Classroom management and decisions are made together with the Directress in order for the child to be responsible for their environment. In this way, the students are offered both freedom and the capacity for accepting responsibility within their classroom “society”.

An integral part of the elementary society is the weekly “classroom meeting”. These meetings provide the children an opportunity to express their concerns in a respectful manner, learn to listen to others and participate in problem resolution within a group. In the upper elementary classrooms, the directress often becomes a participant while the children learn to facilitate and manage the meetings themselves.

The rights of each student in the Montessori elementary classroom are:

	To act by oneself and for oneself.
	To act without unnecessary help or interruption.
	To work and to concentrate.
	To act within limits which are determined by the environment and the group.
	To construct one’s own potential by one’s own efforts.