What do you know / think about Montessori schools?

auburnbride2be

I know there are some educators on this board and I am interested to hear what they have to say.

andrea922

My younger nephew goes to a Montessori school and it is a great fit for him. It is focused on individual work, and kids of multi-ages are in one classroom. There is also an acknowledgement of all children's abilities and no "dumbing down" or saying that children cannot do a or b, etc. Many schools claim to be Montessori but I think that they have to be accredited and teachers have to be certified for it to be a true Montessori school.

My son goes to a Reggio Emilia preschool and we love it. It is very similar to Montessori in some of the structures but it is more child led, and group work is more prevalent than Montessori. Children construct their own learning through their imagination and hands-on work, and they are encourages to explore their questions and answers without help, meaning when they ask a question they are encouraged to answer it themselves. We try to carry that over at home as well. It is very much play based, and has an emphasis on nature and harmonious environments.

This is a good article on play based learning:

 https://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/29/christakis.play.children.learning/index.html 

The only one of the European influenced pedagogies I would stay away from is Waldorf.

dleigh2020

My professional opinion is that Montessori is great in the younger years. Like preschool and maybe Kindergarten. In my experience it is very difficult for Montessori students to transfer into a "regular" classroom. Many Montessori schools only go up to a certain grade so students have to change schools which is a big adjustment.

I agree with pp. There are a lot of school that claim to be Montessori based. You have to really check accrediation and training to ensure the true Montessori methods are being used.