Montessori Critics

Well, I don't think anyone here can have the amount of ... vitriol that the Waldorf board seems to engender. I could be wrong (oooh, surprise me!)

I will say, after three years in Montessori at two very traditional schools, that these are my criticisms:

1) Rigidity about scope and sequence. I.e. if a child is interested in the formation of the world or time, then they shouldn't HAVE to wait until elementary to explore it. Some children enjoy word problems before they master the thousand chain. Kids are weird like that. Not every child learns in a linear manner.

2) Rigidity about socializing and play during the work period. You already know my beef with this, on the Montessori Slacker page. My daughter has consistently been "in trouble" for these issues at both schools she's been at, for all three years of M school.

3) Lack of silliness and humor as part of the day. I think my child would have enjoyed herself a bit more.

Regardless, I still think it's been the best for her overall. I have a hard time imagining how she would have fit into a traditional preschool. No schooling system is perfect, but M was a fairly good fit for us.

I don't have any negative experiences personally but I do know that Montessori schools vary greatly and just because they use the name in their title doesn't mean they are a "true" Montessori school. I think it's important that they are affiliated with AMI or AMS to start with. I am trained in AMI so I am biased and believe it's the better way to go but that doesn't mean there aren't great AMS programs.

I can remember working in the Nido (infant room) and we had a local news channel come do a report. It was more about early-head start though as our school received funding from them but anyways one of the reporters came into my room and observed for a while. He was literally in tears because he had a daughter in a well known chain Montessori school (very high priced) and he never realized that it wasn't *really* montessori. He was so intrigued by the materials and environment at my school and was upset about the way things were done at his dd's school. But not having seen a good Montessori school he had nothing to compare his to, so he didn't know what his child was missing out on.

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My oldest dd(8) has be attending Montessori for five years, ages 4-8, and overall, I have no complaints. She was at an AMI accredited school for ages 4-5, then for "first" grade a new school. I did have a not so pleasant experience at the school, so moved her to her current school. Time outs implemented at recess and not inline with true montessori teaching. The school had a 1st grade teacher, a second grade teacher, etc. That school was AMS. Current school is AMS. All schools are private and I can't see my daughter in a traditional school. With any school, one may have some negative experiences, but the positive experience and love found in montessori philosophy outweighs it all .

Diane

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Yeah, that's a bit weird. We tell parents to pack a lunch in a way so that it doesn't matter in what order the child eats.

eta: I work in a Montessori school

Again I think it depends on the school and the teacher... I do think that parents sometimes feel left out of the loop because they don't come into the classroom in the morning, when you're just briefly dropping your child off at the door you don't get more than a glimpse into the room and how it functions, and then more than likely at pick-up time the day is over and the work cycle is done, or in my dd's case, she attended half a day while the older children stayed all day so when I picked her up I couldn't go into the room and spend time because the other chidlren were working. And pulling the teacher aside on a daily basis doesn't really happen because then you are taking her away from the class, I know in other types of schools it may be normal to stay and talk in the am or at pick-up and catch up about the child's daily activities but it doesn't seem to fit into the Directress's role... as it would have a neg effect on the other children.

The school I worked at was for younger children and a very different population as it was federally funded and the parents who's children attended did not seek out Montessori specifically... honestly most couldn't even spell it. But I would frequently send home notes in their folder to communicate what the child was doing during the day and any questions or concerns I had and the parent would (sometimes) bring it back it the next morning so we didn't feel so disconnected. I do think it's important to say know that the child was up late last night or had a major change in their family and it's hard to talk about this stuff at drop off.

As far as educating the parents on the Montessori Pedagogy, I agree it's super important.... if they don't understand it they won't appreciate it as much nor will they be able to incorporate some of it in their home environment. Where I worked we had parent night once a month where we met in small groups in the classroom and then as a whole and did a ton of Montessori education including ideas of how to work with the child at home.
I think maybe some M teachers do not explain to parents say the ideas behind the work cause it may sound confusing to somd?! I'm not sure but the training is very extensive (I'm speaking about AMI as that is my experience) and some things are not as simple as say oh he is developing his hand eye coordination.. or such... everything is so specific and while it makes perfect sense when you have the complete picture, I can see how it may be confusing to explain and understand if you only are given a piece of the information.

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I hear you, but I think even those extremely simple explanations would be enough for parents. Saying something develops fine motor skills (i.e. the sewing cards) and helps to prepare the hand for writing would be very interesting to parents. But I think the teacher would need to be able to "translate" Montessori-ese into contemporary language that parents are familiar with. Talking about the "normalized child" and the "myelin sheath" is confusing to parents, even though the teachers thought they were helping to educate the parents.

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yeah totally, and I agree it's important... I don't think that's too much to ask. We had daily sheets that were sent home with toileting, eating, as well as activities... I believe the groups were like gross motor, fine motor, social/emotional skills, cognitive, language... something like that. Anyways then I would list the work or my observations for each child under the appropriate category.. though many things fall into more than one. It was a simpler way of looking at things. My dd's school did not do anything like this though, but where I worked it was required because of early head-start but it was definitely a nice tool to communicate to parents with. I've only had experience working in this M program so I really don't know how and why other teacher's do what they do... I guess I didn't feel left out when my dd attended M school but I can see how parents not trained in Montessori could easily feel that way.

Hi all!
Since I have a daughter in a Children's House and also work in another, I understand how frustrating it is to want to know about the child's day and only hear "nothing" when asked "what did you do this morning?" Of course, I know that she was probably involved in many different activities and that at her age, she just can't rattle off a list of her activities for me. Sometimes, she tells me if she had a new lesson, or what other children are doing, or if there was a special story.
Having been in the directress' position, I can say that there is really no way I could have written down everything that the children were involved in at the end of the work cycle. They are just too busy! However, we encourage parent involvement and interaction in many ways. First of all, all parents are encouraged to observe before the interview so that they can see the class in action. Then, there is the interview where many questions are answered. At the beginning of the year, we have a parent meeting the 2nd week of school where we explain procedures and answer any questions. Since we have a very active parent body, there are many many opportunities for social events at the school (probably at least 1 every month). The parents can schedule an observation to come in and see for themselves what their child is doing. (Unfortunately, in All-Day class both parents are usually working so find it hard to fit this in). We also offer Parent Education nights about 4 times a year to go into a more indepth explanation of the materials or theory. In the AMI course, it is required to develop the Parent Ed. nights during the training, so each Directress is expected to carry this through. There is also the Fall/Spring Conferences so that each parent can sit down with the Directress and discuss the child's specific lessons and what s/he has been involved with. I always invited parents to join us to celebrate the child's birthday, cultural holidays, to read books or to go on nature walks.
Again, you will find different levels of parental involvement and interaction by school.
I agree wholeheartedly with above that the more the parents understand, the better it is all around. While I really don't feel that any of these concepts are hard for most adult to understand, it can be very challenging for the person who is doing the explaining. I felt that I was well prepared because of the quality of training that I received.

I saw this on another thread and wanted to post it here:

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I have seen this before too. I know at least two women who put their son into Montessori and had the same experience - he just was not learning anything. In each case, the child was put in French public kindergarten, and within one week was spelling his name, drawing things instead of just scribbling, singing the alphabet. The mothers then went on and on about how Montessori was "just not for my son". I wonder if this has any truth?

I think in some cases it is the parent who misunderstands Montessori. For example, with respect to art, my understanding is that in a Montessori classroom, a child would not be told what to draw or how to draw a happy face, stick man, etc. but would be left to scribble until he came up with a drawing on his own. And I have read that scribbling is actually GOOD before the age of 6 - the more the better , because it trains for writing, and that telling a child under 6 what and how to draw just stifles imagination. For example, if you show a child how to draw a happy face or a stick man, that is the only thing he will draw from then on until you show him something else. And the child comes out being no better an artist than the child who continues to scribble until a later age.

A parent might think that her child was not really progressing in Montessori because he was not drawing stick men and happy faces and other thing that, in a public school, he would learn how to do. In French public kindergarten, children are told EXACTLY what they must draw during the art time and they are not allowed to deviate!