10:47 PM
Every
year thousands of Montessori parents whose children are about to move
up to kindergarten face a common dilemma. Do they allow their child to
remain in a Montessori environment or do they transfer their children to
a more traditional kindergarten program. Although there are plenty of
issues that factor into this important decision, most Montessori
administrators, educators, and parents will agree that perhaps the most
compelling factor for most parents has to do with basic economics.
Simply put, their child can attend a local public school kindergarten
program free. Although each family must make this decision on their
own, we offer a number of thoughts which should be considered before
transferring a child in the kindergarten year.
1.)
Does your child love school and can’t wait to go every day? If so,
consider yourself lucky. Why tinker with a winning school situation when
so many families are frustrated and disappointed?
2.)
Your child has waited for two years to be one of the five year old
leaders of her class. The kindergartners are looked up to as role models
for the younger students, and most children eagerly await their
opportunity to play this role.
3.)
The third year, the kindergarten year, is the time when many of the
earlier lessons come together and become permanent part of the young
child’s understanding. An excellent example is the early introduction to
addition with large numbers through the Bank Game. When children leave
Montessori at age five, many of the still forming concepts evaporate,
just as a child living overseas will learn to speak two languages, but
may quickly lose the second language if his family moves back home.
4.)
As a five year old, your child has many opportunities to teach the
younger children lessons that he learned when he was their age. Research
proves that this experience has powerful benefits for both tutor and
tutoree.
5.)
As five year olds, Montessori children normally go on to still more
fascinating lessons and more advanced Montessori materials, such as the
Stamp game.
6.) The Primary Montessori curriculum is much more sophisticated than that found in most kindergartens.
7.)
Having spent two years together, your child’s teachers know her very,
very well. They know her strengths and areas that are presenting
challenges.
8.)
Your child already knows most of her classmates. She has grown up in a
safe, supportive classroom setting. 9.) If your child goes on to another
school, he will spend the first half of the year just getting used to
the new educational approach.
10.)
Montessori math is based on the European tradition of unified
mathematics. Montessori introduces young children to basic geometry and
other sophisticated concepts as early as kindergarten.
11.)
In many Montessori schools, five year olds are beginning to read the
Junior Great Books; kindergartners in other schools may be learning to
recognize letters and numbers.
12.) Five year olds have a real sense of running their classroom community.
13.)
In Montessori, your child can continue to progress at her own pace. In
traditional kindergarten, she will have to wait while the other children
begin to catch up.
14.) Even in kindergarten, Montessori children are studying cultural geography and beginning to grow into global citizens.
15.)
In Montessori, five year olds work with intriguing learning materials,
like the Trinomial Cube instead of coloring books and insipid basal
readers.
16.)
With the Land and Water Forms, he’ll learn about lakes, islands,
isthmuses. Straits, capes, archipelagos, peninsulas, and other
geological forms, rather than circles, squares, and rectangles.
17.) In art, she’ll learn about Picasso and Renoir, rather than learn her basic colors.
18.)
In Montessori, your child has been treated with a deep respect as a
unique individual. The school has been equally concerned for his
intellectual, social, and emotional development. Unfortunately, despite
lip service to the contrary, this is often not the case in traditional
classrooms.
19.)
Montessori schools are warm and supportive communities of students,
teachers, and parents. Children can’t easily slip through the cracks!
20.) Montessori consciously teaches children to be kind and peaceful.
21.)
In Montessori schools, learning is not focused on rote drill and
memorization. Our goal is to develop students who really understand
their schoolwork.
22.)
Montessori students learn through hands-on experience, investigation,
and research. They become actively engaged in their studies, rather than
passively waiting to be spoon-fed.
23.
Montessori is consciously designed to recognize and address different
learning styles, helping students learn to study most effectively.
24.) Montessori challenges and set high expectations for all students not only a special few.
25.) Montessori students develop self-discipline and an internal sense of purpose and motivation.
If
you still have any doubt, spend a morning observing in your child’s
class and compare it with a morning in a kindergarten class in the other
school you are considering. Sit quietly and take mental notes. The
differences may be subtle, but most likely they will be significant.
Then project your child into the future and ask yourself how the
positive differences you observed in the Montessori classroom might help
shape your child to become the teenager, and later the adult, you
envisioned for your child’s future.
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