hey all
i also LOVE the idea of montessori, read about it for years, have materials in my home, etc.. However both local montessori schools we tried were failures in different ways, in my opinion,.. some of the things that i concluded were that:
- some of the teachers weren't really that committed to the method, and would rather be teaching elsewhere.
- most of the parents weren't really taht into the method, and didn't understand much about it when they enrolled their kids.
So what ended up happening was that the montessori method was watered down so much due to parents who wanted things they expected out of typical school and teachers who didn't care that much to fight them on it. So we ended up with a lot of anti-montessori stuff going on. Such as making the kids do academics in the morning, and practical life only in the afternoon.. Lots of contingencies like "you can have snack if you do a challenging work". etc etc. Not a lot of "follow the child".
but i do agree in theory it is wonderful and if you can get a committed, strong teacher than it is great (1 out of 4 teachers we had fit that bill)
irene
