In her 1936 book, The Secret of Childhood, Maria Montessori writes that “We must wake up to the great reality that children have a psychic life whose delicate manifestations escape notice and whose pattern of activity can be unconsciously disrupted by adults.” The approach to education that Montessori established sought to remove such unnecessary disruptions while cultivating a fruitful environment wherein children could discover the world, grow toward the maturation of their God-given capacities, and experience the wonder and responsibility of real freedom.

 Montessori schools have since been established all across the United States and indeed across the world, including here in my own hometown of South Bend, Indiana. The conversation on our episode today will focus on one such school, St. Joseph Montessori, which is in fact a Catholic Montessori school for children ages 2.5 to 6. 

My guest is Dr. Elizabeth Capdevielle, who is a board member of St. Joseph Montessori, and who, as a trained Montessori educator, will help us learn more about the Montessori approach, the anthropological underpinnings of this education, and the correspondence of Montessori education to a Catholic vision of the world and the human person.

In addition to serving on the board at St. Joseph Montessori, Beth is an assistant teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches in the University Writing Program.

 Follow-up Resources:

• St. Joseph Montessori, South Bend, IN
• “Joy and Parenting,” by Claire Fyrvquist, Co-founder of St. Joseph Montessori, journal article in Church Life Journal
• The Secret of Childhood, by Maria Montessori
• The Absorbent Mind: A Classic Education and Child Development for Educators and Parents, by Maria Montessori
• “Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, with Mary Mirrione,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

The episode is sponsored by Saints Mary’s Press, smp.org/bibles.

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.