Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Is Montessori the answer to gifted education?

My son was doing long division in Montessori K as well but he still had a bad year there. DS7 was a happy child in his play based PreK the year before but in Montessori he was miserable, acted out at home, and wanted to be homeschooled. His perfectionism got out of control during the first few months there. I had an extremely unpleasant conversation with one of the teachers which finally prompted us to get him tested.

Our younger one (3 at that time) got to spend one year in the very same Montessori classroom where he had to count the dots again and again because he wasn't able to write the numbers yet. The teacher herself told me that they wouldn't move him to a different material till he learned to write numbers, but not to worry since none of the 3 year olds could write. It was a disaster for him, he refused to go there on countless occasions.

Next year he went to the play based PreK and was happy there. The teacher let him read to the entire class. She let him do as much or as little as he wanted. They might have not taught him anything new but they didn't make him repeat boring tasks over and over.

Trust me, long division in K isn't everything. That said I am glad I didn't have to teach it to DS7

I hardly post here but would like to share our experience. Sorry if I am duplicating any info as I am yet to go through previous posts.
DS4 has been going to montessori since last year. This year the school started on a rough note due to a teacher change hence new rules but given a month DS is adjusting well. In his first year he chose a lot of language and math work but this year he is not interested in them. He is spending his time in art, science and geography corner and seems happy with a few rough patches once in a while which we try to deal with as they come. He is definitely learning, not in math and language but in other areas. He is experimenting with different strokes in art, learning about weather, plant and human life cycles, people around the world, geometry etc. His school also offers a third language, lots of field trips, fun projects and computers.
At times we do feel that we are paying a lot that too for something, I could easily teach him but he loves the social aspect too, plays with older kids as well as his peers , ah well most of his peers are 5-6 year old too but most days he comes home being very proud of what he did at school and will introduce me to new kids as I go to pick him up. We are keeping our fingers crossed, hopefully each year he'll have something new to look forward to.

Montessori is not for every child though. A lot depends on the child's personality, drive to learn and how much\lesss guidance a child prefers. I have many friends who pulled their kids out of the school as they didn't like it. One friend as she put it, did not like it as all her child would do is to play with puzzles. DS's school however has a policy that each child has to choose at least one challenging work each day.

A montessori classroom is very quiet during work-time, the schools usually have a zero tolerance policy for any disruption, hence strict rules. Go visit a class and see if you can imagine your child doing well there. For us it is working well so far if not great. But we are skeptical how long its going to work but we will see:)

I am also completely in love with Montessori. I too have considered getting my Mont. certification. Some of the experiences that people have posted about sound horrible. This approach actually seems to completely contradict what I�ve learn about the philosophy. I have no experience with Montessori schools, however we do use tons of Mont. materials in homeschooling. The materials are very very versatile, much of what is used in preschool is used again in lower elementary. There are tons of extensions for the materials and so it doesn�t make sense that kids would be held back. If I was going to send my child to a Mont. school it definitely would be to a school that at least offers an elementary program. Also, I would ensure that the preschool teachers have a thorough knowledge of the 6-9 scope and sequence. There is division among �Montessorians�. Progressive Montessorians are open to presenting materials out of sequence which is important for all kids, not just gifted (IMO). Forcing kids to complete, repeat activities that they have mastered is ridiculous. If kids choose to repeat activities that they appear to have mastered that makes sense to some degree, but even then they should be encouraged to move on. As far as our homeschooling experience goes, we pick, choose and adapt as needed. We have a lot of fun with it. It is the only thing that works for us.

HI! Our DS went to Montessori at age three and loved it. Because he was reading, etc. he could do most of what the older children were doing, but the teacher usually would not let him.

Age age four...he completely lost his little spark. We finally figured out he had "been there/done that" at Montessori. Three years in the same classrom is NOT a good fit for him. He was bored out of his mine. I observed him just wandering around the room most of the time when he was supposed to be doing his "work" on several occasions. Thus, the "your child must have a special need that I must diagnose" phase of his early education began with the teacher.

Needless to say, we pulled him out and his little spark came back rather quickly.

That's frustrating about the ceiling. It would seem that Montessoris would find a way around that -- and I'm sure some good ones do, but I have heard that complaint before -- that the school was a good fit until the kid topped out. (Heck, I've even heard anecdotes that included the special need line before... like, Montessori = great; kid = not doing great; ergo, problem with the kid.) *sigh*

Ha -- I had a deliciously ironic thought. Not sure how well it translates into words: The problems with Montessori wouldn't be so bothersome if it weren't for the fact that it has great potential. Why won't it just live up to its potential?

This is exactly what happened to our DS7 - he was in the Montessori school for 3 years and by age 4.5 everything went downhill - he would come home saying he couldn't find anything to do and when I was in the room, I saw him wandering around during work time. The teacher would try to pull him into an activity but everything was "been there, done that" for him and he wanted more, more, more. His spark for learning went down the tube and we ended up pulling and we saw a huge change in him within a few months after taking him out - for the better!

You know it's all about implementation. Good teachers (Montessori or otherwise) find the materials they need to challenge the child. I think that the Montessori method is set up to succeed at this with the "follow the child" mantra. However it's still up to humans to implement it.

I've said it before, I think that Montessori is a great system. Our daughter did REALLY well there. Each child was met at their readiness level and introduced to plenty of things that many schools would consider out-of-level. Multiplication and fractions were part of the K curriculum, readily available to everyone who was ready for it.

It's also really hard to judge "Montessori" since many schools claim the name but are not accredited by AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) or AMS (American Montessori Society).

so true!

This is my biggest complaint about the Montessori schools in our area. It seems like anyone can open one and claim to be Montessori. Most are not accredited but try to get around it by claiming they have teachers accredited by the AMS and AMI. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the school itself need to submit for accreditation?

You're right Katelyn's Mom. What the other schools are saying is that their staff have been trained and certified by one of these institutions. Some of these schools can be excellent - others quite dire. Even within an officially accredited school though, you can find huge disparities between the standards of teaching like in any other system.

Although I have many good things to say about Montessori (my two boys have both had great experiences), I am still conflicted regarding a system that has very little in the way of accountability. It's kind of a matter of 'faith' and whilst your kids are doing well that's easy enough, but when you have concerns it can be very difficult to get a straight answer.