Since it was established in 1944, the Otto Bremer Trust has distributed over $600 million in program-related investments and grants to charities and nonprofit organizations throughout the Upper Midwest. Among the many recipients of Otto Bremer Trust investment is the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota, which employs the Montessori teaching style.

1. Explaining the Montessori
Educational Approach
Otto Bremer Trust

2. Introduction
• Since it was established in 1944, the Otto Bremer Trust has distributed over $600 million
in program-related investments and grants to charities and nonprofit organizations
throughout the Upper Midwest. Among the many recipients of Otto Bremer Trust
investment is the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota, which employs the Montessori
teaching style.
Lending its name from Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian educator and physician, the
approach was based on her observations of how children learn. The system places more
control into the hands of the learner and focuses predominantly on self-directed activities,
collaborative play sessions, and the creation of a more practical, hands-on learning
environment.
As such, Montessori classrooms offer children the opportunity to make creative choices
that affect their learning, with educators providing oversight and guidance through age-
appropriate activities to support those choices.
In doing so, the classrooms cater towards the natural interests of the children, allowing
them to learn via their own experiences at a pace that is comfortable for them. This
provides a more stimulating learning environment in which children work both
collaboratively and individually to reach their full potential.