i'd like to hear about anyone's experience with Montessori schools. especially if you went when you were a kid.

like during what grades did you go? do you think it helped you, and in what ways? what disadvantages do you think you had? if/when you have kids would you send them to montessori schools?

or if you're an educator yourself, i'd like to hear what your thoughts are regarding montessori vs. traditional public education.

2/1/2007 2:03:13 AM

i did not but (assuming you did) did they paddle you?

2/1/2007 2:04:18 AM

no, i didnt go to montessori. im a product of the public school system.

we're starting to think about schools for our kid. i've been hearing a lot about montessori, but i dont know anyone who's been in it.

2/1/2007 2:07:29 AM

my brother went to one for a few years but i think it was maybe 1st thru 3rd grade or something...and it was in the early 80s so i dont know...i just remember something about paddling for discipline...but anyway

2/1/2007 2:11:37 AM

no way im going to send my kid to someplace where the teachers beat little kids.

but what little i know about montessori, is that their philosophy seems completely at odds with corporal punishment.

2/1/2007 2:32:21 AM

^^in the early 80's almost any school could still paddle well non-public

[Edited on February 1, 2007 at 2:40 AM. Reason : .]

2/1/2007 2:38:28 AM

According to my mom I was there for maybe a week or two and hated it. I don't really remember. I was about 6.

2/1/2007 2:45:10 AM

I went to one here in Raleigh until I moved and the Montessori in our new town didn't have room for everyone in my family so I went to Catholic school. I was homeschooled later.

I enjoyed the school and the work on your pace attitude. We were so far past our grade level that when we went to Catholic school we were ahead and got busy work. That was the whole reason I was homeschooled.

Montessori from Pre-k until 4th grade
Homeschooled from 6th onward

I think it helped develop skills to study on my own and teach myself. I graduate college in 2.5 years. My brothers did it in 3 all with very high GPAs. Truthfully, I liked Montessori school but I believe that I would homeschool my children.

I was in public school for 5 months in first grade. I was identified was a problem child that would not amount to anything.

2/1/2007 5:07:48 AM

I don't get this whole "rush to finish college" thing.

i guess if you're just a really boring person....

2/1/2007 9:22:54 AM

off topic, but since it was brought up; About half of the states allow public schools to paddle, including NC. In most of these states each school district decides whether or not they'll use it as a form of punishment. Typically what happens is a form has to be filled out by the teacher and approved by the principal, and sometimes by the parent.

that being said, i didn't go to a Montessori school

2/1/2007 10:07:19 AM

I went to montessori school in wake forest when I was 3-6. It was great, not nearly as structured as a regular kindergarten (sp?) but allowed for more free-form learning. most of the parents were pretty chill, and I enjoyed it. If you want I can put you in touch with the owner of the school. Its still going strong, 20 years later.

IF I have kids its straight homeschooling, but a montessori school would be great too. I don't have a whole lot of faith in our current education system (no child left behind BS)

2/1/2007 10:39:41 AM

i know a girl that taught at a montessori elementary school here in raleigh (poe montessori magnet).. long-term substitute position while the "real" teacher was on maternity leave..

she really liked it from that end..

probably not the reply you were looking for, tho.

2/1/2007 11:00:09 AM

My cousins both started out at Montessori schools in Wilmington, but I believe they just go to regular public schools now. I'm not sure...we never really see that side of the family, but they're kinda weird hippies.

2/1/2007 11:06:49 AM

my little brother went to one of these in Fayetteville

he's pretty damn smart

whatever that means

2/1/2007 11:10:26 AM

I went to one in GA from the time I was 2 through 6th grade. I was very happy with my schooling. I like that it places a focus for young children on learning dexterity and the like. Of course, I can't compare it with traditional schooling very well, so I can't really give pros and cons.

Everyone at my school always did really well on standardized tests, but I suppose that's the same with just about any private school. The grades were very small - my graduating class had only 5 people - but because there are 3 grades in one room it wasn't too bad.

When I went to a traditional school in 7th grade, people seemed weirded out by the fact that I had never had a test or a "class" before, but I loved it. I didn't have much trouble adjusting to the new system.

I would love to send my kids to a Montessori school, but whether I will depends on where I live at the time and what the school system is like.

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to PM me.

2/1/2007 11:43:48 AM

I went to one for kindegarten, and half of second grade (pulled from public school because the school was crap).


I think it helped me a lot, because I could work as fast as I wanted and I didnt have to wait for the rest of the class to catch up. If i needed more help in a subject I could get it. Recreation meant more than just a playground- I could work on art projects instead if i wished, I could read, basically i was given free liscence for what would be "recess" to explore.

I was *well* ahead of my classmates when I returned to public school, and frankly was a lot happier at montessouri.

I'm not having kids, but if I do, they're tottally going to a great montessouri school instead of public.

2/1/2007 2:58:52 PM

I went to the Montessori School of Raleigh for K-6.

It was pretty awesome, I'd send my kid to one. They taught us how to learn, as opposed to an assortment of random shit that you get in public school. I feel like it systematically built good foundations in a variety of subjects, but a lot depends on the specific teacher you have.

More than anything it teaches you to value learning. I had 6 kids in my grade when I left -- most of us are in graduate school of one form or another now.

Anyway, I recommend it. Good shit, but you have to go and actually examine the school and the teachers yourself. I imagine it can be of variable quality.

2/1/2007 3:57:32 PM

My best friend has 2 kids and has looked extensivly at schools around her. Her 4 year old is a hanful and has had problems in classes, ect.

Anyway she looked at the schools and wants to send him to montessori school. From what she has told me about it the Montessori schools are better at working with kids to do what they do best. Then applying those techniques to learn about material that they are not so skilled at. She also said lessons and such are more based around individual students and their needs. Its also supposed to be better for "problem kids"

If you live around here you should look into the Raleigh Charter School off Six Forks. 3 of the 4 teachers that started the school taught me in elementary school. I was a pain in the ass when I was a kid and i always remember how great they were and how easy it was to learn things from them

2/1/2007 4:31:44 PM

Is this like a private school where you have to pay out the ass though?

2/1/2007 4:36:20 PM

I don't know much about Montessori, but my cousin runs one in Goldsboro.

http://www.childrenshouseinc.com

2/1/2007 5:18:34 PM

I finished college on the fast track because of the money issue with staying in school. I managed to graduate without any debt.

I might be boring, but I had a great time. I studied hard and partied hard . I will say when I go to my last semester I wasn't in as many extra curricular activities, I just worked, played poker, and went to school.

2/1/2007 6:10:38 PM

The Catholic school I went to for elementary school had Pre-K and Kindergarten taught in a Montessori setting. I think the time spent there was an appropriate kind of education for the age.

2/1/2007 8:39:08 PM

My daughter is currently going to Casa Esperanza, just off of Capital. It is a Charter Montessori, but you do have to pay for preschool & aftercare. She's 4 now and she is having a ball. She has a lot of issues with paying attention, following rules etc and I think that she is much better off in this type of environment. As a bonus, she's in a Spanish Immersion class. At this age, it's all just a game to her and she's enjoying correcting Dad's pronunciation when he tries to read her Spanish books . They also have Spanish Enrichment, which is a regular class tacked onto the end of the day rather than an immersion environment. Let me know if you've got any more questions.

2/1/2007 11:50:21 PM

hey everyone,

thanks for all of your replys, i appreciate you all taking the time to say something, even if you think it was small

so after visiting the school, doing reading, and hearing personal experiences like all yours, we're gonna put him in this montessori preschool now. seattle has montessori up to 8th grade, and from what weve seen its good quality stuff. maybe we wont stay that long with it, who knows. but i think it will suit his style for now.

and forkgirl, i dont care what anyone says, i hope my kid grows up to be as "boring" as you 22 years old and in grad school, i think you're going to be pretty successful in life. remember to thank your parents for doing a good job.

2/2/2007 1:47:57 AM

Quote :

"no way im going to send my kid to someplace where the teachers beat little kids. "

btw ... you're going to be a horrible parent.

2/2/2007 2:09:27 AM

yeah, ok, little troll. what else do you have to add?

2/2/2007 2:44:38 AM

I think i summed up my point quite succinctly

2/2/2007 2:51:04 AM

oh too bad. i thought you were going to have something clever for me. what a let down.

so tell me, little man, do you do this alot? because you're not very good at it. you might want to consider taking up another hobby.

2/2/2007 4:52:56 AM

i know nothing about this topic, but happened to see this in science this morning:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5812/596b

it's just a letter, but there's a link to an earlier article 'evaluating montessori education'

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/313/5795/1893

2/2/2007 6:03:41 AM

Wow, I've never heard of these schools, surprised to hear that lots of people here went to them.

2/2/2007 8:48:34 AM

little man ? serious ? rest my case.

2/2/2007 9:02:35 AM

we do not have access to your links

I wanna read too - I have a 3yo that wants to go to preschool next year

2/2/2007 9:21:35 AM

http://www.montessori-science.org/montessori_science_articles.htm

2/2/2007 9:41:48 AM

I wish I went to a special school, I did public. You get to college and have all these tards who took 6 good AP courses but flunked them because they didn't feel like it and I worked my ass off in the what, 3 bullshit ones my school offered...other than calc, but that's a whole other story right there. I came out alright though.

2/2/2007 9:43:58 AM

for those who are interested,

the original study by psychologists at Univ of Virgina and Univ of Wisconsin is in the subscription journal "Science"
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/313/5795/1893

I dont have $150 to subscribe, so here's the summary of the study
http://www.montessori-science.org/montessori_science_articles.htm

Quote :

"Montessori Education Provides Better Outcomes Than Traditional Methods, Study Finds September 28, 2006—A study comparing outcomes of children at a public inner-city Montessori school with children who attended traditional schools indicates that Montessori education leads to children with better social and academic skills. The study appears in the September 29, 2006 issue of the journal Science. Montessori education is characterized by multi-age classrooms, a special set of educational materials, student-chosen work in long time blocks, a collaborative environment with student mentors, absence of grades and tests, and individual and small group instruction in academic and social skills. More than 5,000 schools in the United States, including 300 public schools, use the Montessori method. The Montessori school studied is located in Milwaukee and serves urban minority children. Students at the school were selected for enrollment through a random lottery process. Those students who “won” the lottery and enrolled at the Montessori school made up the study group. A control group was made up of children who had “lost” the lottery and were therefore enrolled in other schools using traditional methods. In both cases the parents had entered their children in the school lottery with the hope of gaining enrollment in the Montessori school. “This strategy addressed the concern that parents who seek to enroll their children in a Montessori school are different from parents who do not,” wrote study authors Angeline Lillard, a University of Virginia professor of psychology, and Nicole Else-Quest, a former graduate student in psychology at the University of Wisconsin. This was an important factor because parents generally are the dominant influence on child outcomes. Children were evaluated at the end of the two most widely implemented levels of Montessori education: primary (3- to 6-year-olds) and elementary (6- to 12-year-olds). They came from families of very similar income levels (averaging from $20,000 to $50,000 per year for both groups). The children who attended the Montessori school, and the children who did not, were tested for their cognitive and academic skills, and for their social and behavioral skills. “We found significant advantages for the Montessori students in these tests for both age groups,” Lillard said. “Particularly remarkable are the positive social effects of Montessori education. Typically the home environment overwhelms all other influences in that area.” Among the 5-year-olds, Montessori students proved to be significantly better prepared for elementary school in reading and math skills than the non-Montessori children. They also tested better on “executive function,” the ability to adapt to changing and more complex problems, an indicator of future school and life success. Montessori children also displayed better abilities on the social and behavioral tests, demonstrating a greater sense of justice and fairness. And on the playground they were much more likely to engage in emotionally positive play with peers, and less likely to engage in rough play. Among the 12-year-olds from both groups, the Montessori children, in cognitive and academic measures, produced essays that were rated as “significantly more creative and as using significantly more sophisticated sentence structures.” The Montessori and non-Montessori students scored similarly on spelling, punctuation and grammar, and there was not much difference in academic skills related to reading and math. This parity occurred despite the Montessori children not being regularly tested and graded. In social and behavioral measures, 12-year-old Montessori students were more likely to choose “positive assertive responses” for dealing with unpleasant social situations, such as having someone cut into a line. They also indicated a “greater sense of community” at their school and felt that students there respected, helped and cared about each other. The authors concluded that, “…when strictly implemented, Montessori education fosters social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those fostered by a pool of other types of schools.” Lillard plans to continue the research by tracking the students from both groups over a longer period of time to determine long-term effects of Montessori versus traditional education. She also would like to replicate the study at other Montessori and traditional schools using a prospective design, and to examine whether specific Montessori practices are linked to specific outcomes. Lillard is the author of Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius. More information is available at: http://www.montessori-science.org/. "

[Edited on February 2, 2007 at 1:45 PM. Reason : ]

2/2/2007 1:44:58 PM

fuck that, my kid(s) are going to school with notarized waivers for the teachers to smack 'em if they deserve it.

2/2/2007 2:01:21 PM

"you did what? you hit little Billy at school today? well you know what that mean, you're gonna get an ass whoopin when you get home!"

"so how many times ... *WHACK* ... do i have to tell you ... *WHACK* ... that you don't ... *WHACK* .... go around ... *WHACK* ... hitting people! ... *WHACK*

"now go to your fucking room.... and quit crying you goddamned baby."





[Edited on February 2, 2007 at 2:17 PM. Reason : ]

2/2/2007 2:15:39 PM

^^ yep

2/2/2007 3:49:41 PM

unless you want to destroy your child, public school ftw

2/2/2007 11:20:02 PM

well dating could be complicated, since teh girls in the class could be like 6 years younger.

2/3/2007 7:34:43 AM

I totally forgot about Montessori schools. I might do this if I have kids, since public schools here are crap and Catholic schools tend to indoctrinate.

2/3/2007 10:34:25 AM

Quote :

"and forkgirl, i dont care what anyone says, i hope my kid grows up to be as "boring" as you 22 years old and in grad school, i think you're going to be pretty successful in life. remember to thank your parents for doing a good job."

Terrible idea. From EVERY person I know and EVERY personal experience I've had, the kids who jump right from undergraduate to a graduate degree don't get nearly as much out of it.

The point of a graduate degree is to have worked for a while and gotten some life experience as well as industry experience before coming back to school, even if its just for a year or two. Maybe this isn't the case for doctors/lawyers, but it damn sure applies to just about everything else.

2/3/2007 11:18:38 AM

^ but not today, when its getting harder and harder to be competitive for jobs with just a bachelors

2/3/2007 11:52:54 AM

^^^Public schools where are total crap?

2/3/2007 12:34:12 PM

public school ftw

2/3/2007 12:55:45 PM

Quote :

"^ but not today, when its getting harder and harder to be competitive for jobs with just a bachelors"

I don't know of ANY industry where having a Masters with no experience is of any more value than a Bachelors with 2-3 years of experience. Like I said, maybe in the medical fields it's different.

And I don't know how so many people have such a hard time finding a job, because there are TONS of jobs out there in all fields. I mean google has had 500-1000 open positions for the last two years, because they can't find qualified people, not because of competition.

2/3/2007 2:28:54 PM

Quote :

"I don't know of ANY industry where having a Masters with no experience is of any more value than a Bachelors with 2-3 years of experience."

Engineering, all disciplines

Pure Sciences, all fields

Mathematics

Social Work.

Public Adminstration.

and many more.


... in my field, electrical engineering, there are jobs that i am simply not competitive because i do not have a masters.

i have seen plenty of jobs listed for other fields like the one mentioned above, where a masters is critical. Social Work, for instance, the majority of the jobs (good ones, anyhow) is just plain impossible to get without a masters.

please tell me what field you are in where a master's degree is inconsequential.


...


btw, im not saying BS degreed people cant be successful.

but this is totally analagous to someone in the tech industry who has no degree, but 5-10 years experience programming applications or whatnot, saying that "all these damn kids graduating with Bachelors degrees think they're SO smart... but they dont know shit. I know more than them!"

yeah, that might be true for the year or two right after they graduated college, but guess what, after a few years, these "Stupid Kids" are going to be the managers and lead design architects. and when the economy crunches and the job market contracts, who's gonna get forced out? the non-degreed people. when the competition gets heavy for the best jobs, whos going to get the job? the degreed people.

same thing when you compare BS to MS. plain and simple




[Edited on February 3, 2007 at 4:09 PM. Reason : ]

2/3/2007 4:00:57 PM

^ he's right

Noen is in the "build a computer for you" field

[Edited on February 3, 2007 at 4:02 PM. Reason : s]

2/3/2007 4:02:00 PM

if you'e an entrepreneur, and you're hustling your own gigs, working for yourself.

then yah, you're gonna be alright with no degree, if you know what youre doing. but not everyone is an entrepreneur. and many entrepreneurs fail, sometimes through no fault of their own, and have to go back to the brick-and-mortar businesses.

if you want to play the margins and live on the edge, great. but if you want the safety of regular salary and benefits and retirement packages, then higher degree FTW.

2/3/2007 4:13:20 PM

I have to take exception to your stronger language post-edit

It can be true, but if you have a bachelors degree and you're doing A class work, that shit doesn't go unnoticed and you can climb the ranks about as high as any other average employee. However, there's definitely a limit there without an MS.

Also, when it comes to crunch time, I would posit that most managers look to save their buddies first and then the highest performers, regardless of their degrees (as long as they've got BS)

2/3/2007 4:17:46 PM