Beyond Montessori

Montessori and Beyond…

The Montessori child will usually have the same Directress for the child’s entire pre-school period of two to three years. The Montessori Directress is an enlightened generalist, trained point to point with the curriculum. She might teach the concept of geometry first.

She knows that she can bring it back again with the study of leaf venation in Botany. Are the veins vertical or parallel? Or with the study of the earth and sun – the light hits the earth with parallel rays. The child can repeat concepts without repeating drills, thus learning from a new vantage point.

Having the same Directress allows for intimate knowledge of the child. A maths specialist or reading specialist in a departmentalised system is unable to see the child in such a generalised environment. But in a Montessori pre-school, the Directress who has a child for a period of two years or more discovers the child’s weaknesses and strengths.

The Directress is able to monitor the child’s progress not only from term to term, but alos on a broader scale across the two-year period. Strength is built by affirming what the child knows best.

The Directress is trained to observe carefully and to gear her presentation of materials to the readiness and interest of the children, and parents should look for that quality in a pre-school of today. The role of the Directress is her ability to react with sensitivity to the emotional needs of the child and to relate warmly.

The Montessori environment offers freedom of choice for the individual rate of growth, development and concentration. With the richness of apparatus offered; the opportunities for social learning through interaction with other children within the avenues of exploration and discovery are limitless.

How do children from a Montessori pre-school environment adapt to a conventional school?

Due to the high level of self-discipline, independence and self-motivation that is developed and enriched at the Montessori Pre-school, children become well balanced and adaptable to varying environments.

Montessori Pre-school provides a “head start” to Primary school, e.g. the Golden Beads relate directly to MAB used at Primary school.

To enhance the curriculum, additional programmes of outdoor play, field trips, music, movement games and excursions are incorporated. This widens the horizons for the child to become more aware of themselves and their environment.

What happens after Montessori elementary?

In a recent survey with ten graduates from Montessori schools, the children expressed good adjustment but intellectual disdain for what was happening to them. Here are some of their unaltered comments:

“My present school is more like memorising all the time. Montessori always taught you to think.”
Chris Doerr – Grade 7.

“In Montessori, you could always say what you thought about a subject; now you learn from the definition in the textbook and that is what you write.”
Carrie Wykoff – Grade 7.

Montessori children continue to nurture the spark for learning and the quest for true relationships. The old cliche is a truism: ‘They have learned how to learn.’ Montessori children usually view competition with a new vigour and freshness. Their attitude is confident.

“My vision of the future is no longer people taking exams and proceeding then on that certification but of individuals passing from one stage of independence to a higher by means of their own effort of will, which constitutes the inner evolution of the individual.” Maria Montessori