Montessori: The Good, The Bad, and The Working

[physmom]

This is sort of a spin-off from the other discuss about the horse on the roof. I thought maybe we could discuss some of the following?

1. For parents of Montessori kids, what WORKS at your school?  Why is your school a "good" Montessori school?  Do you think it follows the Montessori method strictly or not?  Also, is your school accredited and if so through what? Oh, and is the school public or private?

2. For parents who are unhappy with their child's experience at a Montessori? What happened?  Do you feel like you had an effective method to handle the disagreement?  How would you have handled things differently in an ideal situation?  Do you feel it was the teacher's fault or the school's fault as a whole?  Was it something specifically about the method that bothered you?  Do you think it follows the Montessori method strictly or not?  Also, is your school accredited and if so through what? Oh, and is the school public or private?

3. Any ideas on improving the quality of Montessori schools in general?  Is this even possible? 

I thought we could make a general thread about this that would be a good resource for new parents considering a Montessori school.  It's good to hear both sides of the story and go into a school with your eyes wide-open.  Also, change can always start from the lowliest parent so any good ideas are always welcomed.

[SpringMom]

Thank you for posting this!  We are seriously considering a Montessori for our dd in  Sept. '12 for Kindergarten.  We've visited the primary classroom and met with the Director already. It seemed like a lovely place, but I wished I had more specific questions to ask or things to look for.  Sending her would be a huge expense and any help to make the right decision would be wonderful.

[physmom]

Originally Posted by SpringMom 

Thank you for posting this!  We are seriously considering a Montessori for our dd in  Sept. '12 for Kindergarten.  We've visited the primary classroom and met with the Director already. It seemed like a lovely place, but I wished I had more specific questions to ask or things to look for.  Sending her would be a huge expense and any help to make the right decision would be wonderful.

I really hope you get some good feedback here that you can use!  Here's a good list of questions to ask at a Montessori school: http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1254463/what-do-i-ask-look-for-during-our-tour-introduction (is it possible to make this a sticky somehow?  I always want to refer to that thread and forget where I have it saved or maybe a wiki?  I'm not sure how those things work...). 

So far we really like DD's school. 

As for the school itself: It goes from 0-9th grade (or 8th, don't quote me on that one!).  It's a private school abroad but I think it does have and associate with AMS but it's also accredited locally and is one of the founding schools for Montessori locally, so it actually does a lot of the training for other teachers.  I don't *think* it's as strict as some of the schools in the US.  At least in the 0-2 classroom they don't have set work period times and students can do the works throughout the day.  They have a very low teacher to student ratio (3-1) so the students tend to bond closely with that teacher.  They also really try to follow the child's needs so if a kid has a lot of energy they'll take him or her outside to play.  There's also a lot of age-mixing so it's common to see older kids (of all ages, even some preteens) at pick-up talking to DD, playing with her, or even bringing her to the door for me to pick her up.  It's a really beautiful camps with lots a nature built in, trees to climb, and they have ducks/chickens/bunnies there for the kids too.  Then only real con is that it's pretty expensive (but thankfully they do give a sibling discount if that time comes).

DD had a rough start for a lot of other reasons (different language, move etc) but seems to have adapted well and made a number of friends.  She also really enjoys the works.  She has a book at home about the school and will look through it and beg for the different works! Oh, and I've seen a serious improvement in her organizational skills, she actually attempts to put things away on occasion now!  She also seems to have an obsession with rolling up everything in sight!

[spedteacher30]

Originally Posted by physmom 

This is sort of a spin-off from the other discuss about the horse on the roof. I thought maybe we could discuss some of the following?

1. For parents of Montessori kids, what WORKS at your school?  Why is your school a "good" Montessori school?  Do you think it follows the Montessori method strictly or not?  Also, is your school accredited and if so through what? Oh, and is the school public or private?

Our school did a very good job with the pedagogy of Montessori. His teachers were purists with their methodology regarding the works--and our son flourished cognitively. In two years there--starting as a 2.5 year old--he learned to read quite fluently, he learned to write quite well, he learned a tremendous amount of math and has phenomenal understanding of all 4 basic operations, basic fractions, place value through the millions, and did beautiful art work. His school had a wonderful focus on ecology, and he learned to love the outdoors, to plant flowers and vegetables with care and love (last summer, he was the darling of the farmer's market as he chose his flowers for his garden every week) and he learned an amazing amount of science. The school incorporated his love of dinosaurs into the classroom and taught their usual classification units using dinosaurs in addition to still-living animals.

2. For parents who are unhappy with their child's experience at a Montessori? What happened?  Do you feel like you had an effective method to handle the disagreement?  How would you have handled things differently in an ideal situation?  Do you feel it was the teacher's fault or the school's fault as a whole?  Was it something specifically about the method that bothered you?  Do you think it follows the Montessori method strictly or not?  Also, is your school accredited and if so through what? Oh, and is the school public or private?

Our problems came with the socialization/normalization process. the school had no disciplinary/behavior management program, and, while espousing the Peace Education curriculum, they allowed bullying and aggression. They never taught the children the basic grace and courtesy lessons, and the classroom was a free-for-all. My empathetic and highly sensitive little guy got so anxious and worked up that he couldn't handle it. The playground was totally out of control, and the teachers did nothing to stop it--claiming that they were following Alfie Kohn's beliefs--but, they were actually doing nothing. There was play-fighting, sticks used for pretend jousting and fencing, and children hitting each other on a regular basis. (I have since had this confirmed by a close friend of mine who teaches at one of the other Montessori schools--she was horrified when she observed, and is so thankful we removed our son from the school).

Our son got tagged as the problem child--though, when I observed in the room and on the playground, he was actually totally and completely uninvolved in the chaos around him--except when it got too close to him and he would lash out in self-defense. the final straw for us was when a little girl in his class told him that she was going to have her dad come to school and kill him--and the school did nothing to assist him in mediating the situation, leaving him and the little girl by themselves at the peace pole to talk it out and apologize to each other. (As a former public school teacher, a threat like that would have ended up in a suspension and a visit with a psychologist to make sure the child wasn't serious since it was far more credible and possible than many "I'm going to kill you" statements. It had an actual plan behind it).

We sent him to another school for the summer program, and were not offered a spot there. When I spoke to the director of the second school about her decision, and tried to articulate our experience at the first school, she made a statement (in an appropriate context so it wasn't out of left field) that implied that the reason our son had trouble was because he is half-black and the teachers didn't know how to communicate with him as a black child. None of the Montessori schools in our area have any respect for racial/cultural diversity and neither school was completely comfortable with the fact that he was a princess-loving little boy with two moms. A teacher at the first school told him he couldn't grow up to be a princess because princesses are girls and got defensive when I told her during a meeting that he had as much chance of growing up to marry a prince as any of the little girls in his class did!

3. Any ideas on improving the quality of Montessori schools in general?  Is this even possible? 

I think that, just like in all schools, the adults in the environment need to make sure that they are not clinging to a dogma in order to avoid critical reflection and internal change on their part. I don't know anything about the teacher training standards for Montessori, but there is a real movement afoot in mainstream university education programs to teach future teachers to truly reflect on and analyze their roles in the success and challenges within their classroom and school. If adults don't believe that both they and their curriculum are fallible, they will eventually run into problems accommodating the needs of some children.

I thought we could make a general thread about this that would be a good resource for new parents considering a Montessori school.  It's good to hear both sides of the story and go into a school with your eyes wide-open.  Also, change can always start from the lowliest parent so any good ideas are always welcomed.

[Emma Bryan Fuller]

A teacher at the first school told him he couldn't grow up to be a princess because princesses are girls and got defensive when I told her during a meeting that he had as much chance of growing up to marry a prince as any of the little girls in his class did!

 I Love that :)