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In September 2015, the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a joint policy statement on Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs that states that “all young children with disabilities should have access to inclusive high-quality early childhood programs, where they are provided with individualized and appropriate support in meeting high expectations.” Dr. Montessori believed that all children not only had the ability but the intrinsic motivation to learn. Separating and segregating children due to disabilities, giftedness, or other diversities does not align with the Montessori principal of cosmic, inclusive education. In fact, the Montessori environment, first established in 1906, is a leader in inclusive education. Montessori education follows the needs of the child, regardless of what those needs are. The teacher must be ready to respectfully accommodate individual needs within the environment rather than ma...

This idea, that life acts of itself and that in order to study it, to divine its secrets or to direct its activity, it is necessary to observe it and to understand it without intervening — this idea, I say, is very difficult for anyone to assimilate and to put into practice. —Maria Montessori The Advanced Montessori Method, p. 198. When we observe students, we take on the role of scientist. According to Paul Epstein, Montessori “understood that observation places us in three different modes of experiential knowing: empirical, rational, and contemplative.” (Epstein, 1995) Types of Observations in the Montessori Environment Empirical observations are based on a comparison of quantities. We can look at the sensorial materials, for instance, and notice that they are all based on the decimal system. There are ten blocks for the Pink Tower, ten Red Rods, ten prisms for the Brown Stair, etc. Rational observations measure experiences derived from ideas, imagination, and logic. If all students ...