I don't get the Montessori cult

[Anonymous]

3 year old DD is in a private Montessori this year. The convenience can't be beat--it's near our house and near her older brother's elementary. But try as we might, we just don't GET the Montessori cult/fixation. The school is just weird, the teachers distant but pleasant at best, and downright cold and controlling at worst. We're not allowed in her classroom, and we feel incredibly awkward every time we go in, lest we violate one of the many "rules." The place is eerily silent: I've never been in a preschool that is so bizarrely quiet. I know that is part of the Montessori schtick, but it just seems so joyless and Stepford-like. I have so sense whatsoever that she is having any fun--with all the "practical life" stuff it seems like all she gets to do is drudgery. (Fold laundry! Pour water! Clean stuff!)

Should we just pull her and find a new program since we're clearly not a Montessori family? The other hitch is that they hold two months of tuition in advance, so we could be out big bucks. How big a deal is it two switch a kid at this age and stage of the year?

[Anonymous]

Get out.

[Anonymous]

OMG are you me? That was us last year. My end result was that the kids enjoyed it, learned a lot but as a parent MY experience was sub par. Eh, but I'll live.

[Anonymous]

The "practical life" stuff is designed to help kids feels a sense of mastery in learning to do useful tasks. It's not drudgery to them. The tasks improve motor skills.

If you are uncomfortable, pull her. Unless she's really upset, though, I'd finish out the tuition that I'd paid while I looked around for a program that was closer to my preferences.

[Anonymous]

Run.

[Anonymous]

Very interested in this thread. I've been trying to figure out the deal with Montessori b/c we're considering it for DD next year, albeit the Arlington County quasi-public programs (if we can get in). It does seem kind of cult like!

[Anonymous]

I will say that the practical life stuff was the only part of her year in Montessori that my daughter enjoyed. Kids that age don't find things like folding and polishing and pouring to be drudgery. For DD, at least, it was a way to get to be grown up and help around the house, and she was really excited about it. The work she did on the fastener tree (I don't know the name for it as I was not into the culty branding - the thing with zippers and buttons and snaps and such) was very helpful when she was 3 on dressing herself and navigating those tools.

But the rest of it? Yeah. Joyless. Rulesy. Excessively formal. We left after a year for a play-based school and couldn't be happier that we did.

[Anonymous]

We looked at a bunch. One was nicer and more flexible inviting us into the classroom, but some, one in particular was downright creepy. I was also surprised at how bored the kids seemed. Go with your gut and switch. There should be no reason why a parent cannot enter a classroom, engage with a teacher or children.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the post, I have wondered the same thing. I feel kinda sad in the school but I didn't observe the whole day program. The teacher told me there is outside time, circle time, dance and sport alternated during the week. Only the 3 hour-straight work seems boring to me. I am not sure if kids actually enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

Taught years ago with a K teacher who had a Montessori classroom. Nothing on the bulletin boards. NO decorations in the class and it was super quiet.

[Anonymous]

cont. My class, meanwhile, was loud and messy. One group painted at the easel every day. We sang and sang phonics songs, etc.

[Anonymous]

ps. All my kids were reading at the end of the year--except one with diagnosed LD. They learned and had fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Taught years ago with a K teacher who had a Montessori classroom. Nothing on the bulletin boards. NO decorations in the class and it was super quiet.

I have no direct experience with montessori instruction, but I definitely prefer the calm feeling of the clsssrooms over the crazy overstimulation and disorder I have seen in many regular preschools. Kids do not need to be constantly having their senses assaulted.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the Montessori school. The one our kid went to allowed parents to visit, watch and interact. It was also one where the teachers made sure that the kids ate their lunch and took the leftovers back so that the parents knew how much food was consumed.

We also had parents participation and all manner of ethnic festivals were celebrated in a big way - with food, geography lessons, costumes, songs and dance, crafts etc.

The teachers also constantly went and observed MCPS classrooms and taught the kids how to integrate into the mainstream schools.

I loved this Montessori. I know why it was different from most Montessories but I will that opinion to myself here.

[Anonymous]

Please don't base your opinion of Montessori on this one school. Our school is not like what you described. The Montessori method is amazing.