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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)?

#151

Post by wholien »

simiones wrote: post #48
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…

At least in my country (Romania), the norm in all public schools is to have the same set of ~30 children you'll go to school every day with from grade 0-1 (6-7 years old) to grade 8 (14 years old). Since there are very few to no electives, you'll spend ~all of your time in school with all of these kids every day for 8 years - and virtually everyone in the country has this experience (private schools are very rare). E…

Same in China (Shanghai). Same 30 to 35 students in the same class would do 1st to 6th grade. Then you'd usually go to a different school for 7th to 9th grades, then take a test to get into a high school for 10th to 12th grades. All three would have the same class you'd stick with, usually with way more intra-class interaction than inter-class interaction.

Sports was usually one thing that was more inter-class, but that was it.

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

#152

Post by gabcbrown »

jkestner wrote: post #69
gabcbrown wrote: post #41

I went to a Montessori School from k-8 then switched into a fairly fast paced public school district for high school. I absolutely loved Montessori, and feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to attend. I felt a lot of ownership/independence about my learning from a young age, and it really supported my curiosity about the world. Interactions with teachers felt like collaboration, not being told what to do, so I…

I feel you on the challenges. I had the same culture shock going to high school, even though it was only a smallish Catholic school. Learning how to work within a system is a critical skill! On math, my early elementary teacher and my father (also a teacher) combined Montessori math, which spoke to (or influenced) my visual/tangible style of thinking, and lots of classic drills to internalize math facts. Or maybe it…

It took me a few tries to learn that lesson!

I feel pretty lucky that I finally found math that I enjoyed and made sense after hating it for so long. I didn’t do a ton of memorization/drilling and I never really got into the world of fun math puzzles, so in high school I was both underprepared and never got to do the cool stuff. It’s much easier to convince myself as an adult that fluency in algebraic computation is useful because I now have examples that I care about being able to work through.

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

#153

Post by bcrosby95 »

caminante wrote: post #150
bcrosby95 wrote: post #143

Just an FYI, most schools I see that label themselves as Montessori aren't actually Montessori, they're just high performance schooling environments for young kids. In our neck of the woods it's the hip thing and well off parents will pay lots of money for it.

Are they really not using montessori methods? Or is your critique more along the lines of the bigger driver for montessori outcomes isn't the montessori methods, but the affluence of the families?

That they aren't actually using montessori.

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

#154

Post by whimsicalism »

boringg wrote: post #96
rodelrod wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent two years in a rough-ish public school. It was the hardest period in my life but it taught me very much about valuing people from all walks of life and especially on adapting my behavior to get positive outcomes in any social setting. I can absolutely see how that experience is lacking on some of my friends that spent all their lives in protected environments.

Fair point but can't that be worked around through having parents teach their kids to value people from all walks of life? True the lack of exposure does play a factor but I would wager it falls heavily on what parents hand down to their children and how they perceive the world.

Eh, I went to an elite private university after attending a not-so-good urban public school.

Lack of exposure is a massive factor and even with good intentions it does not really make up for it.

Most of the kids I went to school with were oblivious about poverty or even just being mindful of different socieconomic circumstances. stuff like

"yeah, let's just have all of our friends go out to a fancy restaurant and split the bill for every single one of our birthdays"

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

#155

Post by insightcheck »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #5

I was a troubled kid. Expelled from 2 kindergartens for disruptive behaviour. My parents tried Montessori, and it worked. They found out I was interested in mythology, so I apparently learned to read from the Greek myths. One of my friends was into cars, so they got him a pile of car showroom brochures and he learned to read from that. There was a non-verbal autistic kid there, too. I played "clap-hands" with them ev…

I sometimes wonder about whether personalised teaching as a young student is overall good or bad, for students who then move on to a university with very large, impersonal classes (e.g. with more than 1000 students per class).

On the one hand, I think students in small classes can really become more confident and enthusiastic about learning in the long-term. But on the other, a shift to larger classes can be alienating (e.g. feedback from educators is less frequent). This could be mitigated by going to office hours, but there are plenty of minority experiences that stick where teaching assistants and professors are unwelcoming. The change could be less of a shock for students who went to large high schools, as they're more used to large classes.

Perhaps students who have the chance to grow up with individualized learning can opt for universities that have smaller classes, though it's not always possible when large public universities can often be much more affordable. I wonder if there is a way to prepare students from smaller schools with personalized education to do well at much larger educational institutions.

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

#156

Post by whimsicalism »

crysin wrote: post #113
marssaxman wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was home schooled all the way through til college - never went to any regular school. I have never regretted that, and never felt that I am missing out on any skills necessary for dealing with functional adults. Indeed I see the painful impacts and lasting damage those experiences had on some of my friends, and I am glad I never had to experience it. Kids are cruel to each other because they do not yet know any bet…

Just want to point out that adults can be just as cruel or even crueler than children with just as little empathy. I don't believe or buy the idea that it just a kid thing. We live in this myth that adults are more mature but interacting with society dispels that myth drastically quick, in my experience.

I think I see a lot more kindness as an adult, but I think this is almost exclusively due to selection effects.

I do not see that kindness at the airport or the grocery store, or most other instances that are closer to a random sampling of the US adult population.

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

#157

Post by _mh0j »

I attended a Montessori in the Midwest until third grade. When I entered the California public school system, I was in some ways years ahead of my class (especially in reading comprehension). I coasted through every gifted program they threw at me until high school. Montessori gave me a huge advantage at one of the most critical stages in my development. I wish I could have been there longer.

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

#158

Post by whimsicalism »

_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'm honestly confused by many of the comments I find in this thread re: bullying.

I went to a pretty rough school (repeated fights, people I went to school with murdering people, etc.) and I basically was never even once threatened with violence. All the bullying is through words and making fun of people, etc.

Is physical bullying of this sort actually that common or more media depiction?

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