Montessori and the Power of Mental Association
Paula Lillard Preschlack • April 19, 2021

I love finding ways that Montessori’s educational approach inherently addresses human needs. When I look at books espousing the best ways to teach, the best ways to conduct business, or the best ways to be healthy, I usually find that the Montessori approach already incorporates the recommended practices—and always in an integrated, natural way. The Forest Bluff Directors and I are witnessing this once again while reading our latest teacher group discussion book at Forest Bluff, The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering The Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen. In today’s world, the ability to innovate is key to solving problems large and small. I would argue that it has always been important for human survival and progress, but it has become a more urgent need, and now it’s a buzzword for educators.


The aforementioned authors explain that to create something new—to innovate—a person needs to associate (connect ideas), network with others (socialize), observe (reflect), question (lead with your curiosity), and experiment (be unafraid to try things and fail). In the Montessori approach, you can see how these practices, or habits, are all actively encouraged and cultivated. Each of these important aspects of innovating are worked into the educational approach seamlessly. Dr. Montessori was simply following what made sense for optimal human development.


For one example, Montessori education has captured an essential key to children’s learning: presenting the world in context, from the whole to the parts, with a deliberate, ongoing opportunity for children to associate topics, themes, and details of information. Associating is a crucial skill. Montessori’s approach creates habits in children’s thinking that prepare them for a life of innovative creativity and problem solving by constantly encouraging them to associate.

Why Mental Association Matters


The Innovator’s DNA emphasizes the importance of associating for sparking innovative ideas. This is when we connect things we’ve seen, heard, and experienced, to imagine and create something new. Any original idea is only made possible by exposure to many diverse ideas and the foundation of knowing how to recognize connectivity.


A great example in the book is the way that Steve Jobs created the laptop computer. His experience with meditation taught him how important silence is for concentration, so he sought ways to eliminate the loud fans that all computers had up to that point. To accomplish this, Jobs reduced the size of the processor—the engine—in his computer so that it would not generate so much heat (thus eliminating the need for the louder fan). In this way, he created the quiet laptop computer that Apple became known for. In another example, Jobs thought back to his past experience of taking a calligraphy class at Reed College, and realized that enabling people to use different fonts on their computers would give them the artistic satisfaction that we all experience today when, by simply pushing a button, we can change all our text into various fonts. There are other examples of where Jobs connected his experience in one area of his life to another in order to solve a problem in new ways. This is what we call associating. With practice, it becomes a way of thinking.


Montessori Supports Associative Thinking


In Montessori, we cultivate this human ability in several ways. To begin with, the curriculum—everything the children are going to study—is out on the shelves in consistent locations so that children can see the “whole” of their education in front of them, every day. This encourages them to see connections with an orienting framework of information in their minds. As the children reach their elementary years, much of what they will study is abstract and original, but the associations the children envision are still supported by this physical layout. This physical layout presents the diversity of topics.

The authors of The Innovator’s DNA tell us, “Innovative ideas flourish at the intersection of diverse experience” (p. 45). In a well-functioning Montessori classroom, children are exploring a variety of activities at any one given moment, and that makes a room full of diverse topics. As a child crosses the room, he might pass a friend working with a puzzle map of Africa, another with Stamp Game Division, a third reading Phonogram cards, another tracing a Metal Inset of a hexagon, a child saying the Botany Cabinet leaf shapes out loud, one practicing the multiplication facts finger chart, another writing a story with the Movable Alphabet, someone meditatively pouring water, and a child composing a piece of music on the bells. This child’s mind will be filled with ideas, images, and sounds from this array of information. By having individual interests, the students expose one another to different topics. This creates a natural cross-pollination of ideas. From such experiences, a child will make original connections between topics, maybe even later when he is thinking, trying to create something new, or solving a problem of his own.

Time to Reflect and to Associate


In the day’s schedule in a Montessori classroom, there is a three-hour period of uninterrupted work, then the children eat lunch together, they play outside together, they read together, and so on. In short, they are with their teacher and peers all throughout the day in different activities, which invites them to continue ongoing conversations that connect topics and experiences. The teacher can point out, “Oh your sandwich is a square, just like the square in the geometric cabinet you worked with today!” More often than not, it is the children themselves who make such connections and announce them. You might hear a child burst out with enthusiasm, “My sandwich is a SQUARE!” Such opportunities for discovery make associating joyful. Often, what follows are responses from other children hearing such comments; they then make their own associations. One might say, “And that is a triangle,” looking up at the support beams on the outside of Forest Bluff’s school building, which children can see from the windows while eating lunch. Free associating is made possible by long stretches of the school day when students are not only allowed to talk with one another, but encouraged to do so. Because silence is not imposed for the children to listen to a teacher lecturing or to watch an instructional video, and because children are not interrupted from their flow of thought, associating is a constant, synergetic, and collaborative experience in a Montessori setting. This is just one of the many ways that Montessori prepares our children for life!


Additional Reading


To read more about how particular habits of thinking are fostered in Montessori classrooms, please see our previous blogs and future blogs:


Developing Courage

Adolescents Find Strength in Nature and Community

Returning to School with Resilience, Creativity, and Courage

How Montessori Fosters Curiosity and Courage


Cultivating Curiosity

How Montessori Fosters Curiosity and Courage


Not Fearing Failure

In Pursuit of the Correct Answer: The Role of Process and Discovery in Montessori

Learning to Love Effort: How Montessori Fosters Perseverance

How Montessori Education Prepares Children For Life Beyond School


Internal Organization

What’s So Great About the Great Lessons?

Developing Inner Order: How We Can Help Our Children

Routines at Home


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Forest Bluff School graduates perform a song onstage at their high school talent show.

Montessori Graduates Shine in High School Talent Show

By Margaret J. Kelley • May 19, 2025
I attended the Lake Forest High School Talent Show for the first time in February (2025). I’d been interested in it for years—watching talented young people with the courage to perform before a crowd is one of my favorite things to do. But it wasn’t until this year, when a friend with a child in the talent show actually procured tickets for me that I finally got around to going. The show runs three nights in a row, and we attended the second night. I brought my own ten-year-old daughter who has a special interest in singing and performing with me. As we settled into our seats and watched the show begin to unfold, I was struck by three things, in quick succession. First was the positive, welcoming community that made up Lake Forest High School (LFHS). There were cheerful parents working the concession stand and selling raffle tickets. There were enthusiastic teenagers, gathering in groups and excitedly finding their seats. Second was the immense array of talent already apparent just a few acts in—The MC’s who entertained the audience with skits and banter between performances, the pit band who played a variety of songs during downtime, the entertaining short videos that interspersed the live performances, and, of course, the extraordinary talent of the participants themselves. We saw various bands, a pianist (“And hockey player!”, more than one person pointed out to me) whose fingers flew over the keys, two girls who tap danced across the stage to Hamilton, a young woman who belted out an opera song that almost took the roof off the school, and many other incredible feats of talent and courage. Third, and most personal for me, were the Montessori alumni I saw that night. They were scattered throughout the crowd, supporting their peers. I saw the dark french braid of a sophomore who I’d known in the Young Children’s Community at Forest Bluff School. I noticed the wide smile of one of the most cheerful Primary students I’d ever known, and I overheard the happy laughter of a confident sophomore who’d graduated from eighth grade and was now surrounded by new friends. But the Montessori alumni who struck me the most that night were the Forest Bluff graduates I saw on the stage, participating in the talent show itself. There were three young women—a sophomore assisting with the live production, a junior who performed as a drummer in two acts and the pit band, and a senior who performed in several acts and served as the stage director for the entire production. These students are all markedly different in their temperaments and talents, and were supporting the show in vastly different ways, but they were all integral to the performance. They were all contributing to the experience for hundreds of students, parents, and community members, sharing their work ethic, skills, and inborn strengths. Two questions began to form as I watched them work together to create this two and a half hour feat—How did Montessori play a part in what these students were able to do tonight? And—How was Montessori able to serve these different young women in ways that allowed them to find their roles in the same shared experience? Fortunately for me (and for you!)I know all three girls personally. I reached out to them individually and asked them if (in exchange for a coffee or tea of their choice) they’d be willing to sit down with me to tell me more about what they did for the show, what the experience was like for them, and what role Montessori had played in preparing them for this work. They all responded quickly and cheerfully—happy to discuss their experiences with the LFHS talent show and their Montessori education. 
Two adolescents canoe down a river with trees in the background

Montessori Adolescent Program FAQs

By Abbey Dickson & John Dickson • April 23, 2025
At Forest Bluff School, the Secondary Level is a two-year program for adolescents, in which they continue their self-formation through more rigorous academic study as well experiential learning that includes service and wilderness trips. The Secondary Level has all the hallmarks of a Montessori adolescent program, with a focus on independence, responsibility, self-directed learning, community and collaboration, and practical life skills.