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Schools and Education General Discussion
Reply to "What kind of child does well in Montessori"
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the poster who said "Montessori discourages creativity" ---- I respectfully disagree! (Montessori teacher.)[/quote] I'm the PP who wrote that. Can you give me some examples of ways that you feel that Montessori encourages creativity? I'm a teacher in a different type of program, and I've been able to spend several full days observing in different local Montessori programs, including programs that get a lot of love here. I've also talked with colleagues who have seen other popular programs. Finally, I've had the experience of integrating students into my program, coming from Montessori. [/quote] I'm well aware that this thread is 6 years old as is this comment, but since the thread was revived and someone is asking questions about Montessori, I thought I would chime in on this. I'm the PP above with the twins. In our Montessori school, the school was run by two sisters who were both Montessori trained by their mother. Their mother was actually trained by Maria Montessori herself. The mother was largely retired, but was still the figurehead of the school. The two sisters served as the managers (one was the business manager and the other was the educational program manager). All three had input on the teachers and curriculum and procedures of the school. They had four schools and all three rotated throughout the four schools throughout the week, so there was at least one of them at each school for at least part of every day. Each room had six subject matter areas. During each three hour "day", each child was expected to complete at least one work project form each subject matter area. As long as they complete one task from each station, they could manage their own time. My twins were very different. One likes to get a project, do the lesson associated with it and then move on to another project/task. He would complete 15-20 tasks in 3 hours, plus take breaks in between. He would do a his task, then pack it back up and then he would walk a maze-like pattern (like Billy from "Family Circus") around the room, circling some of his friends to see what they were doing, occasionally whispering something to a friend, stopping to whisper to one of the teachers put the project back, go get a snack (they had a table with fruit and light healthy snacks that kids could visit throughout the session), wander by the window to look out, then get another project to work on. My other son was very fixated on things and hated to change until he was ready. He would do 6-8 tasks in a session. He would do the assigned lesson, then after the teacher reviewed it with him to make sure he learned his lesson, he would sit and play with the task. He would take cylinders and try to build pyramids and he learned about balance and the difference between building a right-side up pyramid and an upside down pyramid. He sit and explore the materials and components. As long as he completed one task per section and learned the given lesson from the tasks, he was free to explore his own creativity with the materials. We had one visitation per semester where we would sit in a corner quietly and watch the class for an hour. It was quite interesting to see my second son exploring the materials. In fact, he was the reason we chose Montessori. In the play-based daycare that they were in before, he would come in and do morning play. At a certain time, they would get ready for breakfast and everyone would be told to put the toys away and wash hands for breakfast. If he wasn't done exploring with his toy, he would hate to transition, especially since he usually ate breakfast before coming, so he wanted to just play, but they wouldn't let him. Then they would have some more free play after breakfast while the teachers cleaned up. Then they would have to put the toys away so that they could have circle time. Each time they transitioned to something else, he would have difficulties because he wasn't done with what he was doing/exploring. Montessori was wonderful for him because he was able to learn the expectations of completing one task from each subject but he was able to transition when he was ready instead of when the group was ready. The teachers just kept reminding him periodically "Don't forget, you still have to do these stations" and he would get to them. In fact, it suited both kids well. The one who was used to doing a lot of things was able to finish the lessons and have time to do other things he wanted to. Both had a lot of options for creativity. And when we left to go to a different school, we recommended our school to friends who had children 1 and 3 years younger than our kids. This family has now been there for four years across the two children (the older is now in a charter elementary school, but the younger is still at the Montessori) and they love it too. We've kept up on the school through them and the policies are still much the same now as they were a few years ago.[/quote]
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