What are the attributes of an individual who aspires to be a Montessori teacher?  Some hallmarks of a successful Montessori teacher include:

• A teacher is specifically interested in being a teacher of young children

• The teacher is concerned with the whole child, not just with the child’s play or intellect.

• The teacher knows how to enhance each child’s opportunities to reach his or her highest potential in every aspect of development – physical, emotional, intellectual and social.

• Their primary commitment is to help every child prepare for success in LIFE.  Interestingly enough, this allows the child to also succeed in school.

• The teacher must approach her avocation recognizing that she must be created anew and discard her pedagogical prejudices based on her prior experiences or how she taught older children.

• She must observe and learn from young children and  study and assimilate scientific information about how children actually learn.

• She must have faith that the hidden child, the one that she cannot quite see at first, will, in fact, reveal himself through his work. She must learn to respond to the formative needs of each child – when, and in the manner that they become manifest and can be scientifically observed

• Most importantly she must commit herself to become a new person who truly understands the child, is willing to set aside her own adult agendas so s/he can respond effectively  to the formative needs of each child. This requires that she prepare her imagination so that she can visualize a child who is not yet there.

• A Montessori teacher recognizes that she is the dynamic link between the child and the learning environment that she has so lovingly prepared for him.  The Guide invites the child to act, and interact with the materials which she has presented to him, in response to his revealed needs! The Guide becomes a facilitator, who is a student, a follower of the child!   She must be prepared to serve each living need that the child reveals to her!.

• For the Montessori teacher, love is the key – If she is to serve the child in this way, then the Guide must first LOVE THE CHILD … for the child knows if he or she is loved or not! If the Guide is to be obedient to the needs of the child, if she truly, passionately wants to serve the child, then she must be transformed into the kind of person capable of providing that sublime service! If she is to be transformed  She must first love the child, for  no other motivation is strong enough, to help her achieve that transformation!