“A CHILD’S CHARACTER DEVELOPS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE OBSTACLES HE HAS ENCOUNTERED…OR THE FREEDOM FAVORING HIS DEVELOPMENT HE HAS ENJOYED.”
– DR. MARIA MONTESSORI
CHARACTER EDUCATION
At Luma, we realize your child isn’t just a walking brain. While their intellectual development is certainly crucial to our work here, our mission of educating the whole child means that alongside reading and math, science and the arts, they are also learning courtesy, generosity, kindness, and grace.
DEVELOPING INTEGRITY, COURTESY, AND GRACE
Our character component meshes perfectly with our Montessori approach of helping children develop practical skills that they can apply to life outside the classroom. On their path to growing into an admirable young person and good citizen, how your child acts is as important as how they think, and our teachers instill good character as part of their daily routines.
You can’t observe a Luma classroom for even a short time without coming away with the impression that our children are very polite, orderly, and impressively quiet and serene. That’s because grace and courtesy – good manners, caring about each other, putting others first – set the tone for the classroom.
This is important because each individually directed classroom can only succeed if each child exercises care and consideration for their classmates by taking turns, helping, encouraging, and even teaching each other. The quietness and serenity that follow allows for the concentration that precedes significant accomplishment.
BENEFITS OF GRACE & COURTESY
Moments of character education punctuate the day at Luma. It happens when children clean up their areas after a project. When they read about a character in a book and discuss the decisions they made. After recess or playing a game together. Special Moments when character education punctuate at LUMA
✔︎ Tidy up their area after being used.
✔︎ When children read about a character from their book and discuss their decisions.
✔︎ After recess or playing a game together.
✔︎ Daily interactions with friends and staff members.
Luma students carry themselves with confidence and act with consideration. When they make mistakes or act in not the most generous manner, we don’t scold or punish them. Instead, every occasion is a learning moment, a chance for growth, an opportunity for reflection and the chance to do better next time. In ways both small and large, your child grows in care and character at Luma.