Columbus Montessori Education Center

Columbus Montessori Education Center’s mission is to nurture and develop the whole child through magnified learning and quality care in a diverse community. Today, Columbus Montessori serves more than 150 families in Central Ohio. We are leaders in the greater education community in Central Ohio and are advocates for excellence in early childhood education and care for all children.

The Montessori Method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. Dr. Montessori’s Method has been time tested, with over 100 years of success in diverse cultures throughout the world.

At Columbus Montessori we strive to foster an individualized love of learning in each child. A respectful community of young learners come together daily to explore language arts, mathematics, science, geography, art, movement, and music. Through multi-aged classrooms, the children develop strong leadership skills and independence, build relationships with peers and teachers, and learn to care for their own environment. While we work to make the children aware of conservation and respecting the environment, we believe we have more opportunity to allow the children first hand experiences which will help them to have a better understanding of their role in sustaining our planet.

Columbus Montessori gives children the opportunity to develop their potential as they step out into the world as engaged, competent, responsible, and respectful citizens with an understanding and appreciation that learning is for life. We believe that each child is unique and endowed with great potential. We believe in nurturing the heart of the child and challenging the intellect. We believe that the community of the child, parent, and educator is the foundation of the school’s success. Given the freedom and support to question, to probe deeply, and to make connections, Montessori students become confident, enthusiastic, self-directed learners. They are able to think critically, work collaboratively, and act boldly – a skill set for the 21^st century.

While diversity as at the foundation of CMEC’s guiding principles, CMEC has always been committed to being more than a provider of the highest quality early child care and education for a diverse community. CMEC resides in a former Columbus City School building on the Far East side of Columbus and is a stabilizing presence in this Columbus neighborhood. While many Columbus area residents take for granted that CMEC makes a quality Montessori education available to a socio-economically diverse group of children, in many parts of the US and even in parts of Columbus, Montessori education is available only to children of higher income families.

CMEC is also a powerful advocate and role model beyond its own walls for quality early child care. CMEC staff, parents, and its young students are also found in the halls of the Ohio Statehouse standing up for access to quality early childhood education for low to moderate income Ohioans. CMEC is the fiscal agent and a model school in the multi-year Caring Communities: Birth to Three Project with ECAL and Action for Children – a nationally cutting-edge effort to improve early care in urban child care centers drawing in large part on Montessori principles.