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Why Montessori?

Jennifer Rogers by | Montessori Blog

Preaching to the choir
A persuasive tone in speech and writing lends an urgent and important feeling to any topic. Then again, talking or writing persuasively about the benefits of a Montessori education before an audience of parents whose children are thriving in Montessori classrooms is a little silly. Parents who attend school meetings and read blog posts are among the best. They are typically people who are already thoughtfully engaged in education and parenting.

At every parent meeting, teachers look out into an audience of familiar faces. We notice that the same people also volunteer, ask honest questions in parent-teacher conferences, participate in fund-raisers, and arrive at school on time. We look for their faces in our audiences because the smiles are reassuring, and also because we know our words will make an immediate and lasting difference in the lives of their children. It’s a grand exchange, but asking “Why Montessori?” is a risk. Redundancy is boring, and smart people do not like to be bored.

My response to the “Why Montessori?” question is not detailed or exhaustive. It is a broad-strokes personal narrative, loaded with opinions formed in more than two decades of teaching. The arrangements of space, time, and people that I consider essential to an authentic Montessori education are not doctrinal. Others would answer the same question differently, but accurately.

I could easily add to the following list, but I could not take anything away.

Diversity
The youngest Montessori students gather information through observation and admiration of their older classmates. The oldest students are challenged and often transformed by urgent demands to help and guide their younger peers.

The failure of most public and private schools to incorporate diversity into the formation of classrooms and curriculums has been widely reported. It is an old and persistent problem. The segregation of ages and the standardization of curriculum is a lost opportunity. Standardization and segregation are huge limitations to academic achievement, and to the growth of human understanding.

There are children learning in Montessori classrooms from a kaleidoscopic array of ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. They learn as much from each other as they do from formal lessons. Geographically isolated Montessori classrooms can be more homogenous than a school located in a diversely populated urban area, but every authentic Montessori school has a student population of mixed ages and abilities. Montessori students are not differentiated by age or intellect.

This diversity is, in my opinion, the single factor that has the most profound and lasting impact on the education of young children. Montessori students demonstrate how much we have to learn from each other as well as how much each of us has to offer our world.

Prepared Environment
Furniture in Montessori classrooms is the appropriate size for the children who will use it. This is also true of the tools, utensils, and materials they will hold in their hands. Pictures hang on the wall at the level of the students’ eyes. Every classroom is organized in such a way that the sequence of learning is materially present on the shelves and obvious to the children. The goals of independent decision-making and internal motivation are built into the carefully prepared environment.

Montessori classrooms are as different as the teachers who tend them, but they evince an attention to order and beauty rarely witnessed in education. Most are filled with light, plants, fresh flowers, and an ambiance of grace. Environments affect the quality of the experiences within them. The earliest memories of learning are, for Montessori students, forever associated with the warmth and peace of their first classrooms.

Purposeful Work
Maria Montessori was educated and trained as a physician. Throughout her long life, she remained fascinated with her observations of human health. The work she offered her students was always purposeful, and it always involved the coordinated work of mind and body. Montessori understood that a strong mind paired with strong hands led to optimum development of a child’s intelligence. This was true with her first students, and it remains true today.

© MariaMontessori.com

Students in Montessori classrooms have daily opportunities to select their work. Children may repeat the tasks they select as often as they desire, until the task is mastered. Work chosen independently and repeated without interruption often leads to deep concentration. Montessori’s ability to cultivate and protect the concentration of young children through their purposeful work remains one of her most significant contributions to the education of young people.

Skilled Leadership
A traditionally structured classroom usually includes a teacher-directed curriculum. Time and space are marked and organized by the strong, clear voice of a teacher who is trained in an age group or an academic discipline, mathematics, for example, or four-year-olds, or music.

Montessori classrooms are active, creative, and adaptive communities. The teacher’s voice is seldom heard, and she frequently sits beside a child as he or she learns. It might seem that the hierarchical structure of a traditional classroom would require stronger leadership and stricter discipline. Actually, a healthy Montessori community requires a much more intelligent and intuitive style of leadership.

Montessori teachers must be skilled in the practice of observation and comfortable with the independent, purposeful movement of young minds at work. Nationally and internationally accredited Montessori teacher training courses are intense and demanding. This is as it should be. Montessori teachers should be experts in the abstract principles and concrete materials that structure the life of a classroom.

Silence
Visitors to Montessori classrooms first notice the beauty and order present throughout the environment. They also notice the quiet, especially if they are accustomed to teacher-directed systems of education. There are no bells prompting students to change activities or locations, no intercom, and no video or television instruction. Montessori teachers do gather the entire class for special events, singing, or shared story, but the voice of the teacher does not direct the movements of the children throughout the day.

In Montessori classrooms, there are occasions when the classroom is silent, when every child in the community is at work. More often, Montessori environments are characterized by the quiet hum of children at work, moving and talking together about subjects that demand their undivided, uninterrupted attention. In a contemporary culture heavily influenced by the interruptions of technology and the distractions of screens, this is a rare and precious gift.

Why Montessori?
If it were possible for a young child to answer “Why Montessori?” in a phrase or sentence that stretched beyond her limited frame of reference and her real gratitude for the fun she had a school that day, she would probably say, “I found myself!” Though their academic accomplishments are remarkable, the greatest achievements of Montessori students are far grander and more lasting.

Montessori students do have a confident, comfortable understanding of the academic concepts they will rely upon for the rest of their lives. They are academically strong not just for the short-term, but for a lifetime of learning. They also have a realistic understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, and talents. They can identify times and places when they should lead, as well as occasions when they should ask for help.

The experience of working in an intelligent community helps children understand both that there are some tasks we must do alone, and that we need each other to achieve our goals. Even our youngest students know how to reach inward and outward. The inner teacher of a healthy Montessori child is more reliable than any methodology or even the guidance of a talented teacher. Our students know how to work toward a goal, how to persevere when challenged, and how to connect in meaningful ways to the people in their home and school communities.

Why Montessori? Because a strong Montessori community is a group of people working together to help each person become the best version of him or herself. The gift of a Montessori classroom is that children begin their education with strong bodies and strong minds working alongside friends who know and love them almost as well as they know themselves.

Flashback Visit

Dayle Dryer by | Montessori Blog

I am surrounded by the impending-storm, afternoon hustle-and-bustle of 28 children sort of trying to convince their bodies to work constructively, a few caving in to all out giggles with friends, others have given up entirely and are just lying on the floor reading. This seems an appropriate choice to me on this crazy afternoon. Three children are following me around trying to ask me a question while I help another student find something and the classroom phone rings. I grab it (outside contact with an adult, hooray!). It’s the principal, asking me if I remember a certain student, he’s here now, is it ok if she sends him over to say hello?

“Yes, of course! We’re a little crazy, but ok. How old is he now?”

“20.”

I hang up the phone and flashback to that tiny little guy full of non-stop, no-matter-what-I-always-feel-RADIANT smiles. He taught me how to replace those miniature hearing aid batteries, since his needed changing so often. Last time I saw him, he was a second grader, barely weighing anything because he couldn’t eat well, I don’t remember the exact issue but it involved some sort of stomach tube. But Mr. Super Cheerful. Always.

Now he is back at school applying for a job, since he has fond memories here.

picture of children laughing with teacher
© Maria Montessori

I’m herding children over to Sam to show a little one how to make a construction paper cover for her just-finished book about the first animals on Earth, check some subtraction problems…”Cover me, Sam, we have an important visitor coming and I just need a couple minutes.”

In walks the same little boy, but now he has longer, mussed up big kid hair and he’s apparently walking on stilts. I’m trying so hard but I cannot see a grown up, I swear to God he is eight just like I remember. This always happens with former students. He grins and gives me a big hug. Children start to gather around as they realize they have NEVER seen their motor-mouth teacher speechless, something must be hap.pen.ning.

“Hello, Keith! It is so nice to see you!”

“Hi, Dayle! I was just at Raintree and I remembered your class and I wanted to come say hi.”

Is it every teacher’s greatest fear to completely fail a child, or just mine? Because he is The One I had no clue what to do with and utterly failed. Family issues/decisions needed to be made, and he moved to a different school before I figured out how to serve this boy who needed a little extra.

“How long have you been teaching now? Your class used to be downstairs.”

“17 years!” (the children gasp)

“Do you still love it? The teaching? You used to love it so much.”

Stab in the heart. Oh gees, the children notice and remember for years if you love it or not? Of course they do. Of course. Oh god, what did I do to them last year?

“Oh, yes, I love it so much! The excitement, the curiosity…we just had the story today of all the animals that were on Earth before humans,” I gesture over to where a gaggle of children are hunched over the Timeline of Life, drawing creatures and talking about ‘feet on their heads’ and flying reptiles.

He smiles. “Do you still have that fiddle? I remember you used to play it for us sometimes. I loved that.”

HeartStab #2. I don’t play it anymore because ouch, but now I am lying to him outright. They always remember the damn fiddles! Why don’t they remember the record keeping, the planning, the lessons, the read aloud books, all the things that stress me out? Oh, right. Duh.

“Well, I haven’t played it yet this year, but I used to bring in little half size fiddles and put them out on the shelf for the children to choose as a work.” (True, but it’s been a couple years.)

He stares, imagining how great that would have been for him.

10-12 children have gathered. I tell them his name, introduce him to a student with the same first name, also a little guy I am often at a loss with, but I keep trying, and slowly, slowly, progress.

Stab #3, I’m going to need CPR in a minute. Two little Keiths lock eyes. One 8, one 20, and they just SEE each other across the pack of students and I don’t really know if I gasped out loud or not but that was something divine there. I don’t know exactly what happened in that moment, but it was maybe not meant for me to see or understand or communicate. Or maybe it was. I don’t know, I’m just writing down what I saw.

And then his coworker says they need to move on, so I give him a big hug “Come visit anytime, how wonderful to see you!” More RADIANT smiles.

I disappear back into the fray of answering questions, helping with math problems, cleaning up and singing a song before sending them home.

It doesn’t hit me until dinnertime.

Smash. Ton of bricks. Hey, you! The visitor. That’s one of the ones you ‘failed’. Guess what, you did great! All the fumbling and worrying and second guessing didn’t matter. It mattered that we welcomed him, kept trying, failed, tried again, smiled back, kept trying, threw in a little music for fun, and showed up and kept trying. Again.

That’s all I really hope the children do, too, right?

Now he is back at school applying for a job, since he has fond memories here.

We’re doing great.

Soft Skills

Peter Davidson by | Montessori Blog

I had an interesting conversation with a prospective parent recently who teaches at a local college. She shared that she and her colleagues are constantly discussing “how underprepared kids are for college in terms of ‘soft skills.’” By soft skills she meant skills other than the purely academic — the personal qualities, habits and attitudes that make someone a successful college student and, by extension, a good boss or employee later in life. She had just come from an observation in toddlers and primary and was surprised to have seen that in Montessori, “starting in toddlers students develop the self-motivation, independence, and follow-through that many college students lack!” In other words, beginning at these very young ages, Montessori children are already developing the soft skills that will benefit them so greatly later in life.

DSC_5618-mediumIt was a pretty astute observation for a prospective parent seeing Montessori for the first time, and it got me thinking. When I talk to parents, I often describe a Montessori learning material, like the binomial cube, detective adjective game, or golden beads, that leads to the acquisition of academic or “hard skills.” Obviously, hard skills are important, but soft skills are equally so.

One of the most important is self-motivation. In my experience children are born self-motivated. Any parent reflecting upon their own child’s acquisition of the skill of walking is bound to agree. At no point did you need to motivate your child to learn how to walk, did you? Instead, he did it all on his own, through arduous repetition and gradual improvement. And what did he do after he taught himself this difficult skill? He added the next movement challenges — running, climbing stairs and carrying objects – entirely on his own initiative! So perhaps our job is often just to get out of his way, to remove obstacles from his path, and give him the time he needs to do his work. In other words, our job is not to motivate him but rather to be sure that we don’t inadvertently blunt his own internal motivation.

One way we can avoid that is by not doing things for her that she can learn to do them for herself. We can also allow her the time she needs by slowing ourselves down to match her pace, rather than forcing her to conform to ours. Of equal importance is allowing her to choose her own activities. When are you more likely to be self-motivated – when doing something someone else has chosen for you? Or, when doing an activity you have chosen for yourself?

DSC_8299-mediumDoesn’t this perfectly describe the atmosphere of a Montessori classroom? From their earliest days in Montessori, children are shown how to do a thousand and one activities for themselves, and then given time and choice. They are shown how to care for their own needs, as well as to care for their friends and their environment. We train ourselves as Montessori adults to get out of the way, let them do for themselves, and never to give more help than they need.

And what will you acquire if you are choosing things to do without undue help and without external motivation? Independence, the second of the soft skills to which our college professor referred. And if you have chosen it for yourself, you will have the self-motivation to follow-through and persevere through whatever challenges or difficulties may arise.

Obviously, the hard skills are important, but they don’t do you much good without the personal qualities, skills and attitudes that allow you to use the hard skills effectively. That’s why in Montessori we are working with children to develop the whole range of skills, hard and soft, that he or she will need as they take their place as an adult in society many years from now.

Grades

Childpeace Montessori by | Montessori Blog

I remember the first time I ever heard the question. It was during my first or second week of high school, and in one of my classes someone asked, “Is this going to be on the test?” I was sitting in my freshman science class and my first thought was, “Why would it matter?”

My education before high school was Montessori, where my days were a mix of lessons from my teacher, or guide, and the work I wanted to do. There were no tests, or even grades. Instead of learning a certain curriculum or set of standards, I learned about subjects that were of interest to me.

I was excited to reach high school. I was excited for homework, and most of all, I was excited for grades. At the time they seemed novel to me. But soon the glitter wore off. Grades weren’t fun or exciting. They were worrying.

When I started high school I resolved that I wouldn’t obsess over grades. I knew they were important for getting into college, but I figured that if I just did my best and tried to learn for the sake of learning, I wouldn’t have to worry. This worked for most of freshman year. The classes were easy, and at times, brutally boring. Taking nine classes wasn’t hard and most of my stress came from my participation in numerous extracurricular activities.

My school has an atmosphere of academic competitiveness. As one of the few IB schools in the city, we have a reputation for academic rigor. This has its advantages. No one is bullied for being smart, or a nerd. But that also creates a competitive culture of academic one-upmanship. I have heard conversations where my classmates attempt to outdo each other with how few hours of sleep they got the past night. Other talents, even more traditional pursuits such as sports, are undervalued. For most students, our world revolves around maintaining the perfect GPA and getting into the college of our dreams.

Slowly, I felt myself being sucked into this vortex of grades and college applications. I have one friend who, every time she decides to do something, first asks herself, “Would this look good on my college application?”

When teachers start teaching to the test and students start learning to the test, something critical is lost. One of the biggest compliments that I have received in the past two years is my ability to solve problems by thinking about solutions from different angles. When teachers teach to a test, we lose the opportunity to explore for ourselves. We teach them that there is a single correct answer and that there is only one way reach a solution. We disable the part of their minds that wonders and asks questions. I have to know how something works. I am not content with someone just telling me what to do. In Montessori, there were so many things that we could do with the information we learned.

Instead of focusing on the end goal, like a grade or a test, Montessori focuses on the work that kids do to reach the goal. I am able to solve problems in a new way because Montessori has taught me to think outside the box, and to always do my best. It didn’t matter what I did as long as my teachers and I felt that I was doing my best, with the understanding that the best looks different for everyone. I believe that kids want to learn, and that given the right tools, will far surpass all expectations. Instead of setting up markers for where all students should be and implementing standardized tests that don’t measure problem solving, we need to instill a culture where challenges are valued.

I recently heard of a study where the researchers had kids from China and from the US work on a math problem. What these kids didn’t know was that the problem was impossible to solve. On average the American students worked for under a minute on the problem, while the Chinese students worked for the entire hour and the experimenters had to stop them because the test was over. In the US, struggle is not something that is highly valued. Instead we value intelligence, and see struggle as an indicator that someone is stupid because school should come easily to a smart person. I have had times where I was terrified to read out loud because I was afraid people would laugh at me when I mispronounced words.

This year, one of my classes has been especially challenging for me. The teacher is known for breaking people’s perfect GPAs. But the paradox is this: he has often talked in class about how grades don’t matter and he wishes that he didn’t have to give grades. But he grades so hard that all of my focus has been put on grades in his class instead of becoming a better writer. Instead of focusing on how I can improve my writing, I have shifted to thinking about how I can change my writing so that it will be what he wants and my grade will improve. Instead of creating a culture around learning, he has created a culture around grades.

Now back to that question: “Will this be on the test?” When instructors teach us that the result is the most important product of an experience, they aren’t helping us. As people grow up, there isn’t going to be someone telling them the bare minimum they need to do to succeed. Learning doesn’t stop when children graduate from school, which is fortunate because the knowledge that we gain in high school only skims the surface of what we have the potential to learn. Teaching to the test gives students the skills that they need to succeed on a standardized test. But teaching a love of learning gives students the tools to pursue learning for the rest of their lives.

Many parents with children in Montessori worry that their kids are missing something by not getting tests. The opposite is true. By not worrying about tests or grades these children are gaining a love of learning, something that will stay with them long after their knowledge of calculus fades and they no longer remember the different parts of a cell.

Kate is a Childpeace Montessori and Metro Montessori Middle School Alumni who is currently attending High School in Portland, OR. This essay won the Gold Key scholastic writing award and is now being considered at the nationals.