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Thinking  Outside The Desk is the Montessori Way
By Lauren Lazaruk

Imagine your child never has to rush home in tears due to a bad grade or because the teacher yelled at them for not paying attention. Imagine that feeling of pencil-tapping boredom from busy work never has to fill your child’s classroom days. Instead, imagine your child huddled in the corner with other classmates learning how to feed and groom the class pet or working by the windowsill watering seeds and learning about plant life. For children learning in the estimated 10,000 Montessori school systems, these very things are daily realities.

“The children are in charge of learning,” said Susan Weir, head of school at the Children’s House of Bucks County in Fairless Hills, Pa. “You have to get each student excited and involved. They really have to get engaged in learning not just be given information to memorize.”

For example, when learning letters one child sits at a table molding the letter “L” out of clay, two more are stretching their arms out and up to make the letter with their bodies, and another points to a picture in a book of a ladybug. “It’s hands-on and it’s the most natural way for a child to learn,” Weir said.

No teachers?

A 3-year-old boy pulls a book off the shelf and takes it over to the grown-up wanting to be read a story. The teacher sits on the floor and starts reading as a small group of toddlers begin to make their way over to the mat to listen about zoo animals. As the colorful pages turn, the teacher asks, “Do you know how to roar like a lion? What noises do monkeys make?”

“It’s about creating an environment for the children to explore and helping them grow and explore and taking them as far as they can go with it,” said Weir.

The Montessori method includes ‘the three-hour work period’ which is a student-designed schedule. Children keep their assignments written down on cards and they choose which one they want to work on during the day. The projects and assignments are given due dates to teach the children about time management and responsibility.

Multi-age class grouping for ages 0-3, 3-6, 6-12, 12-15 or 15-18 is also an essential part of the Montessori method. “There is nothing in the classroom age-dictated,” says Weir. “There are just different concept levels.”

The students remain in these same class groups for three to six years and become very familiar and help one another problem solve. They learn both with each other and from each other as the guide works to capitalize on individual creativity.

No desks? No bad grades?

The classroom environment in a Montessori school isn’t a neat row arrangement of pupil desks and chalkboards, nor will you find one teacher with her back to the class lecturing and writing notes on the blackboard. The Montessori method uses work centers instead of the typical classroom set up. These work centers are designed by subject areas such as cooking, cleaning, gardening, art, animal care and an in-class library. Tables and chairs replace individual desks and floor mats for group work and play that promotes social interaction and sharing. The classroom area is surrounded by shelves filled with color-coded trays or baskets to give the students an early lesson about organization.

“We are very organized, and we have a place for everything because children like structure,” Weir said.

Montessori education doesn’t use the usual A-F grading system either. “We don’t really do grades,” said Weir. “We do it on mastery.”

Students are not assessed with letter or numerical values but are carefully observed by the teacher and are instructed through personalized individual projects that enable each child to learn what he or she needs to improve in different areas. Each child chooses a sample of work they completed from each work area and explains to their parents what they learned and how they did it. Next, the parents, the teacher and the child together set and sign a goal for the student of what he or she wants to learn over the next period.

Nothing new

This year marks the 100th anniversary of this innovative idea for education that started with Dr. Maria Montessori, one of the first women from Italy to receive a medical degree. After studying and working in fields of education, psychiatry, anthropology, psychology and philosophy, she discovered that every child has a spontaneous urge to learn. She worked with 60 children from the San Lorenzo district of Rome where she founded the first Casa dei Bambini, or “Children’s House” in 1907. It was there the Montessori method was developed and her pursuit to reform education began.

“Dr. Montessori believes there is a sensitive period of science, math, language and movement in child development—and we need to create an environment that will be ready for that,” said Weir. “Our kids feel really good about themselves and what they’re doing,” said Weir.

Lauren Lazaruk is an editorial assistant at Curious Parents.