Montessori glossary · Ideas
Concentration
The capacity to stay with one piece of work — the thing a Montessori classroom is really building.
In plain English
What it actually means
Almost everything structural about the method — the long work cycle, the single copy of each material, the ban on interrupting a working child — exists to protect concentration. Montessori regarded it as the foundation on which character and academic ability are both built, and treated a child who had found it as a child who no longer needed managing.
Why it matters to you
On a tour
It transfers. A six-year-old who can stay with something hard for an hour has an advantage no curriculum provides.
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Tours run mid-morning, during the work cycle, year-round.