Why I Chose Montessori

Life really is left up to a lot of chance. I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about Montessori at that point, but I’ve known a few people in my life who recommended it. My mom told me that she wished she could have sent me to a Montessori school growing up. Knowing that it was a great alternative to traditional education but not really knowing what was so great about it led me to apply for a position as an afternoon assistant. The school was located over an hour away across a huge city, but I was seeking something different in life. I had worked with children a lot in my life, mostly babysitting and various volunteer experience so I knew I could at least swing the child-care part. Luckily I nailed the interview and was hired to work at AMS.

Working in the after-care program I had not yet had the opportunity to experience the Montessori classroom. I could see all the works on the shelves, but had never seen them used. Trying to get money to gain my independence from my then-current home life I started picking up extra shifts whenever someone was out sick. I got to see the Montessori classroom in action during a morning period and I LOVED IT. In fact I can recall my first Montessori-Whoa was watching a 4 year old girl put together the Red Rod Maze. She got each piece one at a time and placed them meticulously on her mat. After placing them and admiring her work for a second she quietly walked across the room and grabbed the teacher’s bell. Arriving back at her mat she removed her shoes and walked slowly through the maze with the bell never ringing once. I saw no teacher interfering with her actions, or guiding her in anyway. In fact at that point I saw no teacher anywhere around, just children quietly conversing and working independently. I expressed to the Lead Teacher later what I had observed the girl doing, and she nodded and explained that the materials could be used many ways so long as they were respected.

Shortly after my arrival at the school was Parent Education Night. I was encouraged to come and learn more about Montessori and why we do what we do. The topic of the evening was Language. I had seen children working with the letters on the floor spelling words and sometimes sentences. I thought that was the extent of Montessori Language curriculum. Oh boy, how wrong was I? I remember being distinctly confused when to demonstrate writing ability the Lead Teacher grabbed a cylinder block from the Sensorial Shelf. She then showed how the three-finger grasp guides a child’s muscle memory to hold a pencil. I was completely blown-away. Children worked with that work every day, and clearly enjoyed doing it. They were gaining multiple levels of education and satisfying a natural curiosity to explore the objects around them. Here is when I was completely sold on Montessori Education.

Shortly after that Parent Education night I expressed my desire to know more to others at the school which led to enrolling in the American Montessori Society Training. I’m so thankful for supportive Lead Teachers and a supportive Director who encouraged my questions and allowed me to experience Montessori first-hand.

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Respect in the Classroom

The borderline between being destructive with works and experimenting with work is often quickly jumped over – oftentimes before a teacher can be there to react. A Montessori classroom allows for the creativity of the child to shine through and blossom while they use the materials: that is, so long as they are not using them in a destructive manner. As a teacher, your reaction to a child misusing the work can set the tone for your entire work-period, and even your classroom. You can say “You know, I saw you using the materials, and you were doing a great job. Do you think that now you are done with the work and may put it away?” such as a wonderful blog I read constantly suggests – or you might walk up to the child and say “I think you’re done with that now, as I see you are not using the work nicely / correctly. Please put it away now.” Up until recently, I would admit to being a part of the latter group.

After noticing a lack in a lot of our works (mainly Sensorial) being used by the children, I came home one night and questioned why. I came up with a few theories and decided to see which one was right by observing the children. What I concluded is I don’t think our level of Respect in the classroom is where it should be.  By addressing the child in such a manner I am not respecting him by not giving him the option to choose whether he is done with the work. The child is not respecting the work because they are deliberately misusing it. Furthermore, another child nearby might hear me and misconstrue the circumstances thinking “Oh, there is a right way and a wrong way to do that work” and may consciously or subconsciously avoid working with that activity. So where do you go from here? Respect may seem like a pretty abstract concept that is hard to convey to children, but I disagree. Today at line-time I had a talk with the children about what the word respect means – treating something like you want to be treated. I related to the children by explaining how they can respect everything and everyone around them. “If another child is touching your work, are they respecting your space?” “If you are hitting a piece of one of the activities with another, are you respecting our environment?” I also used some of our past dilemmas in the classroom as an example: “Remember when he was building a tower, and people kept crowding around him and his work fell over? At that time the other children watching were not respecting him, nor his right to work quietly.”  – that example seemed to strike home for a lot of them. We left the line to start our afternoon work period, and I made a point to observe if my lesson about Respect had any impact. I overheard one boy tell another who was touching his work – “Please stop, you are not respecting my work.” I could see from this that they understood what it meant to respect other people, I will just have to observe for the rest of the week to see if the lesson on respecting the works and the environment sticks as well.

A child created a wonderful walk-through maze using the Red Rods and the Colored Cylinders. One example of the beautiful things they can accomplish with respect being honored in the classroom.