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The Montessori Mafia

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Re: The Montessori Mafia

#81

Post by jacques_chester »

ajju wrote: post #38
jsavimbi wrote: post #13

I can't speak for the higher end of Montessori as I only attended when I was just starting out my career in education, but I found it to be rewarding for someone with a wandering mind, more so than the strict rote-based Catholic-influenced education I was subjected to further on. I also experienced British private school, and that was definitely better than public but without the scientific approach that I saw at Mon…

>If the child is a dullard, don't waste too much money on them as you'll need it for later on for when they really fuck up. In my experience, barring truly mentally challenged children, most children classified as 'dullards' by the education system just don't understand how to cope with the traditional model of teaching. Once someone takes the time to understand them and teaches them how to 'work the system' while st…

> In my experience, barring truly mentally challenged children, most children classified as 'dullards' by the education system just don't understand how to cope with the traditional model of teaching.

A classic example is dyslexia. One of the smartest women I know says she was classified as a special-needs student until her dyslexia was diagnosed. Since then she has become an accomplished lawyer, Oxford/Edinburgh masters student and an award-winning novelist.

Re: The Montessori Mafia

#82

Post by dhs »

calpaterson wrote: post #74
ellyagg wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Montessori education may or may not have advantages. But unless you control for educational background and income of the family, your analysis has a problem." This WAS controlled for. Correct analysis WAS done, peer reviewed, and published. It's a shame this is so highly upvoted. Pointing out that correlation does not equal causation is the very first most obvious criticism to make of a finding, but don't sail in wi…

The cited study found improvements, not latent billionaireism. The broader claim is wild speculation.

I'm a parent, and I'm interested in improvement, not latent billionairism. So to me, such studies are useful, even without broader claims.

Re: The Montessori Mafia

#84

Post by dman »

SwellJoe wrote: post #51
mrtron wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

s/rapper/$475 million businessman

Which, when you realize that most working musicians make less from their music than they would make doing a full-time minimum wage job, is perhaps even more impressive. Even successful musicians are rarely rich by Silicon Valley standards.

Most Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are rarely rich by Silicon Valley standards.

Re: The Montessori Mafia

#85

Post by kenjackson »

speleding wrote: post #78

My kids (4 & 7) just moved from a traditional school to a Montessori school last summer because we moved house. I wasn't completely sold on the philosophy yet but my kids LIKE going to school a lot more now and it seems to work really well. Happy kids, learning a lot. But it is very counterintuitive for the engineer in me who wants to measure progress by how much of the alphabet they know. It takes a lot of trust in…

kids are not allowed artificial flavoring in their lunch food...

Why would that make you cringe?

Re: The Montessori Mafia

#86

Post by dhs »

brlewis wrote: post #63
ladon86 wrote: post #11

I went to a Waldorf/Steiner school, which shares some of these traits such as the lack of a focus on assessment and grading and the emphasis on creativity. We weren't taught the alphabet until the age of about 6-7 and basic arithmetic at 7-8. We did begin learning foreign languages at age 6, however. In practice my older brother taught me to read and count well before the Steiner curriculum did, but I still think tha…

At the Montessori school my kids attend, children learn letters when they're ready/motivated, usually around age 3 or 4. Basic arithmetic starts around around age 4-5, typically. I don't think Waldorf/Steiner emphasizes materials the way Montessori does: http://ourdoings.com/brlewis/2006-01-21 I'm not actually sure how similar Waldorf/Steiner is to Montessori, aside from both shunning the same bad ideas.

I've researched this for my children, and there seemed to be significant differences. The amount of superstition in the Steiner teachings put me off big time ("Beware of right angles and potatoes!"). Montessori makes far fewer wild assumptions.

Re: The Montessori Mafia

#87

Post by kwantam »

ladon86 wrote: post #11

I went to a Waldorf/Steiner school, which shares some of these traits such as the lack of a focus on assessment and grading and the emphasis on creativity. We weren't taught the alphabet until the age of about 6-7 and basic arithmetic at 7-8. We did begin learning foreign languages at age 6, however. In practice my older brother taught me to read and count well before the Steiner curriculum did, but I still think tha…

My then-girlfriend and I did some work to help start a Waldorf school in western Massachusetts, so I've had a bit of direct experience with Waldorf schools despite not having attended one, and I agree with most of your assessment: the focus on creativity / learning to teach yourself is a huge departure from the traditional approach, "here is how we solve this kind of problem, now practice on these other, nearly identical problems."

One problem I noticed with the particular school we were helping to start was that the majority of the parents were technophobic to the point of hysteria: they literally asked me not to bring my laptop to meetings. As far as I can tell, this isn't a necessary feature of such schools. The general lesson, for me, is that in settings like this (e.g., an alternative educational facility bootstrapped by a small community) the school can take on the pathologies of the community, with potentially undesirable results.

Re: The Montessori Mafia

#88

Post by icco »

yalurker wrote: post #52
icco wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a bit of a stretch. American public education focuses on learning the basics so you can be then trained by either your occupation (ala factory worker, etc.) or by your next institution (university). On top of that depending on where you grow up, the school focuses more on one or the other. Grow up in the bay area, there is a higher chance your school will focus on getting kids into a university. Grow…

This comment is so absurdly wrong and offensive I had to read it several times fearing I was missing some sarcasm or satire. I'm sure you didn't mean it as such, so here is some information from someone who went to school in the midwest. Schools in the midwest do not focus on "skills associated with living on a farm". Even in agriculture-centric Iowa farm labor is about 8% of the population, the other 92% of people a…

I don't know, I grew up in both the bay area, and a more rural part of California, and there was definitely an agricultural bend once you moved to an area where 60% of the graduating class ended up not going to college. There is a little bit of satire in there, but it is also something noticeable from my experience.

Re: The Montessori Mafia

#89

Post by damla »

ladon86 wrote: post #11

I went to a Waldorf/Steiner school, which shares some of these traits such as the lack of a focus on assessment and grading and the emphasis on creativity. We weren't taught the alphabet until the age of about 6-7 and basic arithmetic at 7-8. We did begin learning foreign languages at age 6, however. In practice my older brother taught me to read and count well before the Steiner curriculum did, but I still think tha…

For grading, I don't think much traditional preschools do grading. It begins usually with primary school. There may be more praises though, like drawing stars on hands, but until the age children buy such praises like 4,5.

Creativity is very important for Waldorf, but not the main issue in Montessori. For example, you must be presented by a teacher on how to work with a material (play with a Montessori toy) first. There is not much room to art, nor imaginative play in Montessori.

If Montessori has a remarkable effect on success, I think it's because it helps children the value of working hard at an early age. There are no programs to distract you. You pick something, play with it as long as you like, learn all you like from that one and continue with a more difficult one.

As there is no rush, you do your all work like wearing cloths, putting your dish to the table. Being able to do all work yourself, one very important skill that every entrepreneur must have :)

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