Montessori influences

[luciernaga]

I want to preface this by saying that I AM NOT a Montessori teacher. I haven't done any of the training. I probably have it all backwards. Everything I know is from books and blogs and occasional visits to Montessori classrooms. I'd really love feedback and corrections from those of my friends who *do* have this training, because I want to know

Comments

[st_genesius]

I studied Montessori while I was going through my masters program. I can't say I'm pro or con this teaching method. In theory there is a lot of good going on. In practice there are some large hurdles people need to be careful of. The first one is that just about anyone can build a building, read a book and declare themselves a Montessori school (or they'll use some other clever nomenclature to disguise the fact that they aren't). This is easily avoided by vetting the school thoroughly and observing it yourself, but not everyone does that, and the result is "miseducated" students, for lack of a better term

[luciernaga]

That's true, you want to look for a school with AMI certification, which is the real deal.

As to re-assimilating, well, I don't really think it's necessarily inevitable. A family could choose to home school, or send their kids to an alternative high school. In any case, it is just a challenge that the family and students need to be aware of.

[musicwench]

Alisha, this is great. Thanks. I think I want to print it, maybe see if I can find one/more of those books at hpb, and I think maybe supplement his 10-hour-a-week preschool with Mommy Montessorish. (And yep, he's 4 :) )

I was thinking that my mom (who was a public school special-ed high school teacher) does a really GREAT job with him. They don't have a lot of baby toys, but they have books, piano, a "puppet show" (window in the staircase), a big crazy yard with an unkempt backyard and a hammock, and they're walking distance from a river park. I love asking what they did, because it'll be "made puppets and put on a show but then the angry birds dove from the puppet show onto the castle" or "walked down to the river and threw rocks and looked for worms" or "went to see great-granma and took her to the plant museum (botanical garden)."

I'm off topic but my point is, THANKS!

[luciernaga]

I'm glad you gave me a reason to write it--I had been meaning to for a while now.

Let me know what you think of the stuff as you get into it. I'm afraid I really don't know much about the preschool age yet.