Montessori Review, And Thoughts

Well, first of all I'm not linking to the book.  It's an unhelpful book, and I don't think you ought to spend the eight bucks for the Kindle version, let alone pay for the physical book.  But just so you know what it's called, it's Montessori From the Start.

I should say that I've read only a bit of the actual writings of Maria Montessori, because first of all she was Italian writing in English (or being translated? I'm not sure which) and second of all she wrote at the beginning of the last century, and it's like trying to split firewood with your teeth to get through her style.  As near as I can tell, however, the Montessori method falls prey to the same mistake that most educational methods tend to slip into, which is the idea that if we just educate a kid right we can have a perfect citizen.

(Let's take a second here to remind ourselves about what we know, if we're Christians: all people, including schoolkids, have sin natures; it's possible to educate kids in stupid or smart ways, but it is impossible to educate them so they 1) won't sin or 2) are forced to get saved.  Right?  Right.  Only the Holy Spirit can transform a heart, and so we have to teach kids the Gospel and let God work.  Right?  Right.  Therefore, no educational system will make perfect citizens, or even decent people, although some might jibe better with the realities of human nature than others.  Right?  Right.)

So you have to take what Dr. Montessori says with a grain of salt, especially considering the lady never had kids of her own, developed her theory by watching mentally handicapped kids, and developed it in the last century, when the social issues about childhood were a little different than they are now.  Things might not generalize easily.

Getting back to Montessori From the Start.  It is written not by Dr. Montessori but by a mother-and-daughter team; the mother is a public-school-turned-Montessori-teacher, and the daughter is a Montessori teacher, and they have at least one child they've raised in a Montessori fashion between them to reference.  First the good bits from the book:

1. The idea of letting the kid do for themselves as much as possible.

This, I think, is just common sense, although it's easy to forget when you're trying to get socks on feet and are late already.  Some of the applications of the idea struck me as good, though--for instance:

-Set up a little stool, soapdish, and towel for them to wash their own hands in the bathroom (this is a big hit so far at our house).  Obviously this means you have to have child locks etc. in the bathroom so they can't scald, drown, or poison themselves in there.

-Have them set and clear their own places at the table.  (Another big hit--although I need to make some placemats for them showing the relative positions of plate and fork and napkin.)

-Have them dress themselves as much as possible.

-Put their hairbrush, comb, and a mirror in a little basket and let them brush their hair, taking "your turn" afterward to tidy things up a bit.

-Let them wet their own hair to shampoo.

Other ideas in the book were not so great, like the one to wean the baby at six months, gate them into their room from birth so as not to "stifle their independence" (!?!?), and only letting them have certain, very specific toys, spurning whatever else the grandparents might come up with.

I'm all for quality, no-battery, low-plastic toys, and I am also a toy minimalist (we already have more than we need, in my opinion, so we rotate them) but I've also known the joy of wearing a plastic and rhinestone tiara and wooden cowboy guns (for shooting imaginary antelope, never people) are just not as fun as the shiny silver plastic ones that snap.  Why be Pharisees about the issue?

Most of what bugs me about the book is the idea that we can train the child's will so she will be a Superior Person, one who is Not Easily Distracted Like the Dumb Kids.  I don't know that this is what the authors meant to communicate, and I don't know enough about Montessori to know if it's a common flaw, but the idea permeates all the advice in the book like a deadly miasma.  Get your baby these specific Montessori mobiles, not the one grandma gave you which is "mindless entertainment".  (Bah, you don't like any mindless entertainment yourself now and then, do you?  DO you?  No football watching for you!)  You must do things in exactly the right way, and then you will have exactly the right results, which is...a kid who will advance humanity.  Somehow.  In a nonspecified humanist sort of way.

The other idea that bothers me in the book, that I think might actually be endemic to Montessori theory, is the "it works for one thing so let's apply it to everything" idea.  I.e., the kid likes having their hairbrush and all in a basket, so we have to keep the supplies for all activities in little individual baskets and make a theorem about it.  Some kids (tactile learners) learn best by manipulating things, so we should introduce every idea by manipulation first, and make a theorem about it.  (I know this one, a basic Montessori tenet as far as I can see, is not right, because I'm NOT a tactile learner and it just frustrates me to have to handle something before I can get to reading about it.)

In short, there's some useful things and some non-useful things, like all educational theories.

I was homeschooled by, as far as I know, no one theory in particular.  Because I like research I've been looking into all the educational-type theories I run across, and have found this to be a pretty general pattern: some good ideas, some very kooky ideas, and some so-so ideas in each theory.  I figure we won't be following any theory in its totality, but be prepared to read more educational ramblings like this one.  Just as I give you permission to ignore my political posts, you may ignore my educational ones.

Right now we are still learning letters, numbers, and how to hold a pencil.  My educational theory consists of the firm conviction that memorizing is good, allowing a kid to go as fast as they want is good, and playing to a kid's strengths is good.  When I get more figured out I'll let you know.

Cheers,

Breanna