Researchers in medicine, education, and related fields continue to make new discoveries about how the brain functions or malfunctions. The implications of studies of how young children learn compare favorably with those of educators such as Maria Montessori, Jerome Bruner, and Jean Piaget. These researchers saw growth and development as a series of stages related to inherited potential, maturation, and experiences. Brain research has concluded that (1) no single area of the brain can function alone, (2) individuals generate and associate different meanings to similar experiences, (3) the brain grows in spurts, (4) the brain responds to the environment surrounding it, (5) the brain can easily establish elaborate abstract coding and decoding systems, and (6) the brain deals with the world systematically. The role of the Montessori teacher--making the children the center of learning, encouraging children to use the freedom provided for them, observing children in order to prepare the best possible environment, recognizing sensitive periods, and diverting unacceptable behavior into meaningful tasks--supports the implications of this research. (HOD)