Why Montessori For the Kindergarten Year?

It's re-enrollment time, and in thousands of Montessori schools all over America, parents of four year old's are trying to decide whether or not they should keep their children in Montessori for kindergarten or send them to a local school. 

The advantages of using a local school often seem obvious, while those of staying in Montessori are often unclear. When you can use the local schools for free, why would anyone want to invest thousands of dollars in another year's tuition? It's a fair question, and it deserves a detailed answer. But there is no one correct answer for every child. Often the decision depends on each family's priorities and how strongly parents sense that one school or another is the right match for their children. Naturally, to some degree, the answer is also connected to the family budget.

We are often amazed at how families of very modest means but who prioritize their children's education will go to great lengths to keep their children in Montessori. So here are a few answers to some of the questions parents often ask about Montessori for the kindergarten child. 

Q: In a nutshell, what would be the short-term disadvantage of sending my 5-year-old to the local schools? 

When a child transfers from Montessori to a new kindergarten, she spends the first few months adjusting to a new class, teacher, and system. This, along with the fact that most kindergartens have very different expectations for five year old's than most Montessori programs, severely cuts into the learning that could occur during this critical year of their lives. 

In a few cases, Montessori children in kindergarten may not look as if they are as advantaged as a child that has been in a very academically accelerated program. Still, what Montessori kindergarteners know, they usually know very well. With reinforcement, as they grow older, it becomes internalized and a permanent part of who they are. When they leave Montessori before they have had the time to internalize these early experiences, their learning often evaporates because it is neither reinforced nor commonly understood. 

Q: What would be the most important advantages of keeping my five-year-old in Montessori?

Montessori is an approach to working with children that are carefully based on what we have learned about children's cognitive, neurological, and emotional development. Although sometimes misunderstood, the Montessori approach has been acclaimed by some of America's top experts on early childhood and elementary education as the most developmentally appropriate model currently available. Montessori's significant advantage to the five-year-old is how it helps the young child "learn how to learn."

Over recent years, educational research has increasingly shown that students in many schools don't understand most of what they are taught. Howard Gardner, Harvard Psychologist and author of the best-selling book The Unschooled Mind, suggest that "Many schools have fallen into a pattern of giving kids exercises and drills that result in their getting answers on tests that look like understanding. As a result, most students, from as young as kindergarten and students in the finest colleges in America, do not understand what they have studied in the most basic sense of the term. They cannot appropriately apply the knowledge learned in one setting in a different setting. Study after study has found that by and large, even the best students in the best schools can't do that." (On Teaching for Understanding: A Conversation with Howard Gardner," by Ron Brandt, Educational Leadership Magazine, ASCD, 1994.)

Montessori is teaching for understanding. In a primary classroom, three- and four-year-olds benefit from two years of sensorial preparation for academic skills by working with concrete Montessori materials. This concrete sensory experience gradually allows the child to form a mental picture of concepts like: How big are a thousand? And what happens when we borrow or carry numbers in mathematical operations? 

Parents and educators have often underestimated the value of the sensory experiences of the younger children in Montessori. Research shows young children learn by observing and manipulating their environment, not through textbooks and workbook exercises. The Montessori materials give the child a concrete sensorial impression of abstract concepts, such as long division, that become the foundation for a lifetime of understanding. 

Because Montessori teachers are well-trained in child development, they know how to present information developmentally appropriately. 

In many American schools, children do exercises and fill in workbook pages with little understanding. There is a great deal of rote learning. Superficially, it may seem like these children are learning the material; however, all too often, a few months down the road, little of what they have "learned" will be retained, and it will be rare for the children to be able to use their knowledge and skills in new situations. Learning to be organized and focused is as important as any academic work. Doing worksheets can be impressive to parents, but there is rarely any deep learning going on. More and more educational researchers are beginning to focus on whether students. Young or adult, really understand or have memorized correct answers. 

Q: In a class with such a wide age range of children, won't my five-year-old spend the year taking care of the younger children instead of doing their own work? 

The five-year-olds in Montessori classes often help the younger children with their work, teaching lessons and correcting errors.

Anyone who has ever had the experience of teaching a skill to someone else may recall that explaining a new concept or helping someone practice a new skill leads the teacher to learn as much, if not more, than the pupil. This is heavily supported by research. Unfortunately, experiences that facilitate the development of independence and autonomy are very limited in traditional schools. 

Q: Since most children will eventually have to go to the neighborhood school. Wouldn't it be better for them to make the transition in kindergarten rather than in first grade?

The American Montessori Society tells of one father who wrote, "We considered the school years ahead. We realized a child usually does his best if he has good learning habits, a sound basis in numbers and math, and the ability to read. We realized he had an excellent two-year start in his Montessori school. If he were to transfer to another kindergarten program, he would probably go no further than he is now. In contrast, if he stays in Montessori, he will reap the benefits of his past work under the enthusiastic guidance of teachers who will share his joy in learning."

By the end of the kindergarten year, Montessori students will often have developed academic skills that may be beyond those of children enrolled in most American kindergarten programs; however, parents should remember that academic progress is not our ultimate goal. Instead, we hope the children will have incredible self-confidence, enthusiasm for learning, and feelings of being closely bonded to their teachers and classmates. We want them to enjoy school and feel good about themselves as students. 

Once children have developed a high degree of self-confidence, independence, and enthusiasm for learning, they usually can adapt to all sorts of new situations. So, while there are tremendous and exciting reasons to keep a child in Montessori through elementary school and beyond, by the time they are in first grade, they will typically be able to go off to their new school with not only a vibrant curiosity but also excitement about making new friends and learning new things. 

Q: If I keep my child in Montessori for kindergarten, won't they be bored in a traditional first-grade program?

Montessori children, by age five, are generally curious, self-confident learners who look forward to attending school. They are engaged, enthusiastic learners who honestly want to learn and ask excellent questions. 

What teacher wouldn't give her left arm for a room with children like that? Truthfully, over the years, we've found some who consider these children "disruptive."

Disruptive? You ask. A polite, independent Montessori child, disruptive? Well, first of all, let's remember that Montessori children are human beings, and not all children who attended Montessori fit the idealized description. However, enough do that the generalization is often fairly accurate.

Montessori children, by age six, have spent three or four years in a school where they were treated with honesty and respect. While there were clear expectations, and ground rules, within that framework, their opinions and questions were taken quite seriously; unfortunately, there are still some teachers and schools where children who ask questions are seen as challenging authority. For example, you can imagine an independent Montessori child asking his new teacher, But why do I have to ask each time I need to use the bathroom? Or Why do I have to stop my work right now? 

So the honest answer is that it depends on the teacher and the school. 

From an academic viewpoint, Montessori kindergarteners will generally be doing very well by the end of the school year, although, once again, that is not our ultimate objective. The program offers them enriched math, reading, Language, and a wide range of lessons in science, geography, and other cultural areas. If they are ready, they typically develop excellent skills and become quite "culturally literate."

When one of these children enters a traditional first grade, they may have already mastered the skills that their new school considered first-grade curriculum. However, some Montessori children are still more advanced. Once upon a time, in America, elementary schools had only one course of study for every child at each grade level. The only option for the academically gifted children was to skip them ahead of one or two grade levels. This created all sorts of resentments and social stresses on children who socially and physically still belonged with their age group; however, Dr. Montessori's education strategies have been incorporated by more school systems. It is becoming more common to find elementary schools willing and able to adapt their curriculum to meet the needs of individual students who are ready for accelerated work. 

The critical concept in Montessori is the child's interest and readiness for advanced work. If a child is not developmentally ready to go on, she is not left behind or made to feel like a failure. Our goal is not to ensure that our children develop at a predetermined rate but to ensure that whatever they do, they do well. 

Most Montessori children master a tremendous amount of information and skills. Even in the rare case where one of our children may not have made as much progress as we would have wished, she will usually move along steadily at her own pace and feel good about herself as a learner.

- Bumblebee Teacher

(Reference: Why Montessori For the Kindergarten Year? by Tim Selden, the President of the Montessori Foundation, alongside Dr. Elisabeth Cole.)