Community | Blog

Going Out: An Essential aspect of the Elementary Curriculum

Dr. Maria Montessori believed strongly in preparing children to become citizens of the world. She saw that the great task of the Elementary-aged child is their preparation for becoming a member of society. Dr. Montessori advocated that it was important for the child to go out into the wider world to understand society and how it works. In addition, she believed that the Montessori classroom could not contain all the answers to the questions that the Elementary child would ask. Therefore, she believed Going Outs were an essential aspect of the Elementary curriculum 

A Going out is similar to a field trip; however, it is an experience that is organized and carried out by the children based on interest. It is usually a small group of children (two to four children) who are interested in a particular area, and they have an idea to go out and explore their interest outside of the classroom. For example, a group of children may be learning and researching about a particular animal. To bring the learning alive for the children, they may organize a trip to the local zoo or aquarium to see that animal in person. To arrange this going out, the children would have to research where they could see the animal, how they would get to the zoo, how much it would cost, who will drive them and any other details about the trip. The children would be responsible for all aspects of the trip. These are such important life skills for any child to learn!

A few other examples of going outs have included: a going out to purchase ingredients for a recipe, a going out to collect information at pet store regarding a potential class pet as well as visiting the local Natural History Museum when studying Dinosaurs.

To the Elementary teacher, going out is an essential aspect of the curriculum as going out encourages the development of independence, important executive functioning skills as well as the balance of freedom and responsibility for the child. It is an aspect of the curriculum that is available to the child from the time they enter as a first year until they are sixth year.

Going out provides the child with endless opportunities for them to follow their interest beyond the classroom! It is also a wonderful way for parents to support the Elementary classrooms by volunteering as a Going Out driver. We invite you to contact the Elementary Team to learn more about this aspect of the curriculum and how you can get involved!