Our Story

St. Christopher’s by-the-Sea Montessori School was born in 1968 with the opening of its preschool program. In subsequent years, the school expanded to include elementary education for children in grades one through five.

Today, St. Christopher’s offers a beautiful and nurturing educational environment within the diverse and international community of Key Biscayne and the surrounding vibrant Miami area.

St. Christopher’s is blessed with gifted, caring Montessori – credentialed teachers committed to utilizing the world acclaimed Montessori method of teaching.

Within this beautifully prepared environment children and youth are encouraged to discover and learn in ways that help them realize their highest potential. Through work and play, children come to understand responsibility, respect, integrity and values both moral and spiritual that will provide a solid foundation for life.

Vision

To awaken the spirit of God in every child

To partner with parents in their child’s moral, spiritual and learning development

To nurture the students’ growth so they become inner directed, responsible, graceful, respectful with good self-concept and integrity

To stimulate life- long love for learning

Mission

The mission of St. Christopher’s By-the-Sea Episcopal Montessori Church School is to provide excellent and authentic Montessori education in a Christian setting

Purpose

The purpose of the Church School is to develop mutual respect and interdependence in a diverse, creative Christian environment.

Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was, in many ways, ahead of her time. Born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy, she became the first female physician in Italy upon her graduation from medical school in 1896. Maria’s clinical observations led her to analyze how children learn, and she concluded that they build themselves from what they find in their environment. Her desire to help children was so strong that, in 1906, Maria gave up her medical practice. She founded the first “Children’s House.” What eventually became the Montessori method developed there, based on Maria’s scientific observations of children’s almost effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their environment.
 
“Children Teach Themselves.” This simple but profound truth inspired Montessori’s lifelong pursuit of educational reform, methodology, psychology, teaching and teacher training — all based on her dedication to furthering the self-creative process of the child. It was easy to see that development stages were different for each child and optimum learning occurs when the child is ready. But the teacher must be ready, as well, and therefore always watching for signs it is time to present more material. She said that the teacher’s role was not to teach, but to prepare and arrange a series of learning opportunities that each child can move through instinctively.
 
Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland in 1952, but her work lives on through the Association Montessori Internaionale (AMI), the organization she founded to carry on her work.
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