As I drove towards the Montessori
Children’s House for the first time, I looked around for a big red brick
building with a big parking lot in front and a playground on the side. When my handy smart phone alerted me that I
had reached my destination, I was almost in a state of disbelief to see a
charming little house surrounded by a bed of freshly planted flowers and a sign
that read “The Montessori Children’s House.”
Needless to say, within the first 10 seconds of experiencing MCH, it was
clear to me that this was no ordinary school.
When I walked inside the painted wooden door, two boys who
appeared to be in middle school greeted me. The moment that the boys introduced
themselves, I could tell right off the bat that there was something different
about these two. As they both extended their hands for a firm handshake, they
spoke with confidence and maintained eye contact- something that is foreign to
most sixth-graders their age.
Once the tour officially began, we were first taken into the
toddler’s area. The first thing that I noticed were the miniature sinks. I was later told that those sinks were for
the toddler’s to clean off their dishes after they eat. “Toddlers, doing
dishes?!” I was shocked. I then looked
around at the different
activities and tools that the toddlers used to learn. The thing that I was
blown away by is how strategically the Montessori Children’s House uses activities
to teach the kids how to count and perform other fundamental educational skills.
We then made our way
into the rooms for the older children, ranging from ages 10-13. Our tour
guides, the two sixth grade boys, showed us how they are able to work at their
own pace. One of the boys pulled out a
thick binder that had all of the work that he had completed this year,
separated by months. On the first page in the binder, they had a schedule and a
goal sheet. He explained to me how, at
the beginning of each month, they sit down with their teachers and together
they create a timeline for what kind of objectives
they want to achieve and when they want to achieve them by.
I could tell by the tone in the boy’s voice
that he was proud to show me this book and all of his achievements. When he started to tell me what all he had
been working on, I could hear the motivation and excitement in his voice. Right then and there I immediately realized
that this method of organization and planning taught these boys how to manage
their time, how to set goals and how to recognize what objectives they need to
work on-all life skills that are crucial to our future success.
On my drive back home I could not stop thinking about how
foreign this way of learning is to me, yet how effective it seemed to be! Although I went to a wonderful school as a
child, my peers and I leaned the same things, the same way, at the same
time. What the Montessori method has
grasped is the fact that no child is the same.
Other schools seem to treat their students as a homogenous group of
learners, when really no one person has the same exact way of processing
information.
By visiting MCH, I was able
to see how engaged students were in their work, and how mature they were in
their communication skills. Montessori
provides an education beyond the books, and develops skills beyond students’
time in school. To hear about another
writer’s opinion on the Montessori education, visit Laura Flores Shaw’s Post, “Montessori,
The Missing Voice in the Education Reform Debate”.
-Anne Kelly
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