Learning

Last night was a Parent Education night at Mia's Montessori school. The evening meeting was scheduled to last one hour, during which the teachers would show parents how the "materials" work and their importance to the Montessori curriculum.

For those who don't know, Montessori has a very set curriculum. Each material is carefully designed to lead children through the process of learning at a specific and individualized pace. The toys or objects in the room are called "materials" and the use of the "materials" is called "work." Students talk about their day in terms of the work they did, and a very specific language is always supposed to be used when talking about the day at school.

I had a basic understanding of Montessori curriculum before I went last night. I knew that the students are supposed to work at their own pace, and that they aren't grouped by age but rather are encouraged to work in mixed-age groups at whatever speed is appropriate for them. At Mia's school, the pre-school is for ages 3-6. She's in the toddler room now, and then will transition in the fall to the "transition room" as she'll be too young for formal preschool which begins at 2 years 9 months. They keep the kids in the transition room until the teachers believe they are ready for the more advanced learning that takes place in the pre-school.

Our plan has always been to keep Mia at the school through age 5, at which point, assuming we still live here, we would enter the school lottery. One really has to hedge one's bets when it comes to the Boston Public School system. Even though we live in a priority area for a great local public school, there is only a 50% chance that Mia would be able to go there given the way the lottery system works. We don't have a plan for what happens if we don't get a good school, other than find a way to move to Brookline, which isn't really a possibility. Apparently we are just like every other parent in the school. There are no children in the pre-school who are 6, because they have either moved into the BPS kindergarten or moved out of Boston to attend a better school system.

The point of last night's meeting was to show the kind of learning that takes place as kids move up through the top end of the pre-school. I was completely blown away. Literally almost had my socks knocked off. The kids--ages 4, 5, 6--learn multiplication and long division, nouns and verbs and conjunctions, and all kinds of things I wouldn't ever imagine a child that small could learn. Almost every kid leaves the school knowing how to read, which is amazing considering how young they are. The teachers showed us how they teach the higher level math. They did say that most kids don't get to that point before they leave the school, although if they stayed until 6 more would.

All of this got me thinking, what happens to the kids who do get to that higher level once they leave the school and enter a regular kindergarten? How could they possibly be challenged, when the standard curriculum involves identifying vegetables and fruits instead of multiplication and division? If Mia already knows how to read and write and multiply and divide and diagram sentences (yes, they do this!), will she come to hate school and see it as boring?

Of course, we have no way to know how she'll fare as she grows up. We know she's smart, but every parent knows their kid is smart. But if she is one of those kids with advanced reading or math skills, what will we do?

Prior to last night, I firmly believed that public elementary was the only way to go. Why spend $25K per year for your child to learn to make friends? I believed that elementary education was really more about socialization than learning. Of course, that is based on my own education, which was actually pretty good. I guess I just didn't know what other schools could do, with classes of 15 or fewer and 2 teachers per room. What schools could do if they could work individually with children to challenge them on every level instead of preparing them to pass standardized tests. I certainly knew this to be true at the high school level, but I never really applied the logic to the lower levels.

My beliefs haven't necessarily changed, and I need to step back and take a few deep breaths before signing Mia up for the local Montessori elementary school. As an educator and supporter of public education, perhaps my efforts would be better spent getting involved at whatever public school Mia could go to, advocating for her at every turn and ensuring that she gets the very best. But I have to say, I learned more than I expected to last night. Food for thought.