Montessori Education(en.wikipedia.org)
en.wikipedia.org
Montessori Education
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education
12 comments
Genuinely curious if other HN users can share their experiences at Montessori. Considering options for my young son.
I was in a Montessori program before going to a more "traditional" school.
In short, I loved the Montessori method.. and it was pretty much the last time I truly enjoyed being at school. I attribute much of my love of the sciences to the teachers that fostered my natural curiosity in the area.
For me, who needed structure, I most enjoyed the Saxon method of learning. It was heavy on problem sets and homework, but you retained what you learned because a part of each problem set was always designed to revisit past lessons. By the time it was test time, you could be fairly confident that you understood all of the material without additional studying.
Second favorite was in 6th grade where we were handed a bunch of color coded workbooks and told to go at it. I finished the entire grade's assignments by the end of the first 9 weeks, and I hated math. I was just competitive. In hindsight, it's probably why I was placed in the advanced clas when we were promoted to the next grade level. Because I finished all of that content before the end of 6th grade, too. I understood pre-algebra concepts because I had started writing programs on my dad's Ti 99/4a.
Second favorite was in 6th grade where we were handed a bunch of color coded workbooks and told to go at it. I finished the entire grade's assignments by the end of the first 9 weeks, and I hated math. I was just competitive. In hindsight, it's probably why I was placed in the advanced clas when we were promoted to the next grade level. Because I finished all of that content before the end of 6th grade, too. I understood pre-algebra concepts because I had started writing programs on my dad's Ti 99/4a.
My daughter went to a Montessori rather than a standard nursery.
From a young age she has always been alert and curious. We also noticed she would listen intently to instruction, understand it and then apply it so we thought a Montessori might be a better structured environment for her that she would thrive in.
She did a tester day at the Montessori that was local to us at the time and she enjoyed it. The toys and games etc promoted thinking, the activities were always thoughtful and considered (printing, painting, crafts, gardening etc). She was there for two years before starting regular school. Most of the other children were well behaved (most likely because the parents had a similar point of view to learning etc).
To date she has done well in anything she tries, which I think is partly her approach to learning which perhaps was supported by Montessori, as well as our support for her as parents.
8 years later and she still has one close friend from Montessori. That child is also very competent at anything she tries, although her personality is a bit more active, and her parents are also very supportive of their child.
It’s probably worth noting that both children don’t have siblings, so that likely has had a part to play also.
From a young age she has always been alert and curious. We also noticed she would listen intently to instruction, understand it and then apply it so we thought a Montessori might be a better structured environment for her that she would thrive in.
She did a tester day at the Montessori that was local to us at the time and she enjoyed it. The toys and games etc promoted thinking, the activities were always thoughtful and considered (printing, painting, crafts, gardening etc). She was there for two years before starting regular school. Most of the other children were well behaved (most likely because the parents had a similar point of view to learning etc).
To date she has done well in anything she tries, which I think is partly her approach to learning which perhaps was supported by Montessori, as well as our support for her as parents.
8 years later and she still has one close friend from Montessori. That child is also very competent at anything she tries, although her personality is a bit more active, and her parents are also very supportive of their child.
It’s probably worth noting that both children don’t have siblings, so that likely has had a part to play also.
I went to a Montessori school for a portion of my education (latter half of 'primary', more or less, I get muddled because I was also moving between different country's school systems), and I actually stayed a year later than normal along with 2 other kids. I enjoyed it, and there were two extremely good teachers there who were very good at giving me enthusiasm for STEM. I would say the system didn't exactly get me to push myself: the nature of the self-directed work meant I was rewarded for meeting targets I set myself, and so I tended to just set easy targets: I would pick the tests/exercises I already found easy and do stuff like a 50-digit long division because I could just churn through it, as opposed to focusing on areas I was not so good at (like writing). But still, it set me up in good stead for the rest of my education, though I found adjusting to the more strict approach of later stages a bit annoying.
A friend of mine went to a secondary montessori, he said he didn't learn much of the conventional stuff but did learn how to knit a chicken.
Are you sure you're not mixing up Montessori and Steiner schooling?
The latter is more focused on self-expression and seems kinda "artsy".
The latter is more focused on self-expression and seems kinda "artsy".
Went to Steiner school, can confirm I’m capable of knitting a chicken.
It worked out well for me in terms of education but that’s a small data point.
It worked out well for me in terms of education but that’s a small data point.
My kid's Steiner school has them outside playing for two hours plus every morning, rain or shine. I hope this will save him from having myopia as deeply awful as my own.
I agree with the above comment, I think your friend went to a Steiner school not a Montessori.
I have no experience but you might like to follow Matt Bateman on Twitter.
It's good for something like preschool, to get that initial curiosity going. After that it's good to have a structured environment with extracurriculars.