So, I'm a regular boring sort of teacher, but have admired Montessori for a while and am researching master's programs in the philosophy. My daughter attended a summer camp at the Montessori preschool down the road and had such a good time that I've decided to enroll her in it this year for preschool. It's in the neighborhood, it's in the vicinity of the other schools her sitter does drop-off/pick-up, and has very good reviews. My question... since I'm not yet in any sort of Montessori teacher program and this is going to be more involved than the summer camp, is there going to be any sort of culture/philosophy shockers for me my daughter will come home with? Honestly, just curious.
I've known several people who had children attend Montessori pre-school and elementary school. The one common behavior I had seen among all of them was an extreme independence to do things on their own and their way. In some ways this was very beneficial. On the other hand, they had this before they had the ability to judge when they had to give in and follow the direction of other adults. Basically the adults had to change their behavior to suit the insistence of the child or figure out how to persuade the child.
No fancy training in anything else other than your standard teacher college. ie., not trained in Montessori, STEM, Waldorf, whatever have you.
There are many great, innovative, creative and effective teachers making a difference for kids every day without 'fancy training'
Oh, of course. I didn't mean to imply there weren't. I'm just seeing a more specific phillosophy here.
From what I've read about Montessori schools, I'm quite impressed. From what the principal told me in a conversation one time, our local school had the same concern as expressed by a2z above. They add a regular brief traditional classroom time to offset this; I kind of got the impression that was more to prepare the students for when they transfer back into a traditional school setting (at that time it was only an early childhood program). My main endorsement for Montessori philosophy is that the students learn by doing more than by sitting and listening, although as I recall from what I've read, Montessori philosophy does include whole class and individualized listening activities.
I've been interested in teaching Montessori, but I was told I had to take 2 more years of school and do a "student teaching" type of thing in a Montessori school and get a separate certification so I said no thanks! This would've been nice to know before I went through grad school for "regular boring type of teaching"
The only thing I would advise you is to work at home with your daughter on necessary kinder skills. I have noticed that students entering kindergarten coming from a Montessori program are very good at the skills they have chosen...not so good at the skills they are not interested in. We have two children this year in our kinder program coming from Montessori. They are well behaved and excited about learning but one enjoyed math skills in prek and wasn't interested in learning literacy skills. She has very little knowledge about letters and sounds. The other child is the opposite...enjoyed literacy and is advanced in that area, but never chose math skills in her activities and now has little to no math skills. It could very well be the school they are coming from, but I have seen this in other students through the years.
