Today I’m thrilled to share an interview with one of our exceptional Children’s House guides, Melissa Long. There are some common misconceptions about Montessori circulating around social media or parent conversations, such as, “Montessori is too rigid and young children just need open-ended play”. Or maybe you’ve heard, “Isn’t Montessori where children get to do whatever they want without any accountability?” We decided to tackle some of these and other misconceptions about Montessori to help clear up what exactly are the needs of the young child and how does Montessori address those. Melissa uses her vast experience in both YCC (toddlers) and Primary (3-6 years old) environments to bring clarity to this topic of balancing freedom and responsibility in the Montessori classroom. Make sure to catch the end where we discuss why Montessori introduces reading at a younger age than most traditional schools and why this matters. We’d love to hear from you if there are other misconceptions you’ve heard that we should cover in a future episode. If you enjoyed listening, please leave us a positive review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share us with your friends. Thank you for listening. We hope you have a wonderful day!

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