Traditional versus Montessori pedagogy

[Funkid]

Hi all,

Our daughter is slowly reaching her 3 years, and we have started to look at the daunting topic of schooling. We live in Luxembourg and there is quite some choice here : the Luxembourgish public system, the "alternative" systems, Montessori and Waldorf, and then even, since there are a lot of expats here, several "national exports", I mean one school for instance that follows the UK curriculum, three that follow the French curriculum and one that follows a US-style pedagogy. So a lot of choice.

I would like to share a thought here. Just an idea. As a complete layman, who has done a bit of work on pedagogy but who remains a novice. So I'm posting this just for fun, and also because I would be very happy to read your feedback, if you want to react :-).

Considering preschool-primary pedagogy, when I look at "traditional" or "mainstream" methods, as posted on schools' websites, or in discussing with teachers there, I read a lot about the activities that they organise for kids. Painting, cooking, outdoors activities, games, freeplay or directed workshops etc. And the postulate is that kids learn through these activities. And there's no doubt to me that they do. But this question haunts me : what do they learn ? Or rather : how do we know that these activities are the ones where they learn the most, at this particular time in their individual development ?

All these activities have been devised with heart, I can feel it. And again, I'm sure it's beneficial for the kids. But again, how do we know that it's the optimum ?

Of course the pedagogues have some frame of reference of children's development. For instance we know more or less when the time is right for children to learn to count or to write. Very broadly :-). But still : all these activities that I discover in traditional pedagogy seem somehow arbitrary. They seem intuitively to be good pedagogy, but it feels like no one is really sure. I get the feeling that the pedagogues who devise them go in a bit blind, on intuition. Of course intuition is all we have sometimes, and it's not bad, and certainly better than nothing. But it's not super satisfying. It feels a bit like we don't really know what we're doing.

I have long been attracted to the Montessori pedagogy. Without really knowing why. I've spent quite some time reading about Montessori principles these past months now. Because I don't want to send my daughter blindly into an alternative system. Here's an idea about Montessori that has dawned on me these past days, and that provides an answer to my malaise described above. And I am posting this so maybe you can refute my layman's ideas if you think I'm wrong.

My understanding now is that Maria Montessori started out with the hypothesis that children want nothing more than to develop. More than pure hedonistic fun for instance. So she hypothesized that children would naturally be attracted to the activities that make them develop the most, at the particular individual development stage where they happen to be. So she observed them closely, found out what these activities were, then expanded those activities as much as possible and systemised them. That became the "Montessori materials".

Now, Montessori might be wrong in her hypothesis. Maybe children are drawn to activities that provide them the most fun, maybe even the ones that are easiest for them, and not necessarily the ones that provide them with the most development.

So it comes down, again, to intuition and personal subjective opinion. My personal subjective hunch tells me that Montessori's hypothesis is correct. How do I know which activities benefit children's development the most, out of the plenty of options ? I would hypothesize like Montessori that the children want nothing more than to develop, I would observe them, and from there on provide them with what they crave for. For now I can't think of any other way of knowing, out of the plenty possible activities that we can propose to children, which ones are the optimal.

I would be really glad to hear any feedback you may have :-).

[TinyTeachr]

Without putting a lot of thought into this.... how would you explain that small children will merrily spend long periods of time watching junk in screens? Or playing with toys where pushing a simple button makes noises/flashing lights, but required no skill to operate?

I'm not attacking the Montessori method, but it sounds like there are some issues in the explanation of it.

[PrincessOfPreschool]

I think it's a balance between adult guiding and allowing a child's own interests to guide their development. I don't think it's wise or responsible to leave it all up to the adult.

As with adults, children have their 'comfort zones'. I see that very clearly with kids I work with. For some that may be imaginative play, or very repetitive play (making train track all day), or outdoors running around. I think they do need encouragement to do other things in order to develop areas which may not be natural strengths or interests. Sometimes, these become interests later, but only because they were exposed to them in a slightly forced way.

Some children will naturally gravitate to more 'academic' activities eg. Reading, writing, numbers and will therefore then be at a huge advantage later. I don't necessarily agree with starting formal education too early but I do think until we have a society that isn't recruiting highly paid jobs based on academic achievement, we are putting some children at an advantage and others at a disadvantage by purely letting them follow their own interests.

As a parent, I was much more in your vein, and allowed my children a lot of freedom. As an educator now, I see the advantages to adult-led activities, rules and curriculum. I think the UK curriculum has a very good balance between adult and child-led in Early Years. French friends have commented that our primary education is much more child centric than that of France. I don't know huge amounts about Montessori but I believe young children learn best where they are happy and loved, encouraged by adults to grow and take a next step in an area they may not be confident in.

[PrincessOfPreschool]

Sorry: "I don't think it's wise or responsible to leave it all up to the child" (end first para).

[Funkid]

Hi PrincessOfPreschool, thank you so much for your two caveats to child-led-learning. I completely agree, and your feedback has straighten me up a bit more there. Thank you again and all the best to you !