Can you give me a quick rundown of what differentiates Montessori education? We have one relatively close by that a good friend works at but I’ve never looked into it that much (mostly because I doubt we can afford it but who knows what will happen before my oldest starts K).
Hate to hear about the cost being prohibitive. There are many schools that do try to cater to those who aren’t in the upper middle class with mechanisms such as scaled tuition, but unfortunately the high priced ones are especially prominent here in America. Which is very unfortunate because Montessori’s original Children’s Houses were for abjectly poor children, though the first one at least was effectively a public school funded in large part by the Ministry of Housing.
The biggest point that differentiates Montessori is that it is an aide to life, equipping children to develop all of their abilities to their own individual potentials. To do this, there is a unique level of freedom allowed to the children to choose their “work.” It is not the heavy, teacher-directed control of traditional forms of education, but it is also not the nearly absolute freedom of some other “progressive” forms of education. True, inner freedom is developed, not given, which requires the exercising of discipline on the part of the child, which itself requires limits to be set.
Another major point is that children not only can but desire to do “work” at a young age, a term coined out of respect for the child’s actions. Montessori work has much of the characteristics of play that make it developmentally powerful for young children; it is not to be confused with the drudgery that is traditionally identified with the term “work.”
From a logistical standpoint, Montessori classrooms have large adult-to-child ratios (the original Children’s Houses were 30-40+ children for a guide and assistant). They also have a mixed age grouping. A primary classroom for instance is 3-6, while lower elementary is 6-9. The materials in the Children’s House are sized for the child to encourage their proper use.
A final important point is that the classroom is literally a children’s house, not a teacher’s classroom: it is made for children to work in, live in, while the guide is simply there to guide them in properly interacting with their environment. When the children are truly engaged, the guide can effectively disappear as an active participant and do her real work of observation.
This is just the cliff notes version as you requested, but there are so many more points I could bring up and more detail that I could go into each point given here. Let me know if you would like more information.
y-Ew-rCLesJ:www.womenofgrace.com/blog/%3Fp%3D16584+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us