The Maria Montessori method

[DRSB]

My son attended a Monterssori-school form 3.5 years to 6.5 when he transitioned to first grade at a state school. The Monterssori school was great but the regular one is just as great. What I hear though from parents of the higher grades at the Montessori school, they are not very happy. I think the method work best for small children, but not for older schoolchildren.

[Bella Fortuna]

My son attended a Monterssori-school form 3.5 years to 6.5 when he transitioned to first grade at a state school. The Monterssori school was great but the regular one is just as great. What I hear though from parents of the higher grades at the Montessori school, they are not very happy. I think the method work best for small children, but not for older schoolchildren.

I think because the community dwindles as kids get older, the kids wouldn't be as happy partially for that reason - the social circle shrinks too much as children are moved to traditional school.

[Trolldor]

I also think it's their tendency to be shit educators.

[Bella Fortuna]

I also think it's their tendency to be shit educators.

Did it ever occur to you that you may be generalising wildly based on no firsthand knowledge?

[Trolldor]

On firsthand knowledge, actually.
I was part of the 'peer group' assigned to assist with helping these children catch up, and my mum is good friends with an ex-monty parent.
Who, by the by, regrets sending her kid there and is fairly happy it got shut down.

[Bella Fortuna]

Fair enough then - but it sounds like a bad apple, as there is with anything. What I've experienced and heard from others has been overwhelmingly good. Not perfect, of course, but positive enough that I've stuck with it.

[Twoflower]

It might vary depending on the country.

[beige]

I went to a normal school and I turned out just fine.

I'm very much of the opinion that the ability of the parents to inspire or guide their child to think and learn is a far bigger factor than anything an outside educator could hope to accomplish.

Edit: At least until the kid becomes a teenager and decides they hate their parents

[DRSB]

Beige wrote:

I'm very much of the opinion that the ability of the parents to inspire or guide their child to think and learn is a far bigger factor than anything an outside educator could hope to accomplish.

I couldn't agree more. My son benefits more form his father playing and doing things with him, they are constantly looking at Google Earth, atlases and encyclopedias, playing role games, etc. Got to admit though, I'm less engaged in playing, but I contribute in other ways to the cultivation of interests.

[Trolldor]

I went to a normal school and I turned out just fine.

I'm very much of the opinion that the ability of the parents to inspire or guide their child to think and learn is a far bigger factor than anything an outside educator could hope to accomplish.

Edit: At least until the kid becomes a teenager and decides they hate their parents

We recently had a debate on this very issue... (had to look up shitloads of sources etc.)

A 'supportive' parent will have an measurable but beneficial impact on the child, while a domineering (Helicopter) parent will be about as usefeul as a bag of spanners.

[Beatsong]

Sælir,

I don't follow what your ex-partner means about sending your kid to a one-off Montessori "seminar" in another country. The method doesn't work like that, at all. You can't just take a kid in traditional schooling and give him three weeks of Montessori one summer and expect it to make a difference.

[Svartalf]

And there's never been an 'art' focus on either of the schools he's been to... not sure where that image comes from unless other schools have a different focus. In fact there's never been an art component in ours except in the before/after school childcare, just to keep kids busy...

I know Waldorf schools are more aimed in that nebulous artsy direction... and I'd consider them a bit weird.

I won't deny I'm weird.

I went to Rudolf Steiner school when I was a child. When I entered public school, academically I was a grade ahead of my peers.

Thx for the info... Rudolf Steiner has always been so mingled with unhealthy occultish things that I wondered if his education system was serious or vril powered

[Millefleur]

Sælir,

I don't follow what your ex-partner means about sending your kid to a one-off Montessori "seminar" in another country. The method doesn't work like that, at all. You can't just take a kid in traditional schooling and give him three weeks of Montessori one summer and expect it to make a difference.

Yeah, that confused me too.

My girls are both at a Montessori school now and thriving, they both started at 2 and are now 3.5 and 5.5. My reason for sending them there is that I want them to develop a love of learning and a real desire to explore and educate themselves off their own backs, no pressure. People are often curious about 'child-led' learning and are amazed that given (almost) free rein over how they spend their time the classroom doesn't just end up in chaos. The head teacher is very hands on in the classes and has been teaching for I think 30+ years, she opened this one 25 years ago, and completed an MA in child development or behaviour orsomething a couple of years ago. I trust her fully, with my childrens education, her choice of teachers and the environment she provides.

Re kids leaving Montessori and entering 'regular' schools behind their peers, I'm not surprised. The early years focus more on personal development - fine motor skills, interacting with their peers and environment sympathetically, discovering themselves - basically forming a well rounded, happy child. The head is a fan of Finnish system (I think? Braindead tonight), with children starting formal education around 7 and certainly no pressure up until then. All equipment through each year group is a more elaborate version of the previous - aged 2 they might put puzzle shapes into a board exploring the shape and colour, the next stage might invole stacking, matching, tesselating the shapes, then onto 3D models, volume etc. There's no 'Today you must do this', instead a child might decide to choose a new piece of equipment and discover for themselves you can put that there and this over there and you've got something new or different. i remember my eldest coming home aged nearly 4 incredibly excited - she'd been painting and mixed red and yellow together and got orange and had stopped painting her picture and spent the afternoon mixing all these different colours, her teacher said she'd been like a mad inventor rushing arond and beaming, splatting this and that here, mixing anything and everything, delighted by her discoveries. Might sound like a pretty normal, boring thing for a kid to do but she was immensely proud of herself, she'd discovered one thing and run with it, and thats the point. Same with reading, one she just said 'whats that'
and before we knew it she knew her letters and phonics sounds and letter groups and is now pretty much reading without help. I think my youngest will b diferent though, i imagine reading won't be the top of her agenda and she may ned alittle rodding in te right direction and while I'm happy for her to progres a little slower in that area I imagine she wouldbe behind her new peers if whisked off to a regular school next september.

The problem for us is that it is just so damn expensive so I've had to start homeschooling the eldest in the afternoons, except tuesday as she doesn't want to miss PE, but we're not the only ones to take up the offer of half the schooling for half the fees. The previously tiny Junior class has doubled in size with more students over 5 yrs then ever staying on and we can liase with the teachers re what they're learning, how they're progressing, what to focus on at home etc as well as each other to coordinate afternoon activities.

I'm trying to knock this out quickly before I jump in the bath so 'scuse the rushed shit writing, I hope it makes sense and I've not just waffled on about random crap.

[Sælir]

Sælir,

I don't follow what your ex-partner means about sending your kid to a one-off Montessori "seminar" in another country. The method doesn't work like that, at all. You can't just take a kid in traditional schooling and give him three weeks of Montessori one summer and expect it to make a difference.

I really don´t follow it either since I couldn´t find anything about any courses and after reading up on this I have gotten a completely different idea about this than he tried to explain to me. I asked him what courses he was on about a while back and he hasn´t answered it so I guess he realised that he was talking about something that he really didn´t have a clue about.

[Trolldor]

instead a child might decide to choose a new piece of equipment and discover for themselves you can put that there and this over there and you've got something new or different.

This is a humongous problem. It's called 'Discovery Learning', and there is no evidence at all to support that it works, let alone that it's any better than 'traditional schooling'. Without instruction, children lacking the innate abilities can't advance at all, which is why they fall so far behind their 'traditional peers'.
The most effective method of teaching is a 'traditional school' which employs a 'co-operative learning' strategy - that means working with peers, group work etc., and there are other factors to take in to account as well - variation and 'self-efficacy' (the "Yes I can" belief).
From what I understand about Montessori it operates on Piaget's theory, which is very hands on with practical materials and relies heavily on student initiative. Sound fine except that in practice it leaves the child in a very underdeveloped state. Would you teach a surgeon by throwing him a brain and telling him to 'discover' it for himself? That's essentially what you're doing to the child.

If you want your child to be interested in learning, be positive and foster a positive attitude in your child, send them to a school where acadmeic achievement isn't looked down on or ridiculed. A 'traditional' school can do this just fine.
And 'traditional' is written as so because if they're any good at what they do, they operate on the research not on some wanky theory and are thus changing and evolving.