There was a second within the mid-2010s when Montessori was inescapable. The century-old schooling philosophy, which prioritizes independence from a younger age, had was a life-style model. Blocks and different wood exercise units have been remarketed as “Montessori toys.” Dad and mom flocked towards out of doors studying, which regularly concerned livestock on a farm, generally dubbed “Montessori farms.”
“I believe Montessori has been round for a really very long time, and there have been every kind of waxes and wanes, with generations discovering Montessori many times for very completely different concepts,” Mira Debs, director of schooling research at Yale College, says. “As somebody who studied Montessori over a protracted historic interval, what I discover so fascinating is the best way it retains being remodeled by new audiences and other people for no matter they’re searching for for his or her youngsters.”
However during the last 5 years — and within the final 12 months notably — the schooling panorama has modified dramatically. With a dipping financial system, a struggle about faculty voucher choices and confusion about what the “Montessori” time period even means, is Montessori nonetheless the “it” pattern within the preschool world?
The questions come up as one outstanding chain of Montessori-inspired faculties shrinks quickly.
A Century-Lengthy Rise and Fall — and Rise Once more
Angeline Lillard grew to become conscious of the Montessori methodology when she was 3 years outdated, attending a Montessori faculty alongside her sister when its resurgence hit within the Sixties throughout a cultural shift towards particular person autonomy. Lillard grew as much as turn into a scholar who has spent 20 years learning Montessori faculties and authored “Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius.”
Curiosity within the philosophy, first created by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori within the early 1900s, tends to fall throughout occasions of recession and develop throughout financial upswings, based on Lillard, which might account for its seemingly pervasive presence within the late 2010s.
“Each faculty dips when the financial system isn’t doing nicely,” she says. “Progressive, child-centered strategies have been going robust till World Battle II. You may see cycles the place there’s sure challenges and we’ll retreat to the Melancholy-era practices.”
Whereas it has been related to wealthier, usually white households, a number of Montessori establishments have pushed towards serving to lower-income youngsters, too. For instance, Magnolia Montessori for All made headlines when it opened its first location in 2014 in East Austin, Texas, an space dwelling to lower-income residents.
Lillard additionally believes the programming most just lately skilled a surge largely on account of what she calls the “constitution faculty motion,” the place households forgo the standard public faculty path and as a substitute select publicly funded, privately run constitution faculties primarily based on their households’ wants. Montessori faculties that supply solely preschool should not essentially competing with many public establishments. However people who present elementary or center faculty schooling do vie for college students in opposition to public Ok-12 faculties.
As we speak, households can enroll their youngsters at Wildflower Montessori Faculties, which declare 60 faculties in additional than a dozen states. Or at a location of Bezos Academy, which touts itself as “Montessori-inspired” and is sponsored by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who attended a Montessori faculty himself in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a baby.
Maybe most well-known is Guidepost Montessori, which splashed on the scene in 2016 and ballooned to greater than 130 places throughout the globe.
However late final 12 months, the privately backed chain of colleges started quickly closing places in Virginia and Ohio, adopted by a slew of closures up to now in 2025 — 5 places in Colorado, three in Ohio and two every in Minnesota and Iowa. Openings already deliberate for different places have been placed on indefinite maintain. Different places stay open, and the chain itself has not declared chapter or introduced its folding.
Nevertheless, firm co-founders Ray and Rebecca Girn introduced in February they have been each stepping down from the corporate.
“In our eagerness to satisfy the huge imaginative and prescient of our mission, we overextended ourselves, rising our college community past what we might successfully help, each financially and operationally,” a firm weblog submit stated, including the corporate was within the strategy of closing one-third of its faculties “which have so lovingly been constructed over the previous 9 years.”
Guidepost is owned and operated by Larger Floor Training, an schooling administration firm targeted on Montessori and backed by personal enterprise capital {dollars}. EdSurge was unable to achieve a Guidepost or Larger Floor Training spokesperson for feedback after repeated makes an attempt.
But some observers imagine the chain’s faltering doesn’t sign the top for Montessori programming.
“I’ve no cause to assume Montessori as a philosophy goes out of vogue,” Elliot Haspel, senior fellow on the household coverage assume tank Capita, says. “There are fads, however Guidepost is so much much less about Montessori and extra a couple of profit-driven chain that made actually dangerous enterprise selections.”
Lack of Guardrails — and Trademark — Trigger Considerations
It’s powerful to trace Montessori program enrollment numbers. Though faculties and lecturers have the choice of incomes accreditation from Montessori associations, there is no such thing as a set definition, or trademark for “Montessori,” so any establishment might arguably dub themselves a “Montessori faculty,” or comply with Bezos’ lead and declare to be “Montessori-inspired.”
The paradox is just like cleansing provides carrying the label “eco-friendly.” It’s not at all times clear to shoppers what that really means.
Lillard, who studied play and cognition throughout her Ph.D. program, finally despatched her personal youngsters to a Montessori-branded faculty — however quickly seen a discrepancy. Her youngsters have been filling out math worksheets earlier than getting to pick their very own actions. In true Montessori packages, youngsters are allowed to decide on the order during which to finish duties.
“Once I didn’t like one thing on the faculty, I might ask my household and they might say, ‘Effectively that’s not Montessori,’” she says. “That’s an issue — mother and father do not know. it’s a ‘Montessori faculty’ however there’s an enormous selection, and it’s as a result of the time period just isn’t trademarked.”
The American Montessori Society didn’t reply to EdSurge requests for remark however states on its web site there are roughly 5,000 Montessori faculties within the U.S., with 4,500 of these personal and the rest public.
Ellen Frede, a just lately retired co-director of the Nationwide Institute for Early Training Analysis, says whereas it’s at all times been a extra area of interest program, she agrees it has fluctuated in recognition.
“It’s not one thing I’ve studied, maintaining monitor of what’s taking place in Montessori, however being deep within the subject I might agree it’s an ebb and move,” she says. “It’s at all times been there. It’s one thing you’re conscious of — there are Montessori packages round you, you already know somebody whose children are going to 1 — however there should not these large packages.”
Any present potential dip in Montessori enrollment could possibly be partially as a result of truth there are fewer youngsters on the earth basically proper now, Frede says, coupled with fewer youngsters enrolled in early childhood education schemes throughout many states within the U.S.
Mockingly, the shortage of guardrails that helped unfold the Montessori philosophy far and broad in additional mainstream faculties might truly undermine true Montessori packages. Little one-size furnishings, for instance, is a staple in Montessori lecture rooms that’s now ubiquitous in preschool lecture rooms throughout the U.S. It has additionally largely been adopted in homeschool strategies, one other schooling avenue that has been on the rise.
And for a lot of households, selecting Montessori — or not — merely comes down to what’s most accessible. In spite of everything, the most typical youngster care association within the U.S. is leaning on household, pals and neighbors for help.
“In plenty of circumstances, due to the shortage that marks the U.S. youngster care system, mother and father are making selections on what’s round and out there,” Haspel says. “I’m sure there’s a cadre of fogeys which are Montessori as a result of they deeply imagine in it, however I additionally imagine if there’s Montessori down the road they’re going for it — and equally if it’s not down the road, they are going to go for a special form of program. I do not assume it has revealed preferences a lot as selecting any youngster care and early schooling slot that can work for his or her household.”
Caught within the Crossfire of Voucher Packages
In the meantime, Montessori faculties might face an existential risk from in the present day’s political battles over schooling.
Debs, at Yale College, says constitution faculties have been caught within the crossfire of the push towards voucher packages, which take state funds and provides them to households attending personal or non secular establishments.
“Each side have veered away from constitution faculties proper now; Republicans are supporting vouchers and the privatization of schooling and within the face of that, plenty of Democrats are turning again towards conventional faculties,” Debs says. “Which have led to constitution faculties being deserted. Montessori and the shortage of funding for constitution community enlargement is form of on pause proper now.”
She stated some faculty districts, like these in Detroit or Grand Rapids, Michigan, have been opening their very own Montessori public faculties in an try to woo again households which have gone to constitution faculties.
However with state-funded pre-Ok on the rise in lots of states, Montessori could possibly be getting left behind. Frede pointed towards state-funded packages needing their very own certification. Montessori has its personal educating strategies and is essentially run by unbiased house owners, which means these house owners must apply for state certification on their very own volition.
“So it’s a double whammy,” she says. “This can be a entire motion, and it is laborious for Montessori to suit its sq. peg into the spherical gap of state-funded pre-Ok. Sometimes they know what their program is and aren’t as open to modifying it to suit the scenario. And I do assume it harms them generally.”
There’s additionally the potential impression of the declining financial system. Most personal faculties, together with Montessori packages, are backed by personal donations, and with an ever-weakening financial system, these might turn into sparse.
“There have been extra restricted donors supporting the Montessori mannequin versus different sorts of high-intensity packages,” Debs says, particularly pointing to KIPP, a nationwide public constitution faculty chain targeted on getting ready college students for faculty.
“However I believe it’s actually laborious to say by way of any developments with Montessori demand if the cooling off is extra so influenced by the financial sector or by way of creation of latest public faculties,” she says. “And I believe that has much less to do with the parental demand for Montessori.”
