This past fall, my husband and I chose to move our elementary student from our local public school to Versailles Montessori. Our girl did very well at Huntertown; she made great friends, received high marks, and was fortunate enough to have a teacher she adored. So why move? Because ay VMS, she had ownership of her learning experience in a way she never did at Huntertown.
I was very involved in our daughter's Kindergarten classroom at Huntertown. I volunteered every Monday morning for 1.5 hours, assisting with reading and writing lessons. The experience was very disheartening for me. Though I loved seeing my daughter during the day when I wouldn't normally have otherwise, and though I loved the opportunity it afforded me to know her teacher better, I was dismayed by the curriculum. All students, regardless of level of ability or interest, would attempt the same lesson at the same time. Her teacher, though very compassionate and patient, would have to teach 20+ students simultaneously. This task was as impossible as it sounds, and it meant that most students needs were not being met fully; learning styles or levels were not respected. The most advanced of the students would finish long before those around them and then would just sit there bored. The students with behavioral problems or learning challenges would fuss, play, and generally distract the teacher, rarely finishing the material. The students in the middle would plug along, not always able to receive the help they needed because their teacher's time was already being eaten up by the weakest students. At the end of an arbitrary time period, a buzzer would sound and students would then all move on to the next task together, regardless of whether they had finished the first. There was a list of items to be gotten through, and the list was followed relentlessly to prepare for those future tests which loomed ever-present.
How is Montessori different from the traditional public classroom? When our girl finishes an assignment at Montessori, she can move on to another assignment - she does not have to waste her time and potential waiting for others to be done with theirs; accordingly, none of her peers have to wait on her. At Montessori, if one student needs help and the instructors are busy, they do not have to grow frustrated or feel helpless; instead, they are empowered to solve their own problems by turning to their peers. Montessori students are encouraged to help and mentor each other, sharing their strengths. Students make the best use of their time by learning to manage it on their own, instead of waiting for some buzzer to tell them that they should be done. Montessori work is meaningful - gone are the days of public school "busy work", and I cannot say that I miss her bringing 5 or more worksheets home a day in her backpack.
What has this meant for my daughter? Since coming to Montessori, she has learned through a variety of methods. When a 5 year old from the primary classroom gave her a lesson about a mathematics manipulative material that she had never encountered in public school, there was no shame attached to it. Learning from younger students is not embarrassing at Montessori - it is expected. When she did not know the definition of a word on her spelling list, she did not have to feel stupid - she simply asked an older student in her elementary class to help her navigate her way through a dictionary (which I had never even thought to show her how to use, thinking she was too young for it - shows what I know!) When the spelling words that were to be assigned to her for her age range were too easy for her, she was allowed to choose harder ones to replace them. When she realized that the rest of her class was writing in cursive, a task she was not expected to learn at the public schools for at least another year or two, she did not become overwhelmed - she just challenged herself to catch up with her class, and soon she was proficient in cursive.
In her first year at VMS, I saw our daughter blossom in a way that I didn't know was possible. She no longer whines in the mornings in anticipation of how boring school is going to be. In directing her own learning, She is more engaged in school than she ever was last year. She has developed a level of confidence in her ability to tackle new material that I envy and wish I could have felt myself when in school. She no longer turns to Doug and I to metaphorically hold her hand every time she finds herself in a new or strange situation! The Montessori culture encourages her everyday to become the sort of person we all wish to be - confident, capable, kind, and self-reliant. read more
