I'm finding it hard to make time to keep my blog uptodate. I guess I have to be less ambitious about writing complete essays or providing profound insights and just be prepared to ramble from time to time. But I want to keep my blog up as I do not want to ask my students to do something I am not doing myself.
With my daughter in Montessori preschool, I have come to a deeper appreciation of Montessori as an approach to schooling. Our teacher preparation program really ought to feature more courses on such alternatives. I am always impressed by the school whenever drop off my daughter or pick her up at the end of the day, but the greatest impact is when I recognize how much my daughter is learning there. It is not even that at four and three-quarters (saying the 3/4 is important to my daughter) years old, my daughter and most of her school friends are already reading simple books. It is the unexpected comment that really drives the point home. For example, in the car yesterday my daughter points to a triangle and says, "I forget, which one is that again." And her mom says, "Tigana, you know your shapes."
Tigana replies, "Yes, but I just can't remember what its called."
So her mom says, "That's a triangle."
In response to which Tigana rolls her eyes heavenward and says, "Well, of course its a TRIANGLE! I MEANT, is it an equaliateral or an isosceles triangle? I can't remember which is which"
To which I can only reply, "How old are you again?"
It's not how much the school is teaching these kids, because I have seen other parents push this kind of academics with their children to the detriment of the child, but that the Montessori children seem to pick this stuff up without any sense of having worked at it. That they want to learn, are eager to learn, and just absorb this stuff by ossmosis. It's pretty impressive.
On another occassion I took Tigana to the movies and found a bunch of her classmates holding down a row in the middle of the theater, so we joined them. The supervising parent in this case was at the far end of the row, so one of Tigana's school friends, who by definition could not be older than 6, turns to me and asks politely "What was your name again."
"I'm Tigana's dad!"
"Oh, yes. Well, my name is ____ and beside me is ____ and next to her is _____, and the adult at the end is Mrs. ______. And we're so glad you and Tigana could join us." Okay, not earth shaking conversation exactly, but the poise and social grace this six year old was demonstrating blew me away. I know many adults who would not have handled the introductions as well. The self-confidence and consideration of others these kids show often provides solid evidence that Piaget had no clue what he was talking about. And when I contrast any of these students with others of the same age we encounter at, say, Tons of Fun, the difference is remarkable. I often embarrasses myself with parents by guessing the age of their children a year or two younger than they are because their kids are not remotely close to functioning at the level of Tigana and her Montessori classmates. Of course I am highly biased as a Montessori father, but even so....
So if the system works that well, we ought to be introducing some of Montessori's basic concepts to our own student teachers. Never mind that there is a significant and growing market for Montessori trained teachers, all elementary teachers could benefit from Montessori training. Setting up a suitable course is yet another item for my To Do list, I guess.
