Montessori (1907)

Rome, 1907 — now 20,000+ schools worldwide

Maria Montessori's method centres on the child's natural developmental impulses. Sensitive periods guide curriculum sequencing; practical life activities and self-directed work develop executive function before academics.

Domain coverage

Framework vs developmental baseline — higher is more coverage

Language

10 / 12 baseline

Academic

6 / 5 baseline

Thinking

14 / 12 baseline

Social

8 / 11 baseline

Character

10 / 10 baseline

Physical

8 / 10 baseline

Creative

8 / 8 baseline

Nature

6 / 6 baseline

Practical

Over-indexed18 / 7 baseline

Inner

4 / 4 baseline

Framework scoreDevelopmental baselineSevere gap <30% of baselineModerate gap <60% of baseline

Over-emphasis

Where this framework over-indexes

These domains receive far more emphasis than the developmental baseline suggests is proportional. Intense focus here may crowd out other developmental needs — particularly where time and attention are finite.

2.6× baselinePractical18 vs 7 baseline

Practical life skills (cooking, tool use, care of environment) build agency, competence, and intrinsic motivation. Children need to do real things with real consequences.

How conflicts are identified

Domain scores reflect how many distinct skills each framework defines in that area (sourced from official documents and research summaries). The developmental baseline is derived from the organic distribution of our canonical milestone set — what actually emerged when we clustered skills cross-culturally. A severe gap means the framework covers less than 30% of the developmental baseline in that domain. A moderate gap means 30–60% coverage. Over-indexed means more than 2× the baseline.