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Schools and Education General Discussion
Reply to "Pros and Cons of Montessori education?"
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Interesting. Our smiley kid can sit and do an activity at home for quite come time, so OK concentration for 18 mos old. Parents are both nerdy enough so are wondering if our kids' preschool experience should be more about navigating various social encounters, team activities/sports, play and learning about the world (local, global, systems) rather than the academics, which will come. We went on a slew of tours as 3 montessori schools and 8 total preschools are near our house. Just not getting comfortable with the work-by-yourself all morning model. Kids get so serious and intense around here anyways, why start at age 2 or 3. Also, any montessori grads do team sports and like it (baseball, basketball, fall, etc.)? [/quote] Both my kids are in a montessori school - DD is in a toddler class and DS is in his last year of primary (K year). At our school, I see a bunch of happy, smiling kids when I visit. (Which is whenever I want, not just twice a year, although they do encourage you to visit at least twice a year) That said, the other Mont school in our area the kids really did seem serious and joyless. Both schools are AMI (so "Real" montessori) and yet the environment and overall feel was totally different. The material and set-ups were the same, but the teachers and school leadership absolutely make a difference - which is, of course, true of ANY educational philosophy. As an example, when we visited the toddler class at the other school, one of the teachers "shushed" one of the kids when she came to talk to me. So not cool. Who "shushes" an 18 month old? The classroom was silent, which is weird when you have a room full of 1.5 - 2.5 year olds. On the flip side, I recently observed my son's primary classroom. A few of the older students were working on "action verbs" (Note: Working together in a group of 3 kids. Some kids were doing work alone, most were working in pairs, and there was this group of 3) The kids would pick an action verb, read it, and do it. So they were crawling around the room, skipping, jumping, singing, etc. Evidently one of the cards was "greeting" (as in, greet someone) so they all used me as the target and I got lots of Hellos and Welcome to the class. At one point the teacher did calm them down when they were getting a little too loud and crazy, because they were starting to become a distraction to the other kids, but they just went back to using inside voices and carried on with the activity. The point is, yes, I do think the method combined (even when practiced "correctly") with an overly strict and joyless teacher can lead to a joyless classroom. BUT... the method with a good teacher leads to a thriving, happy, amazing classroom. As for sports... DS LOVES sports. His school has soccer after school every fall and spring, and he plays in that program, along with about 50 other kids from the school - so about 1/3 of the school. A few of his friends also just registered for a baseball team together for the spring. So yeah, lots of team sports, for those kids that like them. [/quote]
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