 0.6 miles, and Roberson Mill Road about 0.6 miles.

The Montessori method has produced graduates across politics, technology, and the arts, and Montessori programs continue to operate around the world more than a century after the first classroom opened. Families in Milledgeville seeking a preschool built on independence, mixed-age grouping, and hands-on learning will find that approach here.