I send my oldest kid (4 1/2 years old) to a local Montessori school. I’m talking totally old-school, completely unreconstructed Montessori. Nearly bare and hushed classrooms, practicing silently walking lines, washing tables, etc. They actually have a picture of Maria Montessori displayed prominently in every classroom.
I chose this school first of all because it was cheap and very close. Sweet! But I do like a lot about the Montessori method. I like that kids do things with minimal feedback praise or rebuke from adults, the way math is taught, that kids get up and move around as they wish, that self-control is emphasized, that there’s little forced group participation (my kid is a shy duck) but that they are taught how to comport themselves with adults (he is expected to shake hands and make eye contact with a teacher as he leaves). I think direct instruction is often inappropriate for this age group. Also, unheard of for this day and age, the school discourages parental involvement, which suits both my son and me fine.
There are things I don’t love about it. Mostly that they have drunk some serious Kool-aid about Maria Montessori. She has a clever educational system. She was not handed information about how to teach children directly from God. She stole the majority of her theories and methods from Edouard Seguin. She made mistakes. We all know now that pretend play is helpful to children, yet traditional Montessori schools still discourage pretense. I am glad they resist cute educational trends, but sometimes their refusal to update their program in light of much research is annoying.
The thing I love absolutely most about the Montessori method, however, are the report cards. If I could change one thing about the mainstream educational system, from elementary school through college, it would be to borrow my kid’s school’s report card.
It is an 8 x 14 sheet of paper with tiny print. It lists everything the kids can do in the classroom (pouring, pink tower, sandpaper numbers, trinomial cube, isthmus v. strait, interrupting, listening – I have a special fondness for the completely outdated items like flower-arranging and grace in movement). Next to each of these there are three boxes for each of the three trimesters. The teacher puts a 1 if the activity has been introduced to the child, a 2 if the child is practicing that skill, and a 3 if the child has achieved the skill. I LOVE this, and wish I could grade my students similarly.
First of all, it gives a much clearer overall picture about how the child is doing. A B doesn’t say nearly as much. It also emphasizes to students they are expected to master everything. An A implies one kid is better than another. A “completed” versus a “practicing” just means one kid has achieved it, and the assumption is that another will. Every skill might take a different length of time for each kid to master. This communicates in a faith in our children not only to do work, but that they will do it well, even if it takes a while.
Also, it put the onus on the teacher. Every child is expected to master every skill, and it doesn’t really matter when. If he doesn’t, it’s not the child’s failure (as traditional grading implies), it’s the teacher’s failure.We don’t leave a student at a B performance. We do the activity or teach that skill until the student actually has it down.
Kids can also mark their own progression better. If one gets an A or a B every semester, it doesn’t tell you much. But looking at the end of the year report card, my kid can see that stuff that he was introduced to or practicing at the beginning of the year is stuff that he has now mastered.
Newly near and dear to my heart, it emphasizes practice over innate skill. Even if you don’t agree with me that there are no innate skills, there are plenty of data that show that de-emphasizing discussion of innate skills and emphasizing discussion of effort improve kids’ performance. By assuming that every kid will eventually learn everything, and not simply comparing students to one another, it sends a message that all one needs to do is practice.
Would that this were the norm at every level of education, and students were used to seeing their work discussed this way. I would happily grade like this. Even if grad schools require an overall letter grade at the end, viewing their work in this way would, I think, be a boon to the students.
Rose, I went to a Montessori pre-school and I had forgotten all about our report cards until you made this post! Now realizing where a lot of my ideas on grading first got their start:).
If I’m remembering correctly, another positive of this style is that it grades So Many Things that no one thing is hugely emphasized. This kid has these things down, this other kid has these other things down, and an individual kid (or parent) looking at a report card sees all kinds of skills put into equal perspective, instead of being instantly indoctrinated that skills X, Y and Z are REALLY IMPORTANT and no one cares about P, Q, or R. Maybe that’s just me looking back at my past through rose-colored-raised-by-hippies glasses, but in hindsight, it seems a lot more flexible and accepting.
Yes, I agree. It’s also nice that there’s no way anyone can have mastered everything or nothing. So one is not as complacent or discouraged.
This isn’t too dissimilar from what many preschools do, though some seemingly small differences can actually be quite large. We have an E-1-2-3 scale, which I believe corresponds to Emerging, Sometimes, Usually, Consistently. I don’t love that language, to be honest, and might steal some of what you have here and offer it up the next time we revisit our reports.
My son’s Montessori school (which seems a little bit less strict in its adherence to Montessori’s methods than Rose’s kid’s) uses a similar reporting system.
My kid can kick your kid’s ass in flower-arranging.
My preschool had a similar list but I think had excellent, satisfactory, unsatisfactory – which is of course non-ideal. But I do wish we keep the lengthy list through higher grades and not see it as for preschoolers only.
I like the Montessori language (made a mistake in the OP – it’s introduced, practicing, comprehended) better than the emerging, sometimes, etc. They use the latter language for assessments of my disabled kid, too. But the Montessori language implies more agency on the part of the child. The ability is not something happening to the child, it’s something the child is doing.
I really like how you framed it there in that last paragraph. I have every intention of stealing that when discussing this with the higher ups!
Your Montessori school is cheap?! Wow. These schools are notoriously expensive. Ours is $12,000 a year. For preschool!
Most local preschools are in the $12,000 range around here. This one is $5000 for half day 5 days a week including summer, more for before/after care. It’s in a somewhat sketchier neighborhood, and has a very high proportion of minorities and kids of East and South Asian immigrants. Majority minority, as they say. It’s a really nice opportunity for him not be in the majority (which I think is a good experience for everyone) and having a great education. The other parents (while obviously ambitious enough for their children to spring for private preschool) are also less completely insane about their kid’s cognitive development and less involved in their every little social move on the playground than parents at an upscale school in my neighborhood.
Where I live there is no such thing as public preschool–it’s all private (except for Head Start, which serves low income families). Nearly all preschools are church-based and offer morning programs, nine to noon, three or four days a week, for kids ages 2 to 5. The most you would pay for this would be about $1,800 an academic year. A typical full time daycare place, from 8 am to 6 pm year round, would be about $10,000 a year.
Montessori school tuition is on par with traditional private (K-12) school tuition–they’re both wildly expensive. I guess it’s all relative, but there’s no such thing as a “cheap” Montessori school where I live. They are some of the most expensive schools around, especially since they rarely offer the financial aid often available at traditional private schools.
I love Montessori (though I completely agree that the goofy culty stuff is goofy and culty) and think it’s worth every penny. But it’s a helluva lot of pennies.
Montesorri schools actually tend to be cheaper than most privates, because they tend to have a higher student:teacher ratio.
Of course, it depends on what you are comparing it to. If you are comparing it to other basic day care providers, it is probably on the higher end. If you are comparing it to other private schools, it is likely on the lower end.
I teach in a private pre-school which is part of a larger PreK-9 school. I believe our full-day tuition for the 9.5 month school year is around $18K.
My kid had a playdate with a family friend’s kid who goes to the 92nd St Y preschool, where tuition is, I think, about $27K. I was relieved that he was not 5 times better behaved than my kid!
Oh, yes, NYC is even nutso. When I worked there (4+ years ago), my school was around $24K, which made it one of the lowest non-parochial tuition in the city (parochial schools tend to be cheaper since some funds/resources/personnel come through the church).
The full day (7 am – 6 pm), 12 month, lunch included is $11K at my kid’s. And as Kazzy says, there are usually 2 teachers in a classroom of 25 kids. It’s a much lower teacher-student ratio than others nearby, and helps keep down tuition.
Rose-
What grade (or age? Montessori doesn’t have “grades”, right?) does your kid’s school go to? That also plays a factor.
I’ll be honest and say I’m not the biggest fan of Montessori, though that is largely informed by seeing the children who come to my classroom after having been in their programs. This might not be the best evaluative method as the troubles those kids present might be why the left Montessori and/or personality/family traits that made them seek out Montessori in the first place. Reading about it left me less than impressed, but I have never seen a truly Montessori program in action. If I’m deferring to Italian thinkers on the matter, I’m much more inclined to lean towards the Reggio Emilia approach. Of course, you didn’t ask my opinion and the most important thing is that choices are available and parents make an informed choice based on their own principals and values.
Kudos to getting picked up for the journal!
My kid’s school goes through third grade. I looked at two Reggio Emilia schools; both were three times as expensive and forced more interaction than my kid was ready for at the time (he’d probably be into it now, though). And the Waldorf school I looked at was insane.
I read a book by a development psychologist at UVA whom I’d known from her work, interestingly enough, in the benefits of pretense (which is discouraged, to my chagrin, in most Montessori schools). She does a good job of laying out, however, of how Montessori methods have since been validated. There’s a bit of Kool-aid, but it’s still a decent book: http://www.amazon.com/Montessori-The-Science-Behind-Genius/dp/019536936X
Thanks. The lack of pretense is one of my major issues. Additionally, the rigidity (which is a part of the lack of pretense) concerns me, and is one of the main struggles that kids coming out of Montessori have. They tend to struggle with open-ended tasks. The lack of social interaction is the last issue, though this is probably the most easily addressed outside the school setting; I’ve seen some Montessori schools tout that their kids spend over 60% of their day working independently. To me, that is a red flag.
Which, of course, is not to say Montessori is all bad. There are a lot of really amazing elements of the program, some of which I’ve adopted a bit piece meal. “Practical life skills” are top notch. A running joke is that if you are going to have a 4-year-old pour juice, you want the Montessori kid doing it; he won’t spill a drop.
For me, what it comes down to is the things that I value most in a pre-school education are some of the lower priorities in Montessori. Which is not to say they are better or worse; just different. And, as you said, if cost is an issue, they are often the best bang for the buck.
If you do plan to keep your kid their long term, I would look into how you transition between the Montessori environment and where ever he goes next, since there is likely to be quite a big difference. Again, not that you asked… 🙂
I’ve noticed no issue with open-ended tasks. They do spend a LOT of time alone. Interestingly, my kid is much much better at socializing since he started going.
We’ve thought about the transition. He has to repeat kindergarten due to the time of year he was born, so he can focus on the new environment.
If he’s good with open ended tasks and capable of developing social relationships, than it looks like things are going just peachy. In no small part to the efforts of his parents, I’m sure. Well done, ma’am. Plus you get all the very real benefits of Montessori (seriously… watch those kids pour juice… they do better than I do).
You are dead on right. He sets the table and sweeps the floor! Montessori helps me exploit my kid!
Rose, I enjoyed your reflections about Montessori and our evaluation scheme, and I agree that the underlying principle makes much more sense than what many schools (preschool through university) do. I also agree with those who have responded and pointed out that other schools may follow similar practices. I don;t know your school, and perhaps they truly have drunk the coolaide, but I will respectfully suggest that most deeply appreciate Dr. Montessori, not mindlessly parrot what she says (although some of course do, as one finds everywhere). Dr. Maria Montessori did not ‘steal’ the work of Eduard Seguin. She was consistently clear that her work was a continuation of earlier research and informal experiments carried on by others who cam before her. She often refers to French Psychologists Dr. Jean Itard, Dr. Eduard Seguin, and Swiss educational philosopher Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi as being the direct inspiration for her work. It is useful to remember that Dr. Montessori was not an educator per se, but a physician, a professor of medicine, a researcher into brain development, and a student of anthropology and psychology. She did not want her name linked to her work with children, although it certainly has been. Instead, her hope was to help to organize an interdisciplinary field of research and praxis in ‘scientific education’ (or research based means or organizing schools and how we facilitate children’s learning). Although a philosophy evolved in her own mind as a result of the unexpected and wonderful intellectual, social, and emotional development in the students in her schools, her life affirming and child honoring philosophy is only part of her contribution. What she gave the world was a new understanding of what children of different cultures and backgrounds are capable of becoming. The great end result was both a theoretical understanding, which has become widely disseminated, and a specific replicable, adaptable, and sustainable core program design for children from infancy through high school that has been demonstrated to be highly effective through objective research.
Many Montessori schools are independent, since the ideas are very different from those found in most state funded schools. Hundreds of thousands (millions is more likely) of parents have made great sacrifices to offer a Montessori education to their children. Today more and more famous people are openly declaring that a major reason behind their success was their years in Montessori.
I enjoyed your blog. Would you be willing to let us share it with other Montessori parents in Tomorrow’s Child, our journal for Montessori families? If so, please contact me.
Tim Seldin
President, The Montessori Foundation
Sarasota, Florida USA
Tim,
Thanks for stopping by!
I read the claim that Dr. Montessori plagiarized from Seguin in the book Inventing the Feeble Mind, by James W. Trent. I also noticed the obvious similarities between the two when reading Seguin’s work. If this is incorrect, my apologies.
And I do give you permission to reprint if you credit the blog.
Thanks!