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

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

#191

Post by boringg » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:11 AM UTC

glhast wrote: post #137

I attended a Montessori from Kindergarten to 5th grade in the 90's. I loved it. The teachers let me teach an art and drawing class in 2nd grade. Another student taught an algebra class (he's a brilliant cancer researcher now). I co-wrote, illustrated, and sold a comic book with another classmate in 4th grade during class time. It allowed me to complete the curriculum on my own time and held me accountable. Montessori…

So I've been reading this and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

"Like others here, I never really enjoyed school as much after Montessori."

It's almost like school peaked as a child and then it was just disappointing after that. Not that I would say don't do the program because everything afterwards is less good but I am a bit split on it.

It also speaks to how powerful the program is to elicit such responses. And it seems from the small subsection of commenters on this HN thread (which is already a specific subsection of society) that there is a transition afterwards but people seem to be well adjusted for the most part.

From my own experience I can say I don't really think I enjoyed school (not Montessori) - and I'm realizing as I type this that in itself is unfortunate.

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

#192

Post by TeMPOraL » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:13 AM UTC

gautamdivgi wrote: post #181

epolanski wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is about standardized tests, american schooos are depressing, and as an european who studied at OSU, but had other friends who went to MIT and Ucla and other famous universities, I think americans immensely overrate the quality and difficulty of american universities. To us, it was impressive how simple tests and exams were, I saw ridiculous things like professors uploading test exams which contained like…

It all comes down to money. If professors make the subject hard, they don’t get students. No students is less money for the University and less opportunity for the professor to scope out potential thesis candidates. There are some professors who make it hard. Generally those who have tenure don’t care and put down a shitload of work on students. Also, if you have a well funded lab that pays well you will have a lot m…

In Europe it's no different, except we mostly only pay with time. Even without the "motivator" of student loans, most people enter university to party, pass tests and get out with paper that grants them access to better-paying or more interesting jobs. Learning is incidental.

I think that despite it being less obvious these days, it's still true: actually learning for the sake of knowing and understanding is a nerd thing. Even at universities, students who care are considered weird.

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

#193

Post by PebblesRox » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:14 AM UTC

hosh wrote: post #170

tobyjsullivan wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll note that this comment assumes standardized education was somehow better in the past. We all have specific memories of being inspired by a teacher or something but that seems like a happy accident more than anything intentional. The universal education system we have today was never meant to "inspire learning" or anything similar. It was designed as a vaccine for illiteracy across a handful of subjects. I would…

There’s a lot that could be say about it, but I think John Taylor Gatto said much of it. The current system does not really do the literacy thing well either. There are also some exciting things happening in the unschooled and regenerative education space. The main thing though, is kids who develop into adults with intrinsic motivation and capable of determining the wise choices for themselves, their children, and co…

I came across this quote recently by John Holt (unschooling movement):

"We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions -- if they have any -- and helping them explore the things they are most interested in."

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

#194

Post by boringg » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:15 AM UTC

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.

That's a cool project - chapeau!

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

#195

Post by philliphaydon » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:19 AM UTC

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…

A friend of mine put his (2) kids in montessori school, he said his daughter she loved going to school every day. When they moved there was no montessori school and the first day in a normal school she came home upset and said the kids don’t care, don’t listen, and they don’t know anything.

Eventually they moved again so they could put her back in montessori school.

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

#196

Post by nimchimpsky » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:22 AM UTC

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#197

Post by smeej » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:41 AM UTC

UncleOxidant wrote: post #148

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...

In my public and private school experience it was both the other kids in the class who didn't like to be outshined as well as (some, not all) of the teachers who couldn't be bothered with anything outside of the textbook and did not like to be questioned. I recall once in 6th grade we were talking about marine sponges and the teacher had brought in one of those loofah sponges, passed it around and said that it was a…

I had a teacher who insisted to my heterochromic classmate, looking him straight in the eyes, that it's not possible to have one brown eye and one half blue/half brown eye, because that's not how genetics work.

I don't understand why teachers are so often threatened by thoughtful children, but it's awfully sad.

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

#198

Post by csa » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:41 AM UTC

ranbato wrote: post #161

We put our 2 oldest kids in Montessori. The oldest one loved it and thrived in Montessori and stayed in it until we started a Charter school to avoid the local Middle School. The second one HATED Montessori and we had to move him out to the local elementary school. In the end it came down to personality. The second kid had a personality that just wouldn't work in a Montessori environment. He would do what he wanted t…

> He would do what he wanted to when he wanted to and would refuse to be redirected in any way, shape or form.

In what way did a kid with this disposition like traditional school more?

Did your kid respond better to a more rigid structure?

Or was it something else?

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

#199

Post by technothrasher » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:42 AM UTC

I was in Montessori from pre-school through grade 6, and then transitioned into a traditional private prep school for grade 7 through 12. Honestly, it wasn't that bad of a transition, even though I had to completely relearn what school was supposed to be.

My Montessori school day by grade 6 was a lot of unstructured time, often outdoors, sometimes doing math in the bathroom because that's where it was quiet, very often project based learning with other kids rather than the teacher. Never any "homework" assigned, but often doing school work at home because I wanted to keep working on something.

My prep school was eight periods a day, sitting in desks, learning whatever the day's lesson plan was, getting fixed breaks for lunch and recess, and getting several hours of homework assigned a day.

The two environments were very different. But I adjusted and moved on. The biggest annoyance I had with the prep school was that they controlled my movements so much. In 6th grade, we'd leave the school and go down to the center of town for lunch, getting something at the sub shop or eating our bagged lunch by the town's waterfalls, and returning to school on our own when it was time. In 7th grade, I needed a hall pass to even be out of the classroom during a period, and would definitely get suspended if I left campus during the day.

But from most of the local Montessori schools I toured when I was looking for my son, the freedom we had at my Montessori school in the early 1980's seems to be very much more restricted these days, simply because the larger culture doesn't allow it any longer. The one that actually offered the most freedom for the kids was still the school that I had gone to. But I live too far away from it now for it to have been a real choice.

As it turns out, my son failed spectacularly at his Montessori school because of some learning disabilities he has that they were unable to handle, and he actually is much more happy now in a more traditional school which helped him overcome his disabilities and be successful (not specifically because they are more traditional, but because they are a school well-versed in handling learning disabilities).

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

#200

Post by musicale » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 2:49 AM UTC

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…

> I also liked that they had children of various years in the same classroom. I think it promoted knowledge sharing from the older kids to the younger ones, and it removed barriers for friendships. Some of my best friends back then where older than I was. That would never happen in middle or high school.

In my own experience multi-year/grade classrooms seemed more fun and interesting, and I think there were social and educational benefits as well.

My perception is that in the US multi-year tends to be largely limited to elective courses, clubs, sports, and extracurricular activities.

(Unfortunately a typical "college preparatory" track in secondary school can interfere with elective courses such as arts courses or practical courses, both of which seem to be viewed as less important by many schools and college admissions departments. I wonder whether California proposition 28 will expand access to arts courses and activities?)