Cedar River Montessori School
15828 SE Jones Road Renton, Washington 98058 425-271-9614
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1.Q. What is the chief difference between a Montessori and traditional classroom?
A. The Montessori classroom is a "prepared environment" planned in advance to support independent, student initiated work. Traditional classrooms are chiefly structured and suited for the teacher.
2.Q. How are Montessori grade levels structured compared to traditional?
A. Montessori students are assigned to flexible, multi-age grouped classrooms within a common developmental range of three years. (0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12-15, 15-18 years of age). They have the same teacher during the three year period. Traditional schools assign children to a new teacher every year and all classmates are the same age group.
3.Q. How do children learn in the Montessori classroom compared to traditional?
A. Students gain knowledge by themselves by working on hands-on projects and through active acquisition of knowledge. Teachers provide guidance but are much more in the background. Traditional teachers provide information and require children to memorize and test on the information they provide. There is little or no time for discovery. Children are not expected to take an active role in their own education. It is important to be a passive learner in a traditional school.
4Q. How do the two curriculums compare?
A. Montessori curriculum remains flexible in response to students' needs during each developmental stage. There is little emphasis on compartmentalizing the curriculum since all parts are linked to all other parts. Traditional school curriculum is strictly scheduled and driven by arbitrary standards according to subject areas. Subject areas are compartmentalized with little linkage to other parts of the curriculum. Due to the inflexible nature of this compartmentalization students are rarely able to do more than a surface inquiry. That is why rote memorization plays so heavily in traditional schools. It takes the place of deeper learning.
5Q. You mention flexibility in the curriculum. What does this mean for the student?
A. Each student is able to work to create a unique path through the curriculum. This path is based on abilities and interests. This is very different from traditional schools where the teacher (or the State) determines what the children must know at any given time and in what order they must know it. In those schools the student is never involved in the decision.
6Q. What else can you tell me about a student's relationship with his or her teacher in comparison with what they 'd have in a traditional school?
A. The emphasis for a Montessori student and teacher is a personal, one-to-one relationship. The teacher is the older, wiser partner in the relationship but this doesn't negate the student's ability to propose or influence a decision. Traditional teachers, on the other hand, are the sole decision maker and the primary authority for the group.
7Q. Does the teacher assign any work and if so how is that any different from what a traditional teacher would do?
A. Montessori teachers do assign work but each child participates in creating a significant portion of his or her own work. Each child engages in individual or paired research projects beginning in first grade. This gets the child used to doing research and preparing reports about the research from the very beginning. It also enhances the child's motivation to work with and go beyond anything the teacher may have assigned. In the traditional school the teacher prepares and assigns everything without ever consulting the students.
8 Q. You mentioned research. Just how does this research happen with the limited time period that a school day has?
A. Students in Montessori classrooms are allowed to work uninterrupted for very long periods of time (up to two or two and a half hours) non-stop. The teacher is available as a consultant and facilitator. Compare this to traditional schools where the student has arbitrarily limited periods of time during which information is presented by a teacher. Practice is usually not allowed directly after the presentation due to the tight time restrictions and so the student is required to do the work as home work, without the advantage of a teacher present such as is possible in the Montessori classroom.
9 Q. Do you grade students?
A. Students are assessed at different points in the year but with little emphasis on grades. Instead of the external compulsions of rewards and punishments as in traditional schools Montessori students reinforce their knowledge by working on logically connected projects that satisfy their curiosity and build a sense of competence. Teachers track the progress of each student as he or she does these things and reports on them to parents at appropriate times.
10 Q. How can a student do well if they aren't pushed along by the teacher?
A. This is where Montessori is sometimes seen as somewhat magical. Students really do like to learn. Each student's rhythm of work is accepted and encouraged. Students find authentic pride in their own accomplishments. Even the process of making mistakes is taken as a positive learning experience. Students typically catch their own mistakes when working with materials and so avoid the put-down of being pointed out as wrong. Instead of judging and correcting, the teacher advises the use of different complementary project materials or presents an advisory lesson again from a slightly different approach to help the student's comprehension. Compare this with traditional school where the student is expected to follow the pace of the group and where external rewards and punishments are the motivating factors. Additionally the traditional teacher judges and corrects directly and frequently.
11 Q. How do you keep all the children of different age groups under control?
A. Control is not a problem. Students learn early on the rules of the classroom and are very respectful of them and each other. They are given freedoms that they appreciate and that lift the burden of oppressive rules from them. They have freedom of movement. They can get up and use the lavatories at any time without asking. They can move around the room during the work time and only have to be respectful of others while doing so. Communications between students and students and teachers is based on mutual respect. Compare to traditional school where students can only move and speak with teacher permission. Movement and communication are based on external authority.
12 Q. What final comparisons can you make about Montessori and traditional schools?
A. Students have a daily balance of individual project work, small-group cooperative work, small-group and large-group teacher lessons. Students can have social interactions at appropriate times within their normal academic work time. Traditional schools find it impossible to do anything other than large group presentations and there is strict segregation of academic work from social interaction. Academic work is done under stifling silence and interaction is allowed only in the lunch room, hallways and playgrounds. Montessori schools provide a well articulated, hands-on science-based curriculum that integrates math, language arts and the creative arts in a meaningful way. The curriculum is also intended to foster personal insights and moral awareness. Each student knows that he or she has the opportunity to take their study beyond the reaches of the teacher's own knowledge. Traditional schools focus on the classic "three R's" but mostly out of context. Their curriculum consists of disconnected notions categorized according to arbitrary subject boundaries.
