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Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#121

Post by ramtatatam »

kqr wrote: post #32

I did Montessori between ages 6 and 15, then transitioned into more traditional education for the last three years. The main difference was how much more challenging Montessori education was. The teachers really observed me and how I performed on assignments, and they could tell when I needed more of a challenge, and assign something to me that was just at the edge of what I was able to do. In the traditional educati…

> On the other hand, I also have a notable lack of respect for authority figures.

I went through "classical" education system (with lots of aggression, as somebody else already mentioned in another thread here) - and can tell I also obtained no respect for authority figures. School taught me to survive school by tricking those teachers who had no respect to pupils. Give them what they want and you'r going to be fine - even if you don't learn anything useful. Same when it comes with relationships with other pupils, especially those aggressive ones. I observe my kids who I send to Montessori and can definitely tell they are not easy when it comes to disagreements - and I like it that way, it keeps reminding me that I have no right not to treat them with respect even when I'm tired or in hurry. I see teachers putting lots of attention to mutual respect as well.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#122

Post by bmelton »

I was hesitant to put my daughter into a bad / violent public school system (ranked bottom 5% in the nation at the time) so we opted for Montessori. She's in college now on a blended CompSci/math major, but in (non-Montessori) high school she developed a Lego robot that has landed her an exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which is probably never a bad thing for her burgeoning career.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#123

Post by wccrawford »

Moissanite wrote: post #34
JustAPerson wrote: post #27

Yes, I went to a Montessori school through 6th grade (now 25 years old). I have mixed feelings about the experience. I agree that it did well to set my up academically. I ended up going to middle/high schools that were relatively average academically, so I was pretty strong in all subjects in comparison to my peers. Ultimately I went to a very prestigious college and now work in a wonderful finance job I love. Howeve…

I had never heard of Montessori schools before this thread so I'm sure there is more going on than I'm aware of - but I wanted to point out that what you describe here: > school had about 15-25 kids / class year. Some of the larger years were split into two groups with separate teachers. Every year, maybe one or two kids left to go to other schools and one or two new kids joined, but for the most part I grew up with…

I went to school in a rural area of the US and we also had about 20 kids in most classes. It started to get a little more crowded towards high school as there seemed to be a lot of people moving to the area and it didn't seem to be expected. But everyone was worried there were too many kids in class when there were 30 at that point.

So I think this varies quite a lot across the US. I tend to feel that large cities have more crowded classes than rural areas, but I have no data for that.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#124

Post by at_a_remove »

sedeki wrote: post #54
krn1p4n1c wrote: post #15

Both my kids transitioned from Montessori to public school at 11 (grade 5) in the US. 13 and 16 now. + Love of learning and self-driven discovery + Top of class in pretty much all subjects + Comfortable giving presentations + Comfortable working in groups + At ease working with younger students/children and essentially mentoring them + Excellent handwriting + Respect for teachers - Difficulty with testing that involv…

> - Difficult transition to the cliques and more aggressive social dynamics of public school Am I naive in thinking that the aggressive social dynamics of public school adds no value whatsoever to a child's or teenager's development? Like, _why_ would anyone want to put their children through that? Is it _really_ integral to a person's social development to understand how to interact with bullies (worst case)? I admi…

I don't know how to frame this that doesn't come off very Stockholm Syndrome, but ... the environment of human beings is not the jungle or the tundra, it is other human beings. As such, being able to navigate among the majority -- whatever they are -- has some kind of utility.

I'll throw in a side of "Americans are often 'stuck' in high school on some developmental level." I couldn't necessarily say the same about people in Europe or anywhere else.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#125

Post by HDThoreaun »

huevosabio wrote: post #55

I did Montessori from kindergarten until grade 6 (age 12), in Mexico. I really, really like it. I think it reinforces the kids natural curiosity. In middle school, my first year out of Montessori, I was shocked at how little other kids cared about learning. I remember the teacher discussing something about astronomy, and I raised my hand to comment on some fact I had read, and what followed was mockery by my peers an…

Hard to say how much of this was the difference between public and private school though right? The montessori kids had parents who cared about education enough to pay the tuition.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#126

Post by Yaa101 »

Yes I did in the 70's.

It worked out well up until my 6th grade (8th grade if you count kindergarten) The higher education part (Montessori Lyceum) never worked out for me as lack of structure and wealth of time freedom killed my effort and work ethos.

The difference between how primary and higher education was structured on a Montessori based education is to far apart of each other.

Primary Montessori education was more about getting the kids curious about the world and make them ask questions and get knowledge that way into the kid. Higher Montessori education was more like standard pumping knowledge that you have to remember for terms and tests.

I was never prepared for that higher education part in my primary education period so I went from bad to worse in my higher education before giving up totally and went to work instead. Later I did catch up when I was grown up.

Still, I am thankful for getting Montessori education as it formed my worldview and kept me curious and inquisitive the rest of my life and even now.

I do wish that in the last 3 years of my primary schooling I had more support for conquering the higher education years.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#127

Post by speeder »

_dain_ wrote: post #115
krn1p4n1c wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that a lot of it's needless and painful, but there's some merit in knowing how to defend yourself (physically, mentally and emotionally). There's a lot of the petty BS that you learn from in school that transposes to adult life. I hate watching my kids deal with it, but I'd be remiss in raising them if I didn't prepare them for that.

>There's a lot of the petty BS that you learn from in school that transposes to adult life. No, you learn maladaptive patterns. Your options are artificially constrained. Most of the ways a grown adult would deal with e.g. bullies are just not available to you. Take physical violence for example. As an adult, if you're threatened with physical violence you have the options to: - Get out of there. But kids can't do th…

I never had the opportunity to go to more "not normal" school like Montessori, and I ended learning rather quickly, that at least in normal private schools, the solution to any problem, is violence. If that is not working, then even more violence.

At some point I had to defend myself from a bully (that probably had a awful home life, since that guy managed to come home to school 7:00 in the morning already drunk, multiple times) by bashing the guy with a metal table and then threatening to kill him with a knife. Only then, he stopped bothering me.

Also I knew more than one guy that admired Columbine guys, their reason is that it was a good way (in their minds of course) of both getting out of their shitty life and taking revenge at same time.

Thankfully, now that I am adult, all problems so far I could solve by just talking to people, no tables, knives, planks or chains necessary.

Note: I went to "good" private schools, thus nobody died or got seriously injured, but I have friends that went to public schools, and one of them for example was forced to cause serious injury when 3 older students ambushed him right outside the school, and the only thing he had to defend himself was his skateboard, so he proceeded to hit them with the metal axis where you attach the wheels, broke half of the teeth of one guy, caved in one of the temples of another, and broke the shoulder and one knee of the third, after that the school started to have the police patrol near the school to prevent a repeat of this. Also that school banned skateboards, yoyos, long rulers (specially a particular metal ruler distributed as souvenir during a political campaign, that people found out you could sharpen and use as a decent machete) and spinning tops (specially those with metal tip, one kid made a hole in another kid head with one).

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#128

Post by sublinear »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #112
SQueeeeeL wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn, that part about being excited to learn and share knowledge with your peers only to be shouted down dredged up some memories. Most American schools are so regimented that any exploration of knowledge is actually sneered down. How did our communities let it get so bad...

My school at least tried, we had separate programs for "gifted" students separate from kids who were just there for the babysitting. Kind of dystopian, but I was never mocked for wanting to learn something even though my school was in a bad area.

I had the same experience. They separated us "gifted" kids very early on.

I had no negative experiences other than being a bit out of touch with the culture of my area, which isn't necessarily a bad thing either.

I had mostly ok teachers and no problems learning or making friends. I recall there actually being a lot of free time to just study whatever we wanted most days. We never struggled on the mandatory standardized tests, so the system left us alone. It was very uneventful and boring.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#129

Post by HDThoreaun »

sedeki wrote: post #54
krn1p4n1c wrote: post #15

Both my kids transitioned from Montessori to public school at 11 (grade 5) in the US. 13 and 16 now. + Love of learning and self-driven discovery + Top of class in pretty much all subjects + Comfortable giving presentations + Comfortable working in groups + At ease working with younger students/children and essentially mentoring them + Excellent handwriting + Respect for teachers - Difficulty with testing that involv…

> - Difficult transition to the cliques and more aggressive social dynamics of public school Am I naive in thinking that the aggressive social dynamics of public school adds no value whatsoever to a child's or teenager's development? Like, _why_ would anyone want to put their children through that? Is it _really_ integral to a person's social development to understand how to interact with bullies (worst case)? I admi…

Handling social conflict is a reality of adult life.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

#130

Post by ispo »

bmelton wrote: post #122

I was hesitant to put my daughter into a bad / violent public school system (ranked bottom 5% in the nation at the time) so we opted for Montessori. She's in college now on a blended CompSci/math major, but in (non-Montessori) high school she developed a Lego robot that has landed her an exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which is probably never a bad thing for her burgeoning career.

My daughter is better.
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