Almost a year ago, I wrote about the things I found out while researching the difference between Montessori and Progressive pre-schools. That post is here.

Since then I've sat in a few pre-school classes. With pre-school hunting season just around the corner, I've decided to update my previous post, based on some Montessori and progressive schools I've observed. In this and in my next post, I'll talk about my experiences observing two pre-schools. I won't name the names of the schools.

I visited one "true" Montessori school near our house. I call it a "true" Montessori school, because apparently there are a lot of schools that are called "Montessori" but don't follow the Montessori method to the letter; those schools are just "inspired" by Montessori, but also bring in some ideas from other pedagogical systems.

There were a lot of things that impressed me about this school: teachers with very good credentials, and a firm and passionate belief on the part of the administrators in the benefits of a Montessori education.

The classroom I visited was a class for 2 to 5 year olds. Following Maria Montessori's philosophy, the school had mixed-age groupings: Maria Montessori's idea was that having mixed-age classes allows older children to teach younger children; it also helps younger children grow in confidence as they become the ate's/kuya's of the class.

The classroom itself was quite large, and very simple. There were no decorations, but the classroom's walls were lined neatly with shelves containing a wide variety of Montessori materials. Individual chairs and tables formed a large square, and in the Montessori tradition encouraging independent work, the chairs and tables were spaced far from each other. In the center was a large square carpet. The teachers did not have their own tables, but instead they went around and brought chairs with them so they could sit beside individual students they were helping.

In the 2-5 age group, Montessori-trained children largely do individual work. In the time that I observed the class, there was no group work. Group interaction was limited to students (mostly the 4- and 5-year-olds) conversing with one another about a movie they had watched, although the teachers (there were two in the classroom) discouraged too much chatter and reminded the children to keep quiet because it was work time. In this respect, I observed that the teachers seemed to encourage discipline among the students.

In the spirit of independent work, each child would go to the shelves where the materials were, pick out a Montessori material to work with, and bring it back either to his/her desk or the center mat, and work on it for awhile. The teachers would approach the children who needed help with their work and would guide them. Each child worked on a different Montessori material. A 3-year-old on the center mat was working with stacking blocks (I think it's called a "pink tower"). One older child was tracing his finger on sandpaper letters, and another was using pencil and paper, tracing his pencil around wooden (or were they plastic?) shapes.

When the child was done with the material, he/she would put the material back on the shelf and get something new to work with.

A two-year-old child started crying and one of the teachers tried to soothe him, first by giving him crayons to play with, and when that didn't work, the teacher carried the child outside; I'm guessing to soothe him outside.

One of the older children tried to come up and talk to me, but the teacher discouraged it and reminded the child that it was work time.

All in all, it was a very instructive school visit for me. I only had about half an hour to observe the class, but based on that, I think that parents who want their pre-school aged children to develop independence and discipline, and want their children to get accustomed to making a distinction between work time and play time, will appreciate the Montessori method.

In my next post, I'll talk about the progressive classroom I visited.

Share