To Montessori or Not to Montessori . . .?

That is the question that has been plaguing my mind the past few weeks. Last year I faced a similar dilemma when I decided that I was going to enroll my son in a “school” setting for the first time. Although we love the ‘traditional’ preschool that he attended last year, I thought I would explore the Montessori system once more.

I thought that I had read enough about the Montessori philosophy and understood how it worked, but after visiting a nearby Montessori, I realized that there’s more to ‘Montessori’ than the name suggests. First, there are all kinds of organizations under which a Montessori school can be accredited. Second, the teachers need to have the Montessori training as well. However, I’ve discovered that just because a preschool has the word “Montessori” in its name does not mean that it IS an authentic Montessori school even if they do “try” to practice some of Dr. Maria Montessori’s philosophy. The problem is that “Montessori” is not trademarked or copyrighted, so anyone is free to use the word as they wish.

Sadly, the Montessori that I visited was not accredited or was affiliated with any of the Montessori associations. Also, I found out that the school I had visited had teachers whose background checks were not performed and teachers that didn’t even have the proper Montessori training. Good thing I did my research before I pulled my son out of a place that we liked.

There are Montessori ‘schools’ being run out of people’s homes – so that made me think, why not out of my home? Okay, so I don’t have the Montessori training but the whole thing with Montessori is that, we are teaching our kids through a certain philosophy, right? Having reviewed the Montessori methods, I realized that I have been doing a lot of it at home anyways.

Are limitations on creativity necessary at this age? I saw a video of a 2 year old transferring objects from one container to another every SO properly and seeing that made me think if we are setting ourselves up for OCD kids? I saw that boy transfer the item several times but at some point he forgot to use the spoon to transfer the item and he put the item back, picked up his spoon and started transferring again. If everything has to be exactly right, then what happens later in life when things are not right? And is the spoon the only way to transfer that item? I'm not sure how creativity or problem solving skills are encouraged if you HAVE to do things in one certain way. If Montessori method is such a great way of learning, why is it not in every public school? Surely, there are enough Montessori trained teachers out there looking for jobs.

Maybe I need to learn more about the Montessori phenomenon but does a toddler need to go to school the whole day to learn Montessori? That brings me to my other concerns about sending my son to full day of Montessori; he would be taking a nap on a little cot, and since he’s a picky eater, I would have no assurance that he actually ate his lunch (no one other than a mother can sit for hours begging her child to eat). So, for right now, we have decided that our little toddler would sleep in his full size bed and have the occasional lunch battles with M.O.M (Master of Multitasking) :)

For those who are interested in learning more about "The Montessori Method", the book written by Maria Montessori can be downloaded for free here