New World school with a century-old method
- At Montessori, students choose, constructing
their own education
Children at north Stockton's New World Montessori
School counted with beads and blocks. They read
books. They crafted spiders out of plastic-foam
cups and bright pipe cleaners. When they lost
interest, they moved on to more of what they
and their instructors call work, and in doing
so, helped carry on a century-old educational
movement.
In January 1907, Maria Montessori, trained
as a medical doctor, opened the first Montessori
school, Casa dei Bambini, to
working-class children in Rome. She wanted,
according to her own records, to let children
explore their own interests in an environment
that supported their comfort and learning.
The Montessori method has persisted, its advocates
say, because it offers young children a natural
and effective way to study their worlds. Classroom
lessons are not directed by a lead teacher.
Instead, individual children choose learning
activities developed to teach them language,
math and other skills.
"The child is really constructing their
own education," said Shirley Garey, who
opened New World Montessori in 1980. At the
school last week, she helped a girl, learning
about flags, draw the national banner of Honduras.
Another girl asked whether she could make up
a story.
"Of course, you can make up a story any
time," Garey told her.
"We believe in the child," she said,
"that they can construct themselves."
Mieke San Julian, who attended New World Montessori
as a preschooler, also chose it for her 3-year-old
son, Evan.
"I love how free my son is to choose what
he's going to study and what he's going to learn
about," San Julian said.
In his first weeks at school, Evan studied
land forms and bodies of water. "He was
really interested in that," his mother
said. "He came home talking about an isthmus,
and I said, 'You mean Christmas?' and he said,
'No, an isthmus.' ... That kind of set-up is
perfect for Evan."
Still, critics have said the Montessori method
does not offer enough structure and is an educational
option open only to upper- and middle-class
parents.
While most Montessori schools are private,
there are public programs -- including one at
Stockton Unified School District's Taft Elementary
School.
"There's a strong scientific bent to it,"
said Dan Wright, the district's director of
elementary education. "Early on, they get
the kids involved in thinking about science
and nature."
Taft's Montessori students tend to perform
better on standardized tests than their peers
at traditional schools, Wright said.
And all the program's teachers are trained
in the Montessori method -- an important distinction,
Garey said. Montessori, considered a philosophy,
is not trademarked; that a school calls itself
Montessori doesn't mean its teachers are Montessori-trained.
Garey, who has completed Montessori study,
said the method has endured for a century because
it is built around the way children naturally
learn and solve problems.
"The structure lies within the classroom
itself," she said. "Everything's in
perfect order. They're not free to abuse anything.
They're free to learn what their inner self
tells them they need. ... You can't spoon-feed
knowledge."
