IME – Islamic Montessori Education

IME Defined

Islamic Montessori Education, known as IME, is an emerging science in the field of Education. IME emerges in the dynamic synthesis of two powerful and expansive bodies of knowledge; it is the fusion that occurs inside the crucible of an engaged and inspired learning environment. Children of an IME education evidence an uncommon mien – a bearing or manner that reveals an inner state of mind. These children manifest an unusual appreciation for kindness and respect; they reflect an extra ordinary reverence for life in all its kindred and varied forms; and they are distinguished by a marked intention to live through mindfulness and into peaceful ways of being in the world. IME is concerned with much more than academics – IME is concerned with the cultivation of character; this, in fact, is one of the hallmarks of an IME education.

IME develops intelligence through the expansion of the child’s innate, yet nascent capacity for critical thought. Critical thinking skills are nurtured, practiced and refined. In this way, IME supports a child’s capacity to approach life deliberately, to live with purpose and to act with intention – these are concerns that contribute to a peaceful interior life, a life in spiritual harmony.

Above all, IME develops in children the ability to discern life in context. This involves a deep appreciation of one’s responsibility for self-governance in the context of a temporal life on earth. It fosters in children, the capacity to perceive experience across the broader perspectives of life and time – a necessary precursor for the internalization of peace; and also prerequisite to the external manifestation of peace and its subsequent expansion across the globe.

Why IME Matters

The promotion and expansion of IME school environments is essential for the future of Islam in the United States. The greatest benefit of these schools is that they instill within our children, from the very earliest years, an appreciation for life. They acknowledge and reinforce the value of life by engaging our youth as active participants in the creation of purpose and meaning. In IME schools, children learn they are important. They learn their intentions matter, they learn their actions matter, and they learn to become responsible for both.

In schools that practice IME, children begin to understand the material world as a temporary condition in which we exist, and that while we must learn to navigate the world, it does not define us: it merely tests us. Children learn the purpose of life is not simply achievement, but more importantly, refinement – an understanding that holds far-reaching implications for the way in which an individual conceives of and responds to adversity. When viewed in this way, worldly measures of success, such as status, power, or money lose influence, as they yield to the more profound concern for the development of character and virtue. This focus on refinement endows the individual with the capacity for self-determination through the exercise of internal will and personal discipline, fostering the resilience and mental toughness characteristic of a healthy psychological constitution. In this way, IME schools provide children an advantage in the ability to field and negotiate the trials of life.

In an IME school environment, children are encouraged to think about, to talk about and to invest themselves in matters of import; they learn to focus their thoughts, their time and their life energy on that which is productive and to dismiss activities or endeavors that idly consume time. In order to accomplish this, however, one must develop the capacity to discern between that which is productive and that which is idle. This requires the cultivation of critical thinking skills, which serve as a major focus and primary objective in an IME school.

None of these are “religious” values, per se; but they are values that absolutely permeate the atmosphere of an IME classroom – and they quite clearly and dramatically distinguish an IME school from the educational alternatives. In this way, IME develops young people who think deeply; who exercise integrity, dignity and respect; and who exhibit the same purpose and intention in their actions as in their approach toward life in general. At AIMA, we believe it is these young people, so self-possessed, in whom the only real hope for the future of our religion, our nation, and indeed our world, resides.