Anonymous wrote:Thank you 22:48 and 23:28. I think you've done a good job of describing the strengths of a Montessori program. It's not what I want for my child. Setting the table, organizing shoes, and making up extra math problems aren't the kind of creativity I look for, but for many parents it may be. You clearly both feel passionate about Montessori, and I'm sure that you, 23:28 are a wonderful teacher.

Perhaps you did not mean it this way, but this is fairly rude and condescending, and it is short-sighted. Montessori at the elementary level especially is exciting, challenging, and fun cademically--beyond that, the children have enriching and unusual field trips; they put on plays and musicals; organize holiday parties in which they learn wonderful, international songs; make classroom decorations and art; learn to play instruments; tend a garden; care for animals; and so much more. They are encouraged to find creative solutions to problems in all aspects of life. Many people don't understand Montessori at all.

No, it probably isn't that unusual 13:08. My son is in a private Montessori K in NOVA and he is one of 10 students - and that class has 2 teachers. Not a teacher and an assistant, two teachers.

A Montessori class of 11 is very unusual around here especially a full day program. The average seems to be 24 children with a teacher and assistant.

Anonymous wrote:
To answer your question, both of my sons THRIVE in montessori. They are both very curious and active, and would have a hard time sitting in a traditional classroom for group lessons that last more than 5-10 minutes. In montessori they can pick their own work and go at their own pace, and as a result they really love it. There is no penalty for doing work more quickly or more slowly than others - no having to wait for others to catch up or worry about slowing others down.

+1 This is why my boys are in Montessori. They don't have the focus that others talk about that make a child a good candidate for Montessori, but I honestly don't think their focus would be any better in a traditional preschool setting. They may be sitting in the same chair, but they would still be fidgeting and their minds would be wandering on something other than the task at hand. I think they get more out of something when they pick the work themselves, and Montessori allows them to do so. A good Montessori teacher will make sure the child gets a dose of all the lessons by the end of the school year, but I love the fact that my boys aren't expected to keep with lessons when they are taught in the class, and then the opportunity is gone.

i have 11 kids in my m class.

Many of the Montessori schools near us have great teachers, but the ratio of children is overwhelming for them. If the ration went down, I think they'd be able to spend more time doing creative things.

As a parent whose child went through Montessori, I have to agree that they do some things really well and other things not so well. I do think Americans might value being social and creative more. As a long time American, I do look for schools to teach these things and Montessori really does not in the preschool age. I hear in the elementary stage, they do, but by then most kids are out of Montessori. Maybe that's why there are a lot of other children of recent immigrants since they might not value this as much. I think 20:55 said it best. To me the best thing about Montessori is the way they incorporate life skills into learning (especially nice for working parents who aren't home to show their children how to help out around the house), their respect for everyone and for things of the world, and their concrete way of teaching reading and math which is much more understandable to children than worksheets. They also help children with focus and control which is helpful when starting elementary school especially with today's large class sizes. Beyond that though, some of the more creative schools have an edge. They are teaching the children how to better interact with one another through scaffolded play, how to make up their own stories and think and draw creatively, not just read a story, how to use their body in play and with music (several Montessori schools didn't even have a music time!), how to use toys creatively and with each other (some Montessori schools don't even allow any toys, even wooden ones!). I've seen about 2 Montessori schools that do all this well, and the others fall behind. They also often discourage parent interaction which to me is a drawback.

Thank you!

-23:28

Thank you 22:48 and 23:28. I think you've done a good job of describing the strengths of a Montessori program. It's not what I want for my child. Setting the table, organizing shoes, and making up extra math problems aren't the kind of creativity I look for, but for many parents it may be. You clearly both feel passionate about Montessori, and I'm sure that you, 23:28 are a wonderful teacher.

Montessori was a terrible match for my daughter. She is very shy and doesn't know how to interact with other children, and in a Montessori environment, she was allowed to be on her own, so it just reinforced her behavior. What she needed was a play-based preschool that emphasized social skills instead of independent job time.

Montessori teacher here again to address CREATIVITY W/IN THE M CLASSROOM!

Yes- There are materials that must be used "the correct" way (especially when the child is first taught HOW to use the material for the first time.

Yes- There are schools/teachers who are less flexible.

However- a GREAT M teacher allows creativity in the following ways:
* An art area that includes activities such as watercolors/playdough/a collage box/easel/dot pens/pastels (this is MY art corner!)
* Sensorial area: After children master the activities (pink tower and red rods- etc) they are ENCOURAGED by me to CREATE mazes/buildings/designs!
* Language area shelves include: CREATIVE WRITING props for the moveable alphabet & for CW writing w/ pencil & paper.
* Math area: After the children have mastered the bank game/stamp game- I encourage them to MAKE their own equations.
* Children are consistently told to "try and figure things out on their own first) before seeking assistance (social navigation in the playground- etc.)
* Children dictate stories to accompany their illustrations.
* Circle time typically includes rich discussion that fosters open-ended thinking. What do YOU think will happen next in the story? Who is YOUR favorite character? And "Why?" How would YOU try and solve the mystery?
* Science: Children. Are allowed to choose materials from the classroom yo use for sink/float.
* Children learn about famous artists and replicate the style how THEY interpret it.
* These are just SOME examples. Hope I helped

I'm not a M teacher, just a M parent so I don't think I can present it as well as you would like. Yes, there are rules on how you use the materials. You can't take the 1,000s bead chain and make it into a necklace. You've have to lay it out on the floor and use the labels and practice sequence counting. But once you have mastered that you can go off and sequence count whatever you want all day long if you are really into it. My kids are in the elementary classes now and I feel that their whole day is open for them to interact with lessons in creative ways. They are constantly making plays and stories and cooking and building science things and making up crazy math problems. And the teachers are passionate about letting the kids come up with their own solutions to situations, letting the kids organize themselves (once they know how to use the materials). To be honest I complain to the M teachers that my kids need more rules and structure because the world of Montessori is not the real world. And they counter back that the purpose of Montessori is to teach a love of learning. One big thing M has taught my children is that their opinion matters so when they learn something new they each want to talk about it and ponder it and self-discover more about it. Good grief, I could never be a M teacher. So much chatter!

Two funny memories come to mind about creative problem solving by M kids. One - we went to a birthday party at a bowling alley. All the kids were M kids. The bowling alley had forgotten we were coming and hadn't set up. The kids jumped in and set up the table, chairs, and all the stuff on the table and organized the shoes and shoe sizes. The bowling alley employees commented on how the kids took charge and organized themselves. Two - our scout troop is almost all M kids and our troop leader sometimes doesn't get organized but the kids always jump in, organize themselves and make decisions. A Montessori tenet is if you give the kids an orderly environment (organized kid-sized materials) the kids can sort of teach themselves.

I second the PP. I would love to hear insights on how Montessori schools encourage creativity and which schools specifically around here are good at this. I have visited several Montessori schools in regard to my sons and have been very concerned by the approach to creativity. I specifically asked one teacher, saying I was concerned that my son would look at the Montessori materials and want to use them "to build a fire engine." The teacher bit my head off, telling me that I needed to nip that tendency in the bud TODAY. She told me that "parents think creativity is so cute" and nothing but awful things come of it because that child will never be able to distinguish fact from fiction and will never be able to focus. This teacher was probably a nut job but I think she was stating in a rather extreme way what the current Montessori wisdom really is. The fact is, all the child development research that we have now supports the importance and validity of imagination and fictitious play. Even Maria the Great said you should observe how a child chooses to use a particular item and follow that. I would love to hear how requiring a child to use an item only in the particular prescribed way is a good thing.

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who said "Montessori discourages creativity" ---- I respectfully disagree! (Montessori teacher.)

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.

Some of what I've seen that concerns me:

Children scolded (albeit gently and respectfully) for building with the binomial cube, or drawing when they were supposed to be making tracing stencils. To me building, drawing, and the storytelling that goes along with it is behavior to encourage and celebrate.

Children using very rote scripted language to negotiate sharing materials. In one class, I watched 3 different groups of children use the same materials, and each group used the same language, almost word for word. There didn't seem to be a place for the kind of negotiation that we encourage in our 3 year olds, and see so often in our 4's where kids come up with creative solutions for how to work together.

Children discouraged from exploring openly with new materials. From my perspective, I'd never ask a child to do something I wanted them to do with a material before they had a chance to try it out for themselves, but it seems that Montessori does the opposite.

Skills that I'd teach in the context of a story, or a game, taught in a way that seemed less creative. For example, I saw a 2 year old polishing a trivet with a q-tip. He was developing his visual tracking, and his pincer grip. However, I'd have taught those same skills in the context of playing scientist while mixing colored water with eye droppers, or while making little leaf boats to float down a stream we made with the hose in the sandbox, or making roads for the matchbox cars out of painter's tape on the floor.

I've learned a lot from studying Maria Montessori and her work. I think she did a fantastic job of changing outcomes for her students. She took kids coming from an environment of extreme poverty, and taught them to be hard working, obedient, careful factory workers. For her time, that was pretty miraculous. Today, Montessori does a great job of teaching kids to be hard working, obedient, and careful. They do a great job of teaching academic skills at a very early age. I just happen to wish for a different outcome for my kids.

I strongly disagree with PP who said it is for females who don't mind following lots of rules. On the contrary, traditional schooling is designed by and for females and often requires skills that females tend to develop faster than males (fine motor skills, handwriting, longer attention spans). For more on this, read the book "The Trouble with Boys."

To answer your question, both of my sons THRIVE in montessori. They are both very curious and active, and would have a hard time sitting in a traditional classroom for group lessons that last more than 5-10 minutes. In montessori they can pick their own work and go at their own pace, and as a result they really love it. There is no penalty for doing work more quickly or more slowly than others - no having to wait for others to catch up or worry about slowing others down.