From my understanding, Montessori education is about teaching a child basic skills such as drawing a straight line, identify ABC, singing and appreciation of music, etc. However, in today’s rat-race world, many so-called Montessori schools are so much driven by academic excellence that basic skills such as singing and music appreciation are neglected.
Last year, my kid went to a Montessori school, which is, to me, more like a play school but it is in accordance to the Montessori syllabus. They learn basic skills like control of hands movement, balancing, singing, drawing, coloring, recognizing shapes and sizes.
I was always curious about her progress and expected to see some homework. There was none for the whole year. She brought back some artwork from time to time. She could not write A-to-Z or even 1-10. Luckily she could recognize them.
In fact, I was getting impatient. I was worried that my kid was not up to speed with the rest in the rat-race world. So, I decided to send her to a more ’serious’ Montessori school to prepare her for the real rat-race world.
This Montessori school was really a ’school’. The first comment I got from the teacher was my kid did not know how to hold a pencil properly. Next, she could not read as well as she should for her age compared to her classmates originating from this school. This was real serious. I pressed the panic button.
I hardly see any teaching or learning in basic skills. This Montessori school is so focused on academic excellence. The amount of schoolbooks can match that of a primary school. There are mathematics, English, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin homework everyday. The teachers mark their homework everyday. Spelling tests are done once a week for the three languages.
There is a school exam before the end of each term. There are test papers, marks and grades.
Now, I am in a dilemma in determining the right level of education for my kid.
3 responses so far ↓
1 preciouspearl // Sep 7, 2007 at 4:07 am
how old’s your kid? do you want her to be a kid acting her age, or do you want her to be a student oredi?
it’s important to remember that the Montessori principle is quite rigid and tries to bend kids to its teachings rather than to adapt its philosophy to each individual child.
IMHO it’s far better to teach her the alphabet and numbers youself, at home, by reading and playing with her, than to have paid a Montessori school to cram her with stuff which may be inappropriate.
2 leslie // Sep 12, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I agree that Montessori is quite rigid. They even have a checklist for the kids. Kids are measured according to the checklist.
3 Ann // Jul 3, 2008 at 5:37 am
Montessori developed a method for observing children, looking at their needs and developing an environment that deals with the whole child based on the age, space and time. Young children are interested in making sense of the world and need freedom within the order of the setting. Some of the “rigidity” you might think of is really the clear order that the 2 through 5 year old needs. At the older levels the kids are strong in academic skills. go visit several schools and ask a lot of questions Montessori is an approach, and many people use the approach in their own way that is the freedom of this country and the flexibility of the approach
A mom
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