Choosing Montessori Over Traditional School

Choosing Montessori over Traditional School

When parents choose an education method for their child they are setting them up for a "love of learning". It can be a little overwhelming since there are so many different methods to choose. Parents are looking for what they feel their child will benefit most from. While most parents choose a traditional education for their child, more and more parents are choosing Montessori. While both traditional and Montessori have the same goals the difference is the way in which the child reaches those goals.

The Montessori Method emphasizes cognitive & social development, the child chooses his/her own work, there are mixed age groups and the child is allowed to work at his/her own pace as well. Parents appreciate the fact that their child can move freely about the room & choose what interests them. The child discovers their own concepts by working with self-teaching materials. Children are allowed to

group themselves together to peer teach (another great reason for the mixed age groups) and collaborate. The Montessori environment and method encourage self-discipline and inner peace. The child is not interrupted or controlled by the guide (teacher) of the environment (Seldin, 2000).

Traditional education emphasizes on rote memorization and social behavior (as with Montessori, socializing is important but in different aspects) with their peers. In the traditional setting the child is unable to move about the classroom and must do the same assignments as his peers in an allotted time frame. The teacher in a traditional classroom is in total control of all students allowing the child no personal freedom( Micheal,2009). Children have to depend on the teacher to show errors in their work and learning is reinforced externally by repetition, rewards and punishments where as in Montessori the child reinforces their own learning by their internal desire for repetition of work and internal feelings of success. Children are also often grouped together within a year or two of each other and must be on the same learning level as their peers (Micheal,2009).

While most parents look to Montessori as a jumpstart to their child's education, some parents only feel it's a jumpstart to kindergarten.

Most parents enroll their child into Montessori generally at age three (some schools have infant/toddler environments as well) and allow them to attend until their fifth birthday. Children are withdrawn from Montessori schools for many reasons, such as affordability, convenience, and an overall lack of understanding of Montessori (Seldin, 2000). This is generally done around the age of five in which case the child is old enough to enroll in a traditional learning school, sadly