Over a century ago, Dr. Maria Montessori discovered through scientific observations of children that they are not empty vessels to be filled — they are intrinsically motivated doers. She saw that providing a hands-on learning environment that valued choice, concentration, collaboration, community, curiosity, and real-world application produced lifelong learners who viewed “work” as something interesting and fulfilling instead of drudgery to be avoided. Now, research in psychology and neuroscience continually validates Dr. Montessori’s conclusions about children and learning, and Montessori schools are flourishing — not just preschools but, increasingly, elementary, middle and secondary schools. So as the education reform debate thunders on, with the many sides agreeing on little beyond the fact that our schools as they are currently designed are failing our children, I can’t help but wonder: Where is the voice of the Montessori movement in the American school reform conversation?
I first learned about Dr. Maria Montessori’s approach to human development while in graduate school to become a therapist. At that time, I was struck by the similarities between some of Montessori’s tenets and the theories and practices of therapeutic intervention for children. Choice, a key Montessori tenet, is at the heart of child therapy. Children’s emotional, social, and academic development improve when they are empowered through choice. At the same time, children, according to the psychological literature, need to have appropriate boundaries and limits to feel safe and secure. Montessori’s “freedom with discipline” (where “discipline means “to teach”) for children ages 3-6 and “freedom with responsibility” for children ages 6 and up align with this literature.
My passion for Montessori, however, really ignited while I was interning as a school therapist in a suburban public school district. Taking students out of a classroom where they had very little choice and bringing them into a small office where I empowered them with choices seemed counterproductive, a short-term fix. That’s when I realized I no longer wanted to provide interventions for children experiencing social, emotional, and behavioral issues. Instead, I wanted to be involved in the prevention of such issues. That, I knew, was happening in Montessori environments. So, I changed career course and became the Head of School at a growing accredited Montessori school for children ages 18 months to (soon to be) 15 years old.
Over the past five years, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful and effective the Montessori method is with children of varying temperaments and from varying backgrounds. I’ve seen children with severe developmental delays improve significantly because of how Montessori teachers are trained to interact with their students. And I’ve seen elementary-aged children from conventional schools who abhor learning have their love of learning reignited in a Montessori classroom.
Why is Montessori so effective? We know there is an indisputable link between movement and cognition, with the former actually enhancing the latter. We know that people of all ages need to feel a sense of control over their lives and that lack of control leads to depression and learned helplessness, which inhibits learning. We know from a huge body of research that extrinsic rewards and punishments don’t work and can actually adversely affect intrinsic motivation. Research tells us all of these things, yet students at conventional schools are still confined to their desks, with rigidly scheduled days, receiving grades for every aspect of their learning and behavior. Is it any wonder that the public school district needs therapists?
In contrast, students in a Montessori classroom are free to move about the room and are provided varying types of work spaces — tables, floor mats, and low-lying tables called “chowkies.” They’re given large blocks of time — generally around three hours — in which they choose their work and participate in one-on-one presentations (at the preschool level) or small group lessons (in elementary). There are no grades or tests. Instead, assessments are occurring daily through the teachers’ keen observations of the children. (The children are taught how to test themselves or each other so they can know if they’ve really mastered something, such as math facts. There are some things that do need to be memorized!) Ultimately, it is expected that the children will use their time in a productive way, balancing their subjects and being responsible for their learning, and what we see daily in our classrooms is that they are. At the end of each semester, teachers provide each student and his or her parents with an overview of the student’s progress, pointing out areas that need improvement.
Education reformers these days cast their nets far and wide to try to find a solution to the current malaise in our schools. They look to Finland, or to digital learning models. Why is Montessori ignored? At a recent Los Angeles public school district teachers meeting where school reform was discussed, one teacher asked, “Have we ever considered Montessori? My sister is a Montessori teacher, and it seems to work really well for kids.” His question, another teacher told me, was dismissed.
Maybe it’s because people are simply most comfortable with the familiar. Maybe it’s because many mistakenly think Montessori education is a model only suitable for preschool-age or privileged children. I’m convinced, however, that the greatest impediment to Montessori entering this conversation is that there are so many special interests — from textbook and test publishers to educational entrepreneurs — who profit from the system as is.
I can tell you that the solutions we are all looking for are both simpler and more radical than the noisy debaters would have you believe. We need to do more than reform education. We need to transform it.
We need to talk about Montessori.
In the article “Montessori: The Missing Voice in the Education Reform Debate” Laura Shaw argues that schools should stop ignoring Montessori and should adopt it more widely. She discusses how as a school therapist she witnessed the many advantages to Montessori education. One of the keys to why Montessori is so effective is that it makes use of the “indisputable link between movement and cognition” (Shaw). In Montessori schools children move and work in many different environments and make use of hands-on learning methods. Another key aspect of Montessori is learning to work independently. Students are taught this by having “large blocks of time — generally around three hours — in which they choose their work” (Shaw). From Shaw’s experience Montessori education ignites a love for learning in students and makes gaining knowledge enjoyable. Compared to traditional schools where knowledge means boring tasks and homework, Montessori encourages students to seek out knowledge for themselves.
One of the most compelling parts of “Montessori: The Missing Voice in the Education Reform Debate” was the use of pathos and ethos throughout. Shaw mentions that research in psychology and neuroscience is confirming Dr. Montessori’s conclusions about learning, making the fundamental principles of Montessori more credible. Shaw also tells how research is showing that “extrinsic rewards and punishments do not work and can actually adversely affect intrinsic motivation,” making it seem more plausible that students guiding their own learning is a better teaching style (Shaw). Shaw’s use of pathos is shown through her story about her time as a school therapist. Describing how she herself came to the conclusion that Montessori was a highly effective method helps the reader relate to her feelings that Montessori helps students gain more knowledge.
I was especially able to relate to this article because I was in a Montessori program all the way through 8th grade. I remember in elementary school moving around the classroom frequently as she described and using all of the different workspaces mentioned in the article: tables, floor-mats, and chowkies. Another important part of my Montessori education was also planning out my work in large blocks of time. I remember having Fridays as “20% time” when I could work on whatever research or project I wanted and had to plan out my research completely on my own. My Montessori experience was very similar to how Shaw described Montessori in her article, with a heavy focus on movement and independence.