Read this recent Harvard Business Review article regarding how Montessori education creates innovators.
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Around 100 years ago an Italian physician, Dr. Maria Montessori, went to work
with disadvantaged and mentally handicapped children. As a physician, Montessori
took an objective look at the development of children. Through her observations,
she determined a number of distinct and universal growth characteristics that
follow a child throughout its life.
In particular, Montessori discovered certain "sensitive periods" throughout
life that characterize optimum learning opportunities, periods that allow a
child to gather information and learn new concepts and behaviors. Dr. Montessori
let the children tell her through their actions where they were in the learning
cycle and what they needed most to fuel them on.
She developed numerous hands-on materials, known as manipulatives, that served
as physical tools for the children to learn from through use. When her students
outperformed traditionally taught students in testing, the Montessori Method
was hailed as an education breakthrough. It has since spread worldwide in its
implementation, though here in the United States, and in South Carolina in particular,
Montessori education has been slow to catch on.
Teaching children through the Montessori Method is almost a misnomer. Montessori
teachers are less instructors than they are directors. It is their job to control
the classroom environment, provide the necessary resources for the students
to use, help guide them into different activities, and step back and let nature
take its course.
Children are remarkable little learning machines, capable of gathering massive
amounts of information through their variety of senses. Learning comes naturally
to a child. Montessori schools provide classroom environments that simply let
a child's curiosity and abilities propel them onward. Children are largely independent
and free to make choices in terms of their activities.
"The children are always letting you know what they need," says Jim
Young, an elementary teacher at the Montessori Early Learning Center and School
of the Arts. Much of the training that Montessori teachers must go through involves
learning how to identify certain actions and behaviors of children in order
to establish what type of activity or what kind of complexity a child is ready
for.
Choice and self-motivation are essential elements in a Montessori education,
though each is bound by certain limits. "The curriculum is very structured,"
says Barb Richstad, a teacher as well as co-founder at the Montessori Elementary
School of Columbia.
Much of Dr. Montessori's work involved developing a very firm set of rules and
methods that must be implemented in a classroom in order for this process to
work to its fullest. There is an extensive training process that Montessori
teachers go through, often lasting several years, in order to become certified
instructors in the method. The time and cost of this training is part of why
Montessori classrooms are in short supply. It can be an expensive undertaking.
Dr. Montessori found that as children grow they pass through major periods of
growth, known as the Four Planes of Development. Children exist in these four
planes from birth to 6, from 6 to 12, 12 to 18 and 18 to 24. These six-year
periods are defined by both physical structure and cognitive capabilities of
children.
At roughly five to six years of age, children undergo physical changes such
as getting taller and leaner, losing baby teeth and growing coarser hair. Mentally,
children are much more aware of others and are beginning to use their imagination
more.
The first six years are characterized by a very self-centered vie of the world.
Children's minds are actively assembling the basic building blocks that will
establish learning and thinking patterns that will last a lifetime.
These six-year increments are further broken down into three-year periods: birth-3,
3-6, 6-9, etc. These three year periods also have very distinct physical and
cognitive characteristics. Montessori schools typically begin students at age
three. Birth to three is reserved for growing and learning in the security of
home.
"By the time a child is three, they are ready to take their independence,
they're ready for this environment," says Cheryl Spencer, director of the
Columbia Montessori Learning Center. Children find themselves in an environment
tailored to their needs. All of the furnishings are small and child-sized. Activities
and materials line shelves and walls. Children may be working alone or in groups,
at tables or even rugs on the floor. One classroom houses all of the children
for the age group.
One of the first things a child learns is responsibility. "When you take
something off the shelf, you have to put it back when you're done," says
Jim. Such basic understanding s allow a child more freedom and flexibility in
the classroom. "We act as disciplinarians until the child becomes self-disciplined,"
says Cheryl.
In a Montessori pre-school, children are exposed to the basic learning instruments
that underlie the Montessori method. "Hands-on builds concentration,"
says Cheryl. Manipulatives such as the Pink Tower, the Brown Stair, the Red
Rods, Color Tablets, Cylinder Blocks, Sandpaper Letters, Golden Beads, Map Puzzles
and a slew of other tools, most of which are imported from Europe, are found
throughout the classroom. These hands-on activities are fun, engrossing, and
provide children with a physical foundation for otherwise seemingly complicated
and abstract concepts. "It's the process, and not the product," adds
Cheryl. "This method enables children to discover things."
The Pink Tower is a series of ten pink blocks which introduce size differences
in three dimensions. There are many activities which coincide with the Pink
Tower. One of the first involves taking individual pieces of the tower form
the shelf to the activity area. Using the fingers, walking between two points,
stacking according to size, all of these elements play crucial roles in the
whole development of a child. Interestingly enough, the child is learning on
his own.
The Trinomial Cube is another such tool. Utilizing various colors and shapes,
what begins as a cube assembly puzzle for three-year olds becomes a physical
representation of the basic concepts of algebra in later years.
A Montessori class of 6-9 year olds is likely to be an active place. You won't
find children seated in desks facing a teacher, all engaged in the same activity.
Instead you may find children gathered in groups figuring through problems and
tasks, or perhaps alone in an individual pursuit.
"This is the stage where it is critical for them to develop their social
skills," says Jim. At roughly six years of age, children become much more
aware of other people. It is natural for them to want to work with and talk
with others. That is precisely how the classroom environment is prepared.
There is no patent or copyright on the Montessori method, and the name Montessori
can be misused to represent an environment that is not a true Montessori school.
In seeking out a Montessori school, look for a setting which involves multi-age
classrooms, independent instruction, high use and presence of manipulatives
including all of those listed earlier (and more), an orderly environment structured
for children with tools and reference materials, and, very importantly, Montessori
instructors certified by the AMI (Association of Montessori Internationale),
AMS (American Montessori Society), or St. Nicholas (the British training for
Montessori).
Jim Young entered Montessori teaching from a background in engineering. He once
mentioned how the most efficient engineering is that which fights nature the
least, and instead conforms to its forces and uses them to a great extent-the
path of least resistance. Jim likens good engineering to the Montessori method
of education, not trying to combat the forces of nature, but using them.
As different and unusual as Montessori may seem, the bottom line lies in helping
kids master reading, writing and arithmetic, language and reason, to aid them
in their life's pursuit. "Montessori teaches children to learn for life,"
Cheryl says, "to learn for themselves, not to depend on teachers to teach
them everything."
Parent tours are held every Friday morning at 10:30 a.m.
All tours are given by appointment only.
Schedule yours on-line!
Article by
Louis Smith
Wonderful™
The Midlands FAMILY Guide
© 1997 Wild Blue Wonder Inc.
Reprinted by Permission