Church Life Today

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, Saint 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 Saint Joseph Montessori, and who, as a trained Montessori educat