by Aline D. Wolf
If you are the parent of a four year-old presently
in a Montessori class, you are probably delighted with your child’s progress
and are looking forward to her continuation of Montessori next year when she is
five. Most parents who choose Montessori for their pre-schooler not only want
her to complete this cycle of pre-school learning but they want her to continue
Montessori at the elementary level if it is available.
It is possible, however, that you are one of the
smaller number of parents who look upon Montessori as a preparation for
traditional kindergarten. A Montessori school, these parents feel, is a place
where a very young child can be taken care of until he is old enough for
conventional school. Each year some parents withdraw their five year-olds from
Montessori just as they are beginning to unfold as young leaders, beginning
readers and budding mathematicians. When the transfer is made at this point the
children actually miss the most fruitful part of the Montessori experience.
There is no doubt that some circumstances almost
force parents to withdraw their five year-olds from Montessori schools. A
sudden financial crisis, impossible transportation arrangements, a personality
conflict with an individual Montessori teacher or a child’s special problem
which might be helped by a more structured environment, all indicate that a
change should be made.
When compelling reasons, similar to these, do not
exist, you have the freedom to observe both programs carefully and try to
evaluate the influence which each might have on your child. You should not
hesitate to ask to observe in either the traditional or the Montessori school.
The exercise of this legitimate right of parents is the only way you can get
the first-hand information necessary for making a wise decision.
It will be helpful to begin by observing your own
four year-old in the Montessori classroom during the spring months. Is he
comfortable and happy? How does he interact with other children? Does he choose
his own activities? How long can he concentrate? What math exercises can he do?
What reading or language activities has he begun?
Next you should visit the kindergarten that you are
considering for your child. Do the children enjoy learning? How long do they
concentrate? What math and reading exercises are available as the next step to
what your child is doing now? What art, music and nature activities are in the
class? Are there opportunities for independent work and for leadership?
The next step in this sequence is to re-visit the
Montessori school. This time, rather than watching your own child, look at the
classroom as a whole and particularly at what the five year-olds are doing. How
do they compare with the five year-olds in the conventional school? What are
they doing in math and reading? Are they leaders? Are they self-confident? Is
the classroom a happy place for learning? What music, nature and creative activities
are in progress?
After this series of observations you should give
careful thought to the long-range as well as the immediate advantages of one
program over another. The “right now” benefits of choosing a traditional
program, such as the relief from tuition and transportation responsibilities,
are often very obvious to parents. The long-range benefits of another year of
Montessori are sometimes more subtle and difficult to recognize. Unwittingly
some parents give up substantial long-term benefits for motives that are not
always educationally sound. An analysis of these reasons may be helpful to you.
“We feel that the best learning happens when the
younger children can watch older children. Debbie really benefited from her
past two years in Montessori. But next year, she won’t have any older ones to
learn from. She’s apt to pick up baby habits again.”
Imitating older children is only one aspect of
learning in a mixed age group. The book, Children Teach Children by
Garnter, Kohler and Riessman (Harper and Row) gives many statistics which show
that when an older child helps a younger child, it is actually the older child
who benefits most from the experience.
Because the teacher in a Montessori classroom is
not constantly directing group activities, there are many opportunities for the
five year-olds to help the younger ones. Besides reinforcing their academic
knowledge, this experience enhances their self-esteem and develops their self-confidence–two
qualities which enable them to try new things in later learning. To deprive the
five year-old of this experience is to deprive her of her year of leadership.
When she was younger, she was unconsciously looking forward to the time when
she would be one of “the older ones.” If, instead, she is put into a
kindergarten where she is again at the bottom of the ladder, this cycle of
maturing is interrupted. Perhaps the loss is most unfortunate for the “only
child” or for a child who is the youngest in the family because such a child
does not have the opportunity to lead younger children at home.
At our neighborhood school all the kids meet their
friends in kindergarten. If I wait until first grade to put Jonathan in this
school, he’ s going to have a hard time getting in with the group.”
The problem of adapting to a new group is one that
parents worry about more than the children do. It is not unusual to find
parents questioning the teacher about this situation weeks after the child and
his classmates have forgotten that he is new.
Addressing himself specifically to this problem,
Joseph S. Silverman, M.D., a psychiatrist interested in young children wrote,
“Confronting an already formed peer group in elementary school is of course a
challenge for any child. The transition from a Montessori kindergarten to a
traditional school first grade, however, is handled with ease by most children.
That they do so suggests to me that the challenge to their coping capacities is
actually fortuitous. For, after all, we find in most situations that to protect
a child from a challenge he can meet is to retard his maturation.”
“Harry did beautifully in Montessori for two years,
but I think he’s had enough of it now. We can save the tuition money for his
college education.”
This is a natural inclination even when there is no
serious financial problem. Where, however, will the money be better invested?
Will his education be guaranteed more by the fact the he becomes interested and
excited about learning or by the fact that you have money in the bank? If he
becomes bored, he may decide against further education long before the college
years. Since many scholarships are available to good students, perhaps an
interest in learning is the best guarantee of a college education.
“All her friends are going to our neighborhood
school. Susan wants to go with them. She says she doesn’t like her old school
any more.”
When a child tells you she dislikes school you
should try to determine her motivation for saying so. Either she is really
unhappy in her present classroom or she is saying this because she wants you to
let her do something else. Observing her in the classroom (if possible, without
letting her know) is your best way to judge. If she seems totally restless,
bored, withdrawn, angry or disruptive, you must seriously consider what she is
telling you. But if she seems comfortable, busy and absorbed most of the time,
with just the normal amount of mischief and daydreaming, then you can assume
she is happy.
Saying she wants to go with other kids is a normal
and frequent reaction of youngsters whose friends are discussing their
approaching entrance into kindergarten. For many of them it will be their first
school experience and their excitement naturally affects your child. If you and
your spouse react as individuals who are confident in your own judgment, you
will not panic at this childhood remark. Instead you will convey to your child
your own enthusiasm for all the things she is doing in her school.
“I think Montessori was fine for Tim when he was
younger, but he knows most of the things in the Montessori classroom by now. I
think he’ s tired of it and he needs a fresh start in kindergarten.”
It is almost impossible to imagine a four year-old
finishing and tiring of the academic materials. The Golden Beads which
illustrate the Decimal System could, for example, be used for such difficult
maneuvers as square root and long division. In reading, as in math, because the
necessary materials are at hand, a youngster can go as far as his interest and
ability will take him.
For example, in a Montessori classroom a five-year
old can gain an early understanding of many difficult concepts which are the
usual stumbling blocks in grade school. Long before he is faced with such abstract
terms as Peninsula, History, Verb, Unit or Fraction, he meets
them in simple concrete materials which are fun to manipulate. He can build a
peninsula, put pictures on a Time Line of history, act out verbs, “carry one”
in addition by going to the Bank and changing ten Units into one Ten Bar, put
two fractional quarters together to make one-half, etc.
The opportunity to learn to read at his own pace is
perhaps the most important advantage for the five year-old in the Montessori
classroom. He receives individual help as he works with the reading materials
and is neither pressured to keep up with other youngsters, nor bored by having
to wait for others to catch up with him. As he masters the phonetic skills, the
Reading Corner invites him to spend comfortable hours with books he selects
himself, thus fostering his desire to read. Many children begin reading and
math at four but the most exciting work is done when they are five. If you
transfer your child before this year of fruition, you will probably lose the
best return on your financial investment in pre-school education.
When selecting a school for your child the
important thing to remember is that you and your spouse, as parents, are the
only people who should make this decision. You should not feel pressured by
remarks from neighbors, from in-laws or particularly from your own child. You,
his parents, best understand his needs. You have the maturity to judge the
available programs. You have the wisdom to choose the school that offers the
best opportunities for your five year-old.
©Aline D. Wolf 1992
PARENT CHILD PRESS
P.O. Box 675
Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania 16648-0675
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