Not sure if this is strictly American thing. But I saw a bumper sticker on someone’s car recently that said (neighborhood name) Montessori School on it. I looked up said school and all it really said on their site was when to register, where they’re located, sports teams they have, etc but nothing much about what constitutes a Montessori school.
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At a really high level: it’s a different style of classroom that encourages students to sort of choose their own path and pace.
My town has at least one Montessori option for the lowest grade levels, along with more traditional schools.
We considered it for one of our kids but decided not to apply.
It is not just an American thing.
A Montessori school is an educational institution that follows the Montessori method, which emphasizes child-led learning, hands-on activities, and mixed-age classrooms. This approach encourages independence and allows children to learn at their own pace in a supportive environment.
Montessori schools typically have multi-age groupings that they call cycles.
They place significant value on practical skills, for instance in Montessori-aligned daycares they’ll often start sweeping around the time they start walking.
They also generally do a lot of self-directed learning, including in the early years.
It was invented by an Italian woman, Dr. Maria Montessori.
It emphasizes giving the kids choices on what they want to work on, not a free for all, but like a choice of two or three activities for the learning period. And less of an emphasis on butts in seats, the classrooms are set up to allow the kids to work where they want.
In addition to what other people are saying, a Montessori classroom is way less heavy on worksheets and workbooks in favor of a lot of interactive physical tools that students are free to spend time with developing their skills. For example, in first and second grade I learned math primarily by working with a system of beads just like this one that helps build physical intuition for how things like multiplication work.
Its not just a new-age free-range education type system like some others (*cough* Waldorf School *cough*), its an alternative pedagogy with a lot of thought behind it and a set of consistent practices.
Complicating the matter is that a lot of things that were originally Montisorri have been absorbed as just obviously good ideas. So you may look at a Montisorri curriculum and think “doesn’t every school/kindergarden do that”, when in reality they don’t. Also many places are “Montisorri Inspired” without doing every little thing.
Examples are encouring even tiny children to sweep up after themselves and help with dishes and other practical tasks.
I had one kid in Montessori and one in traditional schools. Montessori is not just branding, it is really a different thing, and it does have a real basis.
One example – the majority of our nerves are in our eyes and our hands (gross simplification, as it omits the gut, but hard to use the gut in this context). Kids start tracing letters made of sandpaper with their fingers to learn the alphabet. When it comes to time to write, they already have the basis for small motor control.
There is much more, including a huge focus on self-directed learning.
My Montessori kid is able to deal with life better than the traditional schooled one. The latter did better on standardized tests and mapped better to traditional academic standards.
Maria Montessori was an Italian doctor, teacher and educational philosopher who invented a set of techniques – the Montessori method – that she felt best met children’s ability to learn. She pioneered these ideas in the early 20th century, creating schools for the children of low income workers – children who ordinarily would have no education beyond what they could pick up at home or at church. Her work integrated physical and emotional health, self-directed activities, and her theory of learning, and led to an international movement that continues today.
I went to a Montessori school as a child. It worked wonderfully. So does it mean it works always? The devil is in the details. There was one teacher with a masters degree in early education per 10 students, a ludicrous proportion. There were inexhaustible resources for us to explore and play with, we even had Apple II computers to play Carmen San Diego and Math Blasters with (I entered K in 1990). There were magazines(does Highlights still exist?), toys, colored paper, pencils, crayons, books, music, a worm farm, a garden, a massive playground, and it cost 2000 USD a month in 1990 prices. Did it work? Of course it did, how could it not? Everyone was alphabetized, highly sociable, highly literate, confident and expressive by the first grade. But I would love to see a Montessori school with overworked teachers and minimal resources. Cause otherwise Montessori is code for “give rich kids endless resources and attention and oversee their learning process with freedom and careful guidance”, in which case it really just proves that money works.
It is a non-traditional classroom. My friends send their kids there.
The classrooms have 2-3 teachers in them. The tables and desks are where ever. They aren’t facing a teacher. There are no lectures. Instead a kid has a “contract” they have to follow for the week. A contract is a list of “things” to do, like work these series of math problems, or this science lesson.
They have to do the contract, but can do it in any order. There are the basic reading, writing, math, history, as well as other fields of study. There is enough in the contract to keep them busy. And all of the to-do items in the contract are self-taught. Kids learn at their own pace, with what they are interested in doing at the time. Kids are also expected to help one another. Teachers are there to support. Kids literally grab a box off the wall, and do the project inside.
By the end of the week, a kid has done the same lessons as a traditional student, but at their own pace, and setting their own goals/timelines.
Wait… it’s not a catholic thing? I always assumed they were catholic schools.
One extra thing I wanted to point out that I don’t see accounted for yet is that Montessori schools start as young as 6 months. So when you’re thinking about comparing these schools to others, you can often think of it as two different kinds of comparisons:
Daycare is already stupidly expensive in the states. In my town, the Montessori school is like < 5% more expensive than most other daycare/preschool options.
The reason I point this out is because in the Montessori schools I’ve seen, the rooms for the kids 0-3 are well designed so that the kids can access as much as they can on their own. Shelves are low. Pottytraining kids can access a super low sink and an actual working toilet that’s low to the ground. They can access supplies for eating and drinking and cleaning. In the daycares where I’ve had my kids, I’ve felt their movement was much more restricted, and the environment wasn’t optimized for helping them become self-sufficient.
Given all of those factors, I’m a huge fan–at least for my family’s circumstances, where we live, the other options, etc.
These are all great answers but I wanted to add what I consider one of the big ones that no one’s touched on really well. I own a Montessori school and the thing that I love most about them is that it teaches children how to read using phonics. If we can get a child who just turned three and work with them and they don’t have a learning disability, they will be reading chapter books at a second grade level and writing and sentences and adding and subtracting four-digit numbers by the time they hit kindergarten. It is truly phenomenal! I have never heard nor seen any other daycare curriculum that comes even close. And then on top of that the children are learning executive function, caring for the environment, self-discipline and Independence.
Most Montessori establishments aren’t. That’s a hard fact.
No one is addressing the elephant in the room.
Maria Montessori believed that white people were the superior race, and other races were situated on her scale based on how dark their skin was, with the darkest Africans being the most inferior. She wrote a book about this, it wasn’t a minor part of her belief system.
She also pushed Theosophy, a weird, occultish religion, and incorporated its principles in her teacher trainings.
It is telling that as more people are making more money off Montessori schools, the amount of critical info about Montessori herself has been all but deleted from the internet. Wikipedia doesn’t even make mention of the race stuff at all. There used to be a lot of critical material from former students and teachers online, but a casual tsearcher isnt going to find those now.
It doesn’t negate what is good about it, but just know all the glowing reports are a bit one-sided.
Hey this is something I know! I attended one until third grade, and my mom now runs her own school. Montessori is a secular method of teaching based on principles created by Maria Montessori. Generally, it tries to educate children through tactile learning, experience, and play rather than traditional instruction. My classroom looked a bit different from a normal classroom, there was a large carpet circle in the middle, and then shelves surrounded the area lined with various “works.” Work in Montessori is activities, and these activities are designed to introduce high level concepts in a way that is approachable to a child. So for example, one such work item is the Binomial Cube. This is a box containing a set of cubes which are proportioned based on binomial theorem. It’s putting the seeds for these advanced mathematical concepts in place so that kids can understand these proportions when they are introduced to the actual math in elementary school. Other things like the Pink Tower introduce kids to proportional volume of cubes, if the smallest cube has measurements of 1 x 1 x 1, then the next cube is 2 x 2 x 2, up to the largest, which has a volume of 10 cubed. There are also tactile works for introducing reading words, writing, geography, etc. Practical life works have the child doing tasks such as fastener boards where they practice tying, snaps, buttons, etc or pouring liquids, scooping beans, chopping fake fruits and veg with toy knives, etc.
The day kind of looks like this: At the start of the day, children are encouraged to pick a work. They then take it to either a table or a small rug they unroll on the floor. The child will interact with the work, sometimes based on instructions which were demonstrated to the group (the teacher usually demonstrates new works to the kids while all are gathered around the circle). Then the child will get one of the teachers to show them what they learned. Generally there will be 2-3 teachers for a classroom of 20-30 kids, so children get much more individual education. When the child is finished with one work, they put it away and choose another. There are also snack times, lunch, recess, story time, peppered through the day.
Generally, it’s a more modern method of learning, but done right it’s also quite expensive to start up and run. There are only a couple companies who make the official Montessori work so many items are not cheap. And generally schools need a higher teacher to student ratio to support the individualized learning, so labor costs are higher. Because of this, Montessori schools are pretty much always private schools. In my opinion, it is generally a better learning method to that which traditional public schools use. It would be nice if these ideas could be made available to all kids, but that would require us as a society to spend much more on educating kids (cough
tax the richcough).As a parent who had to research a lot into whether or not I want to send my child to a Montessori, this is the best summary to my understanding:
Montessori have mixed age class (eg. 2.5yo-6yo is in one classroom)
Versus “traditional” preschool/kindergarten which has similar age per class, (eg. approx 2-3yo, 3-4yo, 4-5yo and 5-6yo class, depending on the specific school and total number of kids enrolled).
The purpose of mixed age is all kids are encouraged to learn at their own speed. Not everyone in class need to learn the same thing, activities are “child led”. Each child who completes the curriculum can immediately move on to the next level if they’re more advanced. So within the same class, kids are learning different things.
In “traditional” where everyone is similar aged, the classroom has 1 curriculum and everyone is expected to learn it. Kids who are more advanced may not be given any extra to do, kids who are behind are “pushed” to catch up.
The type of activity in toddler Montessori is also modeled after real life, such as encouraging kids to clean up after themselves. Lots of sensory play (wood toys, ceramic toys, different materials and textures and lots of things in the classroom for kids to explore was my impression during my visit.)
Pro of Montessori – kids are pushed to be more independent, the assumption is kids want to learn so it promotes intrinsic motivation.
Con of Montessori – not all kids are actually intrinsically motivated. Some kids need extrinsic motivation, these kids don’t feel motivated to do any activities if left to their own devices, and don’t do well in Montessori style environment.
My opinion (based on reading other Montessori teacher’s opinions as well) – it is good for toddlers since it promotes independence and toddlers are naturally curious and wants to do things. However it is not necessary good for elementary-high school because many older kids don’t want to study if they’re allowed to “fall behind”. Some kids need the external push to study.
It’s an evidence-based system developed by Maria Montessori, one of the first women to graduate the University of Rome as a medical doctor. Evidence-based means looking at how something works in real life, collecting information on it, and making changes to your expectations based on that information, instead of assuming that the traditions of the past are correct.
Dr. Montessori was assigned to work with underperforming children of working-class families in cities. Those children were growing up in poverty, with parents who had to work and couldn’t spend much time with them, and they also were disconnected from nature. Dr. Montessori created a hands-on curriculum through observation and trial and error. She would come up with activities children could do to learn a subject, make the parts used in the activities, and watch to see if the children liked those activities and if they learned from them. She also changed the classroom environment to be a healthier space for children. The children in her program ended up outperforming their more-advantaged peers in the traditional school system.
The Montessori method focuses most on language arts and math. They use combined-age, open classrooms with trays of activities that children select and work on at their own pace. They have tactile models of letters so kids learn the shapes of the alphabet and the patterns of strokes to create the letters; kids who use this method learn to read and write when they are very small. Their math stations use a manipulative system that helps kids visualize the problem as they solve it. They have real woodworking tools and cookware and their furniture is scaled-down versions of adult furniture, because it’s supposed to give them a sense of ownership of their learning space and let them develop the motor skills and habits they’ll use as adults.
So while it is a child-led system, it’s not like the Waldorf system or a forest school or other systems that emphasize free expression above all. Instead, there is a curriculum with an order of learning, aimed at rapid development of practical skills, with the kids allowed to select from the parts of the curriculum currently offered to them. The teachers demonstrate each lesson, then observe the progress, then offer the next group of lessons the child is ready for.
Instead of letter grades for an entire subject, their learning for every lesson is assessed on a scale of three options: either the child was not ready for the material, or the material was introduced and is still being worked on, or the material was mastered. This way of judging a child’s progress shifts focus from “you’re a good or bad student” to “you’re working your way through it, and here’s where you are right now.” This approach has to happen in a classroom with ratios that allow the teachers to get closely involved with each child’s progression, and it’s not easy to take that kind of information on a state level, run the numbers, and say “This school is performing well” or “This school is performing badly.”
However, when you do the same thing with the current US public school system, which is designed to produce scores easily looked at in bulk, the numbers almost always directly correlate to poverty in the school district, so maybe the numbers aren’t worth much after all. Teachers in underperforming schools say the letter grade system is a bad way to understand a child’s progress, needs, interests, and challenges.
Montessori is a whole-person approach that sees the child as a unique individual who is going to learn some subjects quickly and need more repetition for other subjects. Supporting each other, seeing connections between the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and social parts of the child, and treating the natural world with reverence is also a central idea–being a “citizen of the world.” Montessori’s Catholic identity informed her sense of collective identity, being who we are in community with others, and of the holiness of nature. At the end of her life, she was in India, developing a program for older children and integrating Hindu spirituality into her concepts of identity and learning.
In the US, Montessori schools have a reputation as places for rich spoiled kids. That’s because of our history, not the program. Montessori was Italian, and when WWII broke out, the US balked at anything that was associated with Italy, and Montessori schools, which were intended for the underserved masses and for children with learning challenges, lost public interest. In the US, Montessori schools ended up being elitist because it was wealthy, educated parents who had the resources and the information to back special schools.
In the meantime, Italy shut down Montessori’s schools, because their emphasis on independence and ethics was incompatible with fascism. Montessori fled to India.
Montessori schools are getting a second look in the US. Now there are Montessori public or charter elementary schools in the US, especially in poorly-performing urban areas where it’s recognized that the standard approach is not working and that the kids need more access to nature.
All along, though, many public schools in the US were using elements of the Montessori method in their early education classrooms. Lots of kids in the US got two or three years of Montessori learning before suddenly transitioning to age-segregated, lecture-based classrooms with assigned seating and an emphasis on rote memorization.
Montessori schools are usually secular/nonsectarian. With the rising tide of Christian charter schools in the US that are basically traditional schools with Bible worksheets and no sex ed, it remains to be seen how public funding and public access to Montessori schools and other nontraditional schools will change. Will they get more attention because more options will be available, or, as in Italy, will they be treated as a threat to the current blueprint for American education?
I can only speak for Germany, as I live near a Montessori school. As others have said it’s a private school, where kids iof multiple levels learn together in a more hands on approach. Basic goals are to teach them to learn independently and develop their own talents.
I am highly critical of the system (here in Germany) and what I see.
While public schools are highly regulated, teachers must have a German degree in teaching and the subject.
In Montessori basically anyone can become a teacher and sometimes the quality might be bad, like someone who dropped out before graduating as a teacher.
Once you are in Montessori you are stuck in there and it’s super hard to go back to the public system, due to them having no/different curriculums.
On top of that any private school in Germany is seen as a “degree mill”
I sent my kids to a Montessori school. I forget what the certifications were, but the teachers were all definitely trained on the actual Montessori methods. They learned to read at the age of 3. And that was with very minimal effort on our part. Here are the 2 main things I liked about it. Keep in mind that I have no idea if these were actual Montessori things, or if it was just the school we sent them to. Also, they went for 3 years and did their kindergarten year there before moving to public schools for first grade:
The way they taught the alphabet. DO NOT teach your kids A is Ay, B is Bee, C is Cee, D is Dee, etc. Those are simply the NAMES for the letters and have absolutely no use to anyone until you are trying to spell. They don’t need to spell words until a few years later. At the pre-k age, they are just trying to learn how to read. So teach them the letters ONLY BASED ON THE SOUNDS THEY MAKE. A is Ah, B is Buh, C is Kuh, D is duh. That way, when go to sound out C-A-T, they aren’t confused between the ‘name’ of the letter, and the sound that it makes.
The other thing is that when kids are learning a new activity, they will have the older kids teach them(Since the classroom has ages 3-5). Learning how to teach is a super useful skill and has the added benefit of reinforcing what they have learned.
Again, no idea if this was specific to Montessori, or if it was the way this particular school was, but those 2 things(mainly the first) were the things that really made me feel like it was worth it.
Already some good answers, but I just want to chime in since we’re raising our kids in a semi-montessori way. The key thing is the show your kids that “they belong.” As in, this is their world too. We allow them to explore that world (within safe bounds). We let our 2 year old cut fruits and vegetables, use scissors, give him the ability to access light switches, sinks, snacks. We let him help with the cooking and cleaning. A lot of parents freak out when they see us letting him do certain things. But we feel as though it’s really important for their development.
If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have laughed and said Montessori was a yuppie thing. But having gone through it – I am now a true believer.
In Montessori, they believe children are more capable than we believe them to be at four years old They were teaching the kids to not only cut up an orange with a metal knife and squeeze orange juice into a glass picture, but then pour the juice out into a glass cup.
The kids were not efficient, but the mind blowing thing is their attention was completely focused on this one task for more than 40 minutes.
They were also taught how to clean up their space as they go.
I don’t know about you but at that age if I spilled anything in the kitchen, I would have been flinching waiting for a smack to come.
But I watched several little kids work with metal knives and glass cups and pitchers, and then clean up after they were done.
Similarly, they were being taught math skills in cursive, writing skills at the same time
I have one kid who started in Montessori at 7 years old (2nd grade) and will be 12 soon still going strong.
I’m unsure exactly the values and learning methodologies but I can say for certain that he has absolutely thrived in this setting.
Not to mention, he LOVES drawing and is actually very good for his age, something they allow him to do and encourage, rather than only force him to do on his spare time.
They emphasize experiental learning through experiences
(This is based on my own experience going to Montessori school until high school and my mother teaching there her entire career at the preschool/kindergarten level)
In Montessori the teacher is a guide while the child self teaches. Class rooms are open spaces, typically work is done on the floor in the younger ages. They pick their own work from options the teacher has shown them, maybe with an expected weekly work plan. The teacher will have group lessons to show how to do new work, but the student can do that work when they want. Classes are in 3 year age chunks. The students have jobs in the class like cleaning or leading group tasks. In middle school we were even responsible for the vending machines in the gym.
Most class time is open for self guided work. There aren’t grades, rather “mastery” where you have to continue your work until it is 100% correct, which prevents people from falling through the cracks if they are behind the class.
It should also focus on peace. “Peace” was a subject of study for my 12 years. My mom had the “Peace Table” in her class, if one student had a problem with another, they would invite them to the peace table to work it out.
Each school is different and there are two different trainings the teachers can get. My school ended up having to sell to a chain after unsuccessfully trying to launch a high school. My mom worked at the “new” school owned by the chain for a while and hated it, she said it was a very soulless. I’ve seen ads for schools in my town that seem against everything I’ve ever known as Montessori–uniforms and desks in rows? What?
It was like any small private school. We were competitive in the private/religious school league in basketball and soccer. My transition to a +5k public high school was overwhelming at first but educationally a breeze.
I have been teaching for 20 years, much of it in a very affluent city.
Here, “Montessori” means absolutely nothing. I learned about it in teacher’s college, and the question has been answered, so I won’t bother.
Of the several different schools kids attended before coming into K or grade 1, there was a WIDE variety of actually filling any Montessori principles. Mostly, it just meant expensive. Small class sizes was what the price primarily covered.
Some actually did Montessori principles, including sweeping, polishing, etc. Lots of play based learning and choices.
Others were literally drill and kill learning with work sheets. Kids came in at “grade 3 level” but had no idea what they were actually doing (like they could tell you what 10/5 was, but couldn’t solve a word based math question or tell you what division actually was) and could decode complex words but couldn’t comprehend what a story meant, etc. These kids were totally fine, but the parents had an artificially inflated image of the kids because that’s what they paid for. It could be tough to deal with, especially in grade 1 where they start getting report cards, etc.
In my professional (and personal) experience from all this stuff, just find nice schools with staff you appreciate. The best thing a child can have is a caring adult(s) who support them. If they are falling within norms, leave them alone and let them be a kid.
“Being able to multiply” at 4 is dumb. There’s a reason we have it later in the curriculum. Let the kid learn it with their peers.
Keep in mind, I’m Canadian and we have a good public education system that pays teachers well. I know very well that it’s different in other countries.
From personal experience, if you have a child with ADHD, Montessori school might not be the best. They might struggle with less structure. YMMV though.
I went to a montessori school that let you choose what to work on basically every day. I hated math so I never chose math. Consequently I was behind in math when I reached middle and high school.
My kids attend a public Montessori school in North Carolina. I want to attest to the methods independent of private schools for rich kids. Montessori on a public school budget is still great.
I was a huge skeptic at first. The results have blown me away.
I’ll never forget walking into my daughter’s school around lunch time to pick her up for a doctor’s appointment. There were three preschool aged kids who had spilled a pitcher of juice on the floor. All three of the kids, maybe five years old, went and got a mop and cleaned up the spill by themselves. No complaining, no confusion, just went and got the mop and bucket and cleaned it up. I’m not sure the teachers even knew the spill had happened.
I will say this – teaching kids to be that independent at a young age can backfire because now my daughter is 11 and she’s fiercely independent and has such great self confidence and she’s so comfortable in her own skin. As a dad I miss her needing me a little bit. I’m proud as hell of her though.
I work for the public schools and do evaluations for special education so have done student observations at our local Montessori schools. The students seem to do a lot of self-directed learning with the teacher acting as a facilitator (but who does some small group instruction). It works well with many children but especially for those with some behavioral issues, the class structure (or lack thereof) can be a real disaster!
Montessori schools use a teaching style that’s more hands on and self directed. Instead of traditional lectures, kids choose activities from a set of options and learn at their own pace, often working with special learning materials. There’s usually more focus on independence, mixed age classrooms, and less rigid structure compared to regular schools.
I loved my Montessori school growing up. I think a lot of the care by faculty are things that you could find at most private schools, but here’s some things I was doing from 4th – 9th grade that I don’t think non Montessori kids did:
For me Montessori meant independence and opportunity. I actually disliked summer break to a degree cause school meant I got to do so much cool stuff with all of my friends
My granddaughter goes to a Montessori school. She baked bread for the class before she was 2. I’m not shittin you.
Montessori schools focus more on the practical life skills than ‘learning how to take a test’.
Really, the Montessori educational process involves respecting the child as a capable, intelligent individual on their own developmental journey, rather than an ‘incomplete’ adult needing constant direction or protection.
Basically: ‘neurology directs how we learn, so let’s make a system that’s compatible with a child’s continuing neurological development’.
Learning is developmentally-appropriate, but largely hands-on: math lessons, for example, are embedded in activities with countable objects that a child can physically interact with (imparting fine-motor skills alongside mathematical concepts), rather than the rote memorizing and repetition of abstract concepts that have no ‘why’ behind them.
Montessori schools also involve the children in basic, everyday tasks, like making their lunch and cleaning up after themselves; the lessons are more likely to ‘stick’ because it’s an experiential learning pattern, not an instructional one.
Essentially, a Montessori education treats learning as a holistic process, in contrast to the fragmented ‘one room, one subject, take a test’ model of traditional standardized education.
It’s education as an authentic reflection of life itself.
Montessori schools emphasize the teaching of autonomy. Kids between 2 and 18 are taught to do things on their own, or in groups. And on top of doing things, they are also taught to check the quality of their work, by themselves.
Of course, they’re not on their own, and they can ask the educators for guidance or help when they need it. But the goal is to be the main actor of their learning journey.
Maria Montessori herself coined that phrase, that sums up a big part of that education style: “teach me how to do it by myself.”