Over a century ago, Dr. Maria Montessori discovered through scientific observations of children that they are not empty vessels to be filled -- they are intrinsically motivated doers. She saw that providing a hands-on learning environment that valued choice, concentration, collaboration, community, curiosity, and real-world application produced lifelong learners who viewed "work" as something interesting
and fulfilling instead of drudgery to be avoided. Now, research in psychology and neuroscience continually validates Dr. Montessori's conclusions about children and learning, and Montessori schools are flourishing -- not just preschools but, increasingly, elementary, middle and secondary schools. So as the education reform debate thunders on, with the many sides agreeing on little beyond the fact that our schools as they are currently designed are failing our children, I can't help but wonder: Where is the voice of the Montessori movement in the American school reform conversation?
I first learned about Dr. Maria Montessori's approach to human development while in graduate school to become a therapist. At that time, I was struck by the similarities between some of Montessori's tenets and the theories and practices of therapeutic intervention for children. Choice, a key Montessori tenet, is at the heart of child therapy. Children's emotional, social, and academic development improve when they are empowered through choice. At the same time, children, according to the psychological literature, need to have appropriate boundaries and limits to feel safe and secure. Montessori's "freedom with discipline" (where "discipline means "to teach") for children ages 3-6 and "freedom with responsibility" for children ages 6 and up align with this literature.
My passion for Montessori, however, really ignited while I was interning as a school therapist in a suburban public school district. Taking students out of a classroom where they had very little choice and bringing them into a small office where I empowered them with choices seemed counterproductive, a short-term fix. That's when I realized I no longer wanted to provide interventions for children experiencing social, emotional, and behavioral issues. Instead, I wanted to be involved in the prevention of such issues. That, I knew, was happening in Montessori environments. So, I changed career course and became the Head of School at a growing accredited Montessori school for children ages 18 months to (soon to be) 15 years old.
Over the past five years, I've seen firsthand how powerful and effective the Montessori method is with children of varying temperaments and from varying backgrounds. I've seen children with severe developmental delays improve significantly because of how Montessori teachers are trained to interact with their students. And I've seen elementary-aged children from conventional schools who abhor learning have their love of learning reignited in a Montessori classroom.
Why is Montessori so effective? We know there is an indisputable link between movement and cognition, with the former actually enhancing the latter. We know that people of all ages need to feel a sense of control over their lives and that lack of control leads to depression and learned helplessness, which inhibits learning. We know from a huge body of research that extrinsic rewards and punishments don't work and can actually adversely affect intrinsic motivation. Research tells us all of these things, yet students at conventional schools are still confined to their desks, with rigidly scheduled days, receiving grades for every aspect of their learning and behavior. Is it any wonder that the public school district needs therapists?
In contrast, students in a Montessori classroom are free to move about the room and are provided varying types of work spaces -- tables, floor mats, and low-lying tables called "chowkies." They're given large blocks of time -- generally around three hours -- in which they choose their work and participate in one-on-one presentations (at the preschool level) or small group lessons (in elementary). There are no grades or tests. Instead, assessments are occurring daily through the teachers' keen observations of the children. (The children are taught how to test themselves or each other so they can know if they've really mastered something, such as math facts. There are some things that do need to be memorized!) Ultimately, it is expected that the children will use their time in a productive way, balancing their subjects and being responsible for their learning, and what we see daily in our classrooms is that they are. At the end of each semester, teachers provide each student and his or her parents with an overview of the student's progress, pointing out areas that need improvement.
Education reformers these days cast their nets far and wide to try to find a solution to the current malaise in our schools. They look to Finland, or to digital learning models. Why is Montessori
ignored? At a recent Los Angeles public school district teachers meeting where school reform was discussed, one teacher asked, "Have we ever considered Montessori? My sister is a Montessori teacher, and it seems to work really well for kids." His question, another teacher told me, was dismissed.
Maybe it's because people are simply most comfortable with the familiar. Maybe it's because many mistakenly think Montessori education is a model only suitable for preschool-age or privileged
children. I'm convinced, however, that the greatest impediment to Montessori entering this conversation is that there are so many special interests -- from textbook and test publishers to educational entrepreneurs -- who profit from the system as is.
I can tell you that the solutions we are all looking for are both simpler and more radical than the noisy debaters would have you believe. We need to do more than reform education. We need to transform it.
We need to talk about Montessori.
Lisa Belkin: Is Preschool Dead?
Dr. Irene S. Levine: Mom Worried About the Mean Girls at Montessori Preschool
Jacoba Urist: The Truth About Preschool Admissions
Holly Robinson: How Much Homework Is Too Much?
I can only speak for my school, but we would absolutely embrace a public school teacher so long as that teacher had completed the AMI training (typically a year-long course, or it can be taken over 2-3 summers). What's most important about the full training is the transformation of the adult. Montessori training truly transforms the adult in terms of their perspective of themselves in relationship to the child. There's so much I could say about this that is easier to say in a conversation. Feel free to contact me at my school's number, and I'm happy to share more with you!!
Best,
Laura
Movement and coordination is essential to the vestibular system, which in turn affects learning. Repetition strengthens neural pathways, signaling genes to “switch on” and dedicating more neurons to processing that information, increasing the ability to perceive that stimuli with greater acuity. The brain literally constructs itself through interaction with its environment (especially in the periods directly after birth). There are critical and sensitive periods when exposure to stimuli will have a lasting impact in development. Sensory experiences, location, and emotions provide retrieval cues for memory, and deepen cognition. Procedural and implicit knowledge of "cause and effect" and if/then relationships is acquired through performance. Infants are born with a moral sense of right and wrong.
Educational and cognitive research now suggests doing away with textbooks, differentiation of the curriculum to meet the needs of individual learners, using “centers” and free choice to allow the learner to “discover” inherent academic principles in activities.
What they don’t seem to realize is that they're RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL (and still "missing a few spots" : ).
It’s time to collaborate!
We are planning to switch from Montessori to Public School!! This article and comments helps me to reinforces and helps me to decide ..Montessori is way to go!! (May be have to cut off some other expenses:))
Thanks
MP
My children attended Montessori schools for free.
Laura Flores Shaw is right! But the root of the problem goes back to the early twentieth century. President Wilson’s daughter was interested. Alexander Graham Bell was the President of the US Montessori society. Things looked rosy. But the educational establishment didn’t like competition.
William Heard Kilpatrick, a Columbia University professor under Dewey’s leadership wrote a little pamphlet calling Montessori “100 years behind the times” and “downright dangerous.” I laughed aloud when I read it. Montessori was far from behind the times. She was 100 years ahead of her time! And far from dangerous, she’s proven to be successful all over the world.
We may laugh at Kilpatrick’s nonsense, but the damage was done. Montessori was shut out in the U.S. for thirty years. Only in the early 1950s when Dr. Nancy Rambusch and Dr. Elisabeth Caspari started schools did Montessori come alive again and it keeps growing. Yet there is a deeply entrenched bias against Montessori in the American educational establishment. It’s time to look beyond it and see for ourselves what Montessori has to offer.
Go visit a Montessori school. These schools bring joy to the hearts of children and their parents. They bring documented results. As Montessori pioneer Elisabeth Caspari used to say, “It works, it works; it works.” What more needs to be said?
Mary Ellen Maunz
See full article at www.ageofmontessori.org
I agree with the above statements as well as 98% of the comments here. My child is in a Montessori School, it is expensive, however I feel it’s the best thing I could do for her but not simply from a purely childhood educational standpoint.
While Montessori's method is a well developed system for childhood education; its basis rests in the fundamental ideology of not teaching, but of providing to the child:
Independence (to do it yourself)
Freedom (to act, as well as make mistakes),
Responsibility (To face consequence of your actions)
With the ultimate goal of developing Self-Reliance!
This fundamental ideology extends far beyond the classroom and well into adult life.
The question I would ask of all Montessori supporters is how much of this ideology do you embrace in your own lives, expect of others around you, as well as expect of those representing you.
I would suggest to supporters who have not read Montessori’s works to do so and understand her philosophy from your own perspective, as well as looking at the history and criticism of Montessori (especially by Dewey). Then look at your representatives, the political candidates (and union leaders for that matter) and finally support those with a like-minded fundamental ideology in their politics.
The only way we will reach a goal like this is to embrace Montessori principles and encourage and support those having the same underlying ideology in their daily lives and political standpoint.
Your question "how much of this ideology do you embrace in your own lives, expect of others around you, as well as expect of those representing you" is an excellent one!
Being a Montessori educator requires a great deal of self-reflection. We cannot expect the children to be self-reliant and take responsibility for their choices if we are not doing the same. We cannot talk this talk, we must LIVE it. We are the models. Thus, Montessori educators tend to make this very issue a part of their everyday conversation.
Currently, the "Ideal" is to have at least one capable, highly trained Montessori practitioner in each classroom. But the intensity of that training is a significant challenge to wider implementation of the method: how to rapidly, effectively train a large cadre of teachers to disseminate Montessori classrooms and students throughout our school systems.
Can we create new , innovative models to quickly “ramp up” the number of Montessori teachers in the next several years -- by partnering with traditional teaching colleges and creating new ways to provide Montessori teacher training? By developing innovative methods of classroom management, recognizing that we may need to accept "less than ideal" right now in order to build long-term capacity?
Are there leaders from the Montessori community, and specifically the teacher-training community, who are working on issues like this? Are there pockets of success to share? We need you to raise your voices and speak up in this dialogue to move Montessori forward as a viable mainstream education option for today's children. Please!
One of the ways we already are ramping up availability of Montessori training is by providing online study for philosophy and psychology portions of the early childhood course. There are aourses doing the same thing for elementary. This means people can stay at home, continue teaching, but gradually upgrade their training until they are ready to spend a summer (or two) learning the lessons toward getting their crediential.
I totally agree that we have to keep this dialogue going so we can offer the tremendous gift of Montessori education to more children.
Unfortunately, there's still a disconnect between theory and practice. Their idea is for each teacher to daily spend time and money creating interesting lessons and needed enrichment activities for their classrooms.
In Montessori, BRILLIANTLY designed hands-on lessons are already present in each classroom- that appeal to the child’s precise cognitive development at each stage. Lessons on the shelf proceed by only the smallest isolation of difficulty so THERE ARE NO GAPS in curricular instruction (despite the freedom of the child to choose their own activities). Lessons are interrelated and interdisciplinary (connections are apparent). Children may express their learning in a multitude of ways, and they may work alone or in small groups. Concepts inherent in each lesson are replete with retrieval cues such as texture, weight, sound, sight, location, the emotional experiences of joy and discovery. Activities include the complete work cycle: from the inception of their own idea-- to gathering necessary supplies, implementation, troubleshooting, clean up, and review –so children become experts at successfully predicting and managing their time, energy, and resources.
We're closer than ever to a meeting of the minds.
Our two children went to a private Montessori school from 1st through 8th grade. Both went to public high school and one is now in college. Teachers and other adults often remark at how they and their Montessori classmates are "so relaxed and engaged when talking with adults" and "unafraid to show their enthusiasms."
Many teens from more conventional schools share these traits, but sadly most do not. By the time they reach high school, too many students have decided that school is a slog, it's embarrassing to be enthusiastic, and embracing responsibility is uncool. (Why bother? Adults don't trust them to be responsible anyway...)
Whatever it's called, imagine if we all agreed that the goal of education was to create enthusiastic learners who take pleasure in working hard (because their work comes with a sense of self-determination)? As it is now, we seem to have decided that it's better to crank out experienced test takers instead. What are we afraid of?