What More Could You Want for Your Child?

Lynn A. Weddle wrote this in 2003:

For me, the three most important benefits of continuing Montessori education through eighth grade is that our children develop respect, self-confidence and a desire to learn.  

One of the many advantages of a Montessori education, is the sense of respect our children develop and continue to demonstrate to each other.

• Montessori educated children learn compassion and empathy early on by nurturing others and being nurtured because of the mixed age groupings of each classroom.  This is not to say they never have disagreements—they do—but Montessori students learn to constructively work things out and move on--a great life-time skill.  This becomes particularly important in the latter elementary and middle school years.  Given the small classroom sizes, Montessori students cannot just “drop out” and become anonymous when conflict arises.  These students learn to work together and respect each other’s differences—another great life-time skill.

 Montessori educated children also develop a terrific sense of self-confidence. 

• In Brickton’s toddler classroom, my young daughter was encouraged to put on her own clothes and shoes (even if they ended up on the “wrong” feet!) and she felt such a tremendous sense of accomplishment.  At age 2 ½, we were no longer permitted to dress her!  Cleaning up their lunch tables, helping to shovel snow or plant flowers and even now, for my daughter, being encouraged to make her own lunch (at age 7) creates a strong “I can do it” attitude.  I have seen the effects of this not only in my child, but in the middle school students when they are taking breakfast orders and serving during Planet Coffeewood* mornings.  They conduct themselves with such poise and confidence that we “patrons” cannot help but be very impressed and encouraged for our own future middle school students!

 The continued desire to learn is truly a wonderful “legacy” that Montessori educated children benefit from.

• Because the classroom environment is self-directed and the Montessori works are self-correcting, children are not passively learning or being required to sit still at a desk and all receive the same information at the same time.  In a Montessori classroom, it’s hands on—a sense of discovery and mastery on their own—with individual direction or guidance from the Directress.  They’re taught to problem solve by understanding the big picture first, then the parts.   A directress explained it to me this way:  “Imagine getting hundreds of puzzle pieces and you have no idea what the picture is that you’re trying to form…with Montessori, children are presented with the picture first so that they clearly understand what they’re doing with the bits and pieces.  In this way, these kids don’t easily get bored---they’re actually excited about going to school!

 Respect, self-confidence and a life-long desire to learn…what more could you want for your child?

* Planet Coffeewood - a student-run business

Lynn's daughter, Lily, graduated from Brickton Montessori School in 2011.

Don't Settle for Less

I came across this posting, Is This the Best We Can Do for our Kids?  on the  Dangerously Irrelevant blog  by Dr. Scott McLeod, he writes  about the disconnect between learning and our school system:

Deron Durflinger, a high school principal in Van Meter, Iowa, says:

We need a system that isn't based on doing well on NAEP and PISA, but in which students are able to actually develop a love for learning. Being able to adapt and learn more and newer skills is the world our students live in and will continue to live in.

This idea is based on the notion that what students are asked to know and be able to do will remain the same as they are now, and I haven't seen any increased expectations in this regard.

Making the Common Core more clear and definitive isn't going to help students develop a love of learning, nor is it going to raise the level of expectations for students in Iowa. It will however, help adults measure how well students can fill out bubble sheets.

Is this the best we can do for kids in Iowa?

I might modify that to say, "Is this the best we can do for kids in America?"

We can work on inputs (e.g., teacher quality, standards) and outputs (e.g., assessment) all we want as educators and policymakers. But until we change the process of what kids do on a day-to-day basis, we will fail to realize the systemic changes we need in our children's learning environments. We must start teaching in a way that helps kids see relevance and helps them actually care about what they're supposed to learn so that they don't just memorize it short-term and then forget it as soon as possible.

We learn what we do. We ignore student boredom and lack of engagement at our peril.

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I agree, our kids deserve better.  

And there are already schools that are making good on the promise of doing better for our kids. Brickton Montessori School, like other great Montessori schools, engages kids as problem finders, collaborative thinkers and  life-long learners.  Why settle for anything less for your kids?