Montessori refers to the adult working with young children in the learning situation as a directress rather than a teacher.  The role of the directress is to prepare the environment and specific materials for each child.  The directress places the child in direct contact with the content of their experiences, and she ensures all children have the opportunity to find achievement and satisfaction. 

The Montessori directress must be exceptionally well prepared and view herself as a learner along with the children she serves.  She must have a solid understanding of human development and a belief that Montessori is not only an educational method but a way of life.  She needs the ability to reflect on her own observations and to individualize the curriculum.  She must have the ability to communicate with children in a free and open manner.  Montessori believed that the directress should be trained to help the children emerge as they are and to derive their gratification as teachers from the visions of possibilities for children’s development rather than from the relationship the child might develop with the teacher.  The love of children must be coupled with true respect for them, if working with them is to free their inner potentialities.

Our communities of teachers (Directresses) are committed to the objectives established by Maria Montessori and the Dulles Montessori School family.  We believe that very important foundations of early learning rest not only on understanding the needs of childhood but a relation of those needs to the challenges which the child will later face.