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Attachment Parenting
unm00red
member
Issue with Montessori Program
unm00red
member
I wanted to run this by some other AP parents who may be familiar with Montessori programs and get their perspective...
My 11-month-old son, Gavin, is in a well-respected Montessori program in our town. The head of the infant program just shared what she perceived as "good news" with me--that they intend to split the toddler room Gavin would have been going into at around 18 months into two separate toddler programs... a room for younger toddlers and a room for older toddlers who have been successfully potty trained.
Based on all the reading I have done on the Montessori program, normally, kids from ages 18 months to around 3 years are kept together in what they call a "Young Child Community". The thought is the younger children benefit in developing new motor skills by being able to observe the older children, and the older children have a chance to develop their social skills in learning how to interact appropriately with the younger children.
I suspect that the reasons for splitting the program are a combination of administrative convenience and a desire to add some additional slots for kids, as the toddler program has recently developed a wait list.
My son was developmentally behind due to complications from torticollis but managed to catch up. I give at least some of the credit for that due to him constantly observing and trying to mimic the actions of the more mobile, older kids and peers in his room. I really don't want to see him lose this opportunity in the toddler program.
In addition, I know little boys tend to take longer to be potty trained. I'm wondering what the impact of that is going to be in terms of the distribution of the kids in the "older" toddler room.
I intend to speak to his teacher and the school director about this, but I just wanted to take a pulse check from other parents... am I making more of this than I should?
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Re: Issue with Montessori Program
I'm just a lurker on this board, but I am also a Montessori teacher. Something that is really important to know about "Montessori schools" is that ANY school can call themselves Montessori. A school could say that they were Montessori and not follow one lick of her teachings. It's totally a bummer and makes legit schools look bad in some cases.
It means that a Montessori school can interpret the philosophy in any way they see fit. So if they want to do away with the multi-age classroom (which I agree is incredibly valuable), they can. I once worked for a school that had a Kindergarten-only classroom. Totally NOT Montessori, but there was a parent demand for it, and in the crappy economy it was necessary from a business standpoint to give some of the parents what they wanted so they'd keep paying tuition.
A lot of parents send their children to Montessori schools simply because the school may have a good reputation, or because they mistakenly believe it will make their child "advanced". They don't do research like it seems you have. These parents may really want this kind of classroom set-up, and the school may be trying to appeal to them (this is the only reason I see for doing this - it would be just as easy to have two multi-age toddler rooms).
Like you, I think it's a bad idea, and not really keeping with the Montessori philosophy. I would definitely encourage you to tell the administration everything that you said here.
It would bother me as I consider the multi age group a fundamental characteristic of the Montessori preschool methodology.
However, that said, I live in Italy and here we have an actual organization that certifies Montessori schools. None of them take kids before 2.5 as that's the age where the approach is considered initially applicable. At 11m I don't know that I'd be that concerned about it mainly bc socialization is totally different for a child that age.
I pretty much agree with this. There's a big difference between a 1 year old, 2 year old, 3 year old developmentally. Ari's school does the 3 year age block from 3 years on, but the toddler program is supposed to be 2 - 3 only. There are some kids who are admitted as early as 18 months if they are ready, & some kids stay in the toddler program till 3.5 if they aren't quite ready to move up. I can tell you that the difference between the just turned 2 yo's & about to/just turned 3 yo's was very apparent in his class.