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Ask HN: Anyone go through Montessori education until age 12 (end of grade 6)?

• smolder 4y ago
  I did attend this type of school. It was only for kindergarten, but I have interesting memories of it, and feel like it had a strong influence on the rest of my education and life thereafter.
• jamst174 4y ago
  i don't think we'll go through 6th grade ($$$$), but we have our youngest in Montessori pre-K and love it. Since our local school doesn't have full day kindergarten, we'll likely keep him there through that as well.
• poorbutdebtfree 4y ago
  In our middle school cross country league, the Montessori school is the only private school, and they always finish dead last as a team.
• foxandmouse 4y ago
  I did, and my mom is/ has been a Montessori teacher for the last 20 years. I loved it!! Montessori is a style of learning, the implementation will vary according to the school though.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• LewisCaster 4y ago
• gwnywg 4y ago
  I go with montessori with my kids. My older started at the age of 4 and is now 7, I'm very satisfied with results I see (and I don't push for results, I still remember my education and so I take it easy with my kids). My older could read, write, count and do simple math before he went to primary school (which is also following montessori principles). He now picks up simple programming and not because I push him (I encaurage whatever he feels like doing, like playing the piano or playing chess or doing ice scating or football)
  • codingrightnow 4y ago
    Could you share what programming he's doing? Is he using a specific app?
    • gwnywg 4y ago
      We use helpgidget.org (also found on HN :) )
      • codingrightnow 4y ago
        Thanks very much!
• pibechorro 4y ago
  My mom is a Montessori teacher of many many years and I did summercamps as a swim instructor in one. While they are all reviewed by the Montessori board and certified, they are all a bit different. Shop around, the gap in quality between different schools can be quite apparent. That being said, I would not hesitate to put my kids in one, especially over public schools which are a disaster.
  • jkestner 4y ago
    My mother's also a longtime Montessori teacher, and yeah, there’s a lot of variety. Montessori is not a protected trademark. Look for AMI-certified for a school that has to meet some standards. I attended Montessori from 2-14, but have no advice that can be generalized to every kid or school. But doesn’t the same variety apply for public schools? They’re not all a disaster. My kid goes to a good dual language immersion public school where in addition to academics, they’re learning collaboration and empathy with people from all walks of life, not just the ones whose parents drop them off in a Tesla. The school is underfunded, doesn’t have the resources to market itself, and teachers are burning out, but if some of the hyper-enthusiastic Montessori parents I know applied their energy to a public school, it’d kick ass. That’s the choice I made—I’m on the PTA and am building their makerspace. Others are leading gardening or composting programs. Not everyone has the time to do that, but we shouldn’t be mere consumers of education, as every parent who helps their kids do homework knows.
    • technothrasher 4y ago
      > Look for AMI-certified Just be sure you know the difference between AMS and AMI. They're pretty different in their approach to Montessori. AMI is strictly traditional Montessori, whereas AMS is a more progressive model. My mother founded an AMS school, so you can guess which one I think is better. But you have to decide which style makes more sense to you.
      • jkestner 4y ago
        Yes, and my mother founded an AMI school so you know why I said AMI. :) Though the gentlest person you’ll ever meet, she talks trash at the drop of an hat about AMS, charter schools and nearly every other sect. Hey, her trainer was trained by Mario Montessori. That said, she’s a little off the AMI orthodoxy, and every school does have its own style, so you gotta observe at the schools you’re interested in.
• andrewxdiamond 4y ago
  > The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes independence and it views children as naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a sufficiently supportive and well-prepared learning environment.
• marcus_holmes 4y ago
  I was a troubled kid. Expelled from 2 kindergartens for disruptive behaviour. My parents tried Montessori, and it worked. They found out I was interested in mythology, so I apparently learned to read from the Greek myths. One of my friends was into cars, so they got him a pile of car showroom brochures and he learned to read from that. There was a non-verbal autistic kid there, too. I played "clap-hands" with them every day, apparently the only human interaction (apart from their parents) that they had. We moved when I was 5, and I went to a normal school after that. I don't remember much about it (all the above is stories my parents told me later). Luckily we moved to a small village where the teacher had enough time to continue giving me the personalised attention I clearly needed. Then I got shipped off to boarding school and the rest of my schooling is a dark, terrible mess of anger and violence. It totally worked for me. I hated school, except that one.
  • satellite2 4y ago
    What kind of kindergarten expels children? It sounds at best grossly incompetent. Are you sure there was no other bias that played a role in their decision? It sounds rather unlikely you were the cause.
    • gpt5 4y ago
      Private schools tend to do it if the behavior severely affect other kids. E.g. repeated violent behavior.
      • drekipus 4y ago
        Public schools just let the repeated violent behaviour happen :p
    • Enginerrrd 4y ago
      When they start having to spend 80% of their attention on one kid, it's a problem that needs to be addressed. I say this as the parent of a kid who is right on the verge of being kicked out of preschool over that issue. I totally get it. I wish I knew how to help him. He has some great qualities, but he also requires constant attention and mentally draining correction from everyone that's involved in his life.
• wayne 4y ago
  I went as a kid and remember it as one of the most fun moments of my life. I remember being able to do whatever I wanted. I was binge-reading some weeks, playing with fun toys with other kids other weeks, or just laying outside on the grass. This was preschool though.
• jugg1es 4y ago
  The CEO at a previous company went to a Montessori school until middle school. He said he could barely read when he got there. He still had major problems spelling basic words in his late 60s. I guess it didn't hurt him but he was already a smart guy. It's hard to tell how much it mattered.
• digerata 4y ago
  I have two kids in it, one 11 year old boy and one 8 year old girl. The school we were in switched to Montessori 4 years ago. The younger loves it. The older very much dislikes the open nature of the school day and struggles to complete tasks. His teacher has had to modify and provide him with much more structure than you would normally receive. You might say that’s because he didn’t start in Montessori from the beginning. But knowing my child, I think Montessori doesn’t work for some kids, in the same way rigid traditional schools don’t work for others.
• jerrysievert 4y ago
  I went through 4th grade. Afterward, I found school boring, and refused to do rote homework (because it was not how I learn things, and thus a boring waste to me).
• 3D30497420 4y ago
  I attended a private Montessori for elementary school, then was home-schooled for middle school/junior high. I then went to a public (magnet art school) for high school. The gap did provide a bit of a buffer, but I nonetheless did not care for the transition. While the systems were quite different, I believe it was more the difference in the teacher quality that had the largest impact. I was fortunate to go to a small, exceptional Montessori school before such things became ridiculously expensive, while the public school, although it had a few very good teachers, also had some very marginal ones (basically, tenured and terrible). If the quality of teaching is similar, then I expect the transition would have been much easier. As others have noted, shop around since the teaching quality, rather than the teaching structure, is ultimately what was the starkest change for me.
• AndrewKemendo 4y ago
  Yes My oldest daughter attended private Montessori until age 12 when she transitioned to an exurb public Middle school in an extremely high income area. Transition was easy because the Montessori middle school she was going to was new and hadn't gotten their legs yet, so had a pretty lackluster program. Adding to that the lack of extracurricular and club/team opportunities, and small class sizes, Montessori method starts be become a hindrance to learning the complex social dynamics you need to survive IRL. My other kids transitioned to US public education at 8 and 10 respectively with no issues The most difficult transition was for the 8 year old, simply because her personality fits the more loosely structured method of Montessori better, however this faded pretty quickly Should be noted also that my kids are extremely naturally gifted and generally live in the "AP/Honors" world, so would most likely flourish anywhere. YMMV
  • phonescreen_man 4y ago
    “ Should be noted also that my kids are extremely naturally gifted and generally live in the "AP/Honors" world, so would most likely flourish anywhere. YMMV” All children are extremely naturally gifted, it’s the world around that always manages to grind it out of most of them. I think that also represents what Montessori was aiming for when re-thinking education.
    • deathclassic 4y ago
      "All children are extremely naturally gifted, it’s the world around that always manages to grind it out of most of them." What a load of horseshit. Say that in the special education class with 8th graders that can't read or use the bathroom on their own, despite the best efforts and attention of their teachers.
      • alexb_ 4y ago
        Responding to a post saying children are naturally smart and gifted with "Well what about the disabled children?" isn't helpful to anybody, and purposefully misses the point of what they are saying.
      • 4y ago
• msravi 4y ago
  Sent my kid to a Montessori in kindergarten. The thing I liked about it is that they put kids of different ages together. From what I've seen, kids learn fastest when they're put with kids slightly more proficient than themselves.
• deathclassic 4y ago
  I was put into montessori preschool at around age 4 after my mom caught daycare workers abusing me. I liked it, was a fun time and I figured out how to read at around a 4th grade level at 5. The issues started when I got taken out of that environment and put into a normal one when I started grade school. You see, my preschool teacher noticed that I had ADHD, but that didn't really matter in a Montessori environment. But in traditional school, this means you get in trouble a lot, get terrible grades, and I've been almost kicked out of every school I've been to. I found the transition to traditional structured school traumatic. This was in early grade school too, I can imagine the experience of going from Montessori school to traditional school in later grades to be impossible, like trying to socialize a feral cat or something. Look OP, if you think school is about your kids learning you've got it very wrong. Wikipedia and arvix are for learning. School is state subsidized daycare, and social conditioning. Industrial society requires discipline, structure and obedience. Those values are not driven into a child's head in the Montessori, model. Do your kids a favor and get these things drilled into their heads early, before you have a bunch of intellectual bums laying around your house. Don't send your kids to Montessori school.
  • birracerveza 4y ago
    Wow, this is terrible advice. You have to put in the effort yourself to teach them those values (if you can even call them that...) and that life is not all fun and games. That said, Montessori model schools are great for your children, even if they're just "glorified daycares" instead of school. Children need to play, it's how they learn everything, including how to enjoy life. Do not immediately throw them into a life of "discipline, structure and obedience". That's not what life is about.
  • ericd 4y ago
    I’m helping to manage a Montessori preschool, so I’m immersed in Montessori at the moment. There’s a pretty consistent underlying structure to the day, and the kids are taught to eg sit quietly for the class gathering (“circle time”), so I don’t think it’s accurate to say that the kids are taught no discipline. The periods that they’re asked to sit for aren’t very long, it’s preschool. But if you go an observe a class, they’re actually extremely well behaved. During their work cycles, they go and get their work, they sit individually to complete their work for a bit, then they return it to the shelf as they found it. And they’re learning relatively advanced reading, spelling, and math at 4. One thing to be aware of is that many Montessori schools, especially nowadays, are “Montessori-inspired”, they don’t actually go through the effort (and the hiring requirements) it takes to be accredited by AMS. It’s more expensive to hire actual Montessori teachers, but the difference can be pretty incredible.
• krn1p4n1c 4y ago
  Both my kids transitioned from Montessori to public school at 11 (grade 5) in the US. 13 and 16 now. + Love of learning and self-driven discovery + Top of class in pretty much all subjects + Comfortable giving presentations + Comfortable working in groups + At ease working with younger students/children and essentially mentoring them + Excellent handwriting + Respect for teachers - Difficulty with testing that involves framing the questions in an intentionally deceptive manner - Difficult transition to the cliques and more aggressive social dynamics of public school - Tough for them to deal with the way many students treat their teachers and behave in general in public school I would recommend, that a year or 2 before the kids transition they start doing standardized tests and worksheets to get acclimated to that. It's a big shock otherwise. Overall my kids loved their time in Montessori and wish the program had gone through high school.
  • deathclassic 4y ago
    • GoldenRacer 4y ago
      I'll agree with you that some teachers really suck. I can think of a few examples I had growing up that fit your description. That being said, we have a real shortage of teachers right now and low pay combined with lack of respect is a large reason for that shortage. Maybe the solution isn't calling them stupid and disrespect them. Maybe instead we should make teaching a profession with a liveable wage where they don't have to deal with parents throwing temper tantrums when their kids don't get straight A's. Maybe if we did that, we'd have enough people still wanting to be teachers that we could go ahead and fire the shitty ones (something we can't do if we don't have replacements)
      • deathclassic 4y ago
        We probably just need a different approach to education in general, or just a reckoning of what values our society actually has. As much as I like to hate on teachers (because of bad experiences I had) they really are just the symptoms of an institutional/cultural problem. Reasons teachers get disrespected (and arguably deserve it): - Education is a major studied by idiots who want to party in college. - Western society is individualistic to a fault. The reason teachers get screamed at is because grades are seen as an attack on the character of a parents child (and used to evaluate and individuals worth). Since the parents refuse to believe that their little kid might just not have a high IQ or be lazy, clearly the teacher is at fault. Everyone wants to believe their little mini-me is a special snowflake, the bell curve proves otherwise. - This narcissism and individualism, is also a feature of teachers. Hence, the constant self-aggrandization of being a glorified daycare worker by everyone in the profession. - Teachers unions make it difficult to fire shitty teachers, even if there isn't a shortage of teachers. Just like cops, teachers look out for themselves. - Good teachers get poached by private schools, that offer higher wages. Institutional/Cultural problems that make education shitty: - Property taxes fund schools. Rich suburban areas have well funded schools, poor inner city areas have underfunded schools that are falling apart. Guess which one attracts better teachers? - The US is a large and very diverse country. Some populations here value education A TON, others do not. This is a reality that has to be acknowledge, and the standards of say, Silicon valley should not be applied to rural Texas. (my siblings took AP US history in Texas and they didn't even learn about the civil war) - College is pushed on ALL students, and funding is partially determined by college admittance. Needless to say this is wasteful and partially contributed to many of the issues around student debt and credential inflation. - Standardized testing is also a terrible mechanism for determining school funding. Teachers end up wasting a ton of time trying to teach to some arbitrary standardized test, and the students hate it as well. Idk I could probably list more issues with education but those are a few off the top of my head.
• BiteCode_dev 4y ago
  Did it for one year. Best year of my school life. But it's a shock to go back to the public system where dynamic are adversarial and artificially oriented around superficial metrics, both for tests and social life. You probably need both to be well adapted because the public system teaches you to defend yourself, which us necessary IRL. Montessori teaches you collaboration and thinking outside of zero sum mindset.
• whalesalad 4y ago
  not montessori, but i was in an "applied scholastics" (scientology) school for a few years. what a trip that was.
  • selimthegrim 4y ago
    Any juicy stories?
  • jwozn 4y ago
    I didn't even know this existed. Going to have to look it up!!
  • unixhero 4y ago
    You should write a book, it will sell
• sybercecurity 4y ago
  Have some experience with Montessori schools, but naturally all schools are different. Like previous posters have said, it can be very good at not beating the curiosity out of kids like some public schools can. They have a pretty good way at teaching reading too. Math is more interesting and one downside is that the skills don't always translate 1:1 if you ever transition to public schools. They will be ahead in some areas, but behind or at a loss in others. Mainly due to the order and way things are done which are very, very different. One thing that may also be a factor is any learning differences in the child. Montessori teaching is rigid in its own way and not the best for children with dyslexia/dysgraphia (though neither are standard public school curricula). Although early Montessori math is friendlier for dyscalculia with all the use of physical objects. Depending on the school and individual guides, things like ADHD, autism may also lead to issues with the school. Thought that could be said of any private school. The biggest thing we saw with people pulling their children out of Montessori schools were fears about academic progress and measuring their children against their neighbors' kids in public school. That's on the parent though: some needed constant feedback and validation via grades to feel like their kids were competitive with public schools.
  • chasd00 4y ago
    > Montessori teaching is rigid in its own way and not the best for children with dyslexia/dysgraphia (though neither are standard public school curricula) i didn't mention this in my comment but this point is true in my experience as well. My oldest has both dyslexia and dysgraphia and really struggled with reading the way Montessori teaches it. We had to get outside specialists and basically do a very intense summer school to get him up to speed and things figured out. Once we understood what was happening we were able to get state required accommodations at his Montessori which really helped. He's now at a public middle school magnet and doing pretty well. His reading and writing are, by far, his hardest subjects because he's basically got one hand tied behind his back because of the dyslexia/dysgraphia but the kid knows how to work and he gets through it. edit: If i may brag, i've seen that kid of mine do things grown adults would run from. That summer school was 4 hrs a day of intense work and an absolute struggle many days ended in tears/frustration but he did it and beat dyslexia down to something he could manage. I've never seen anyone work like he did, when i'm getting lazy and phoning it in I think about him and pick up the pace.
• chasd00 4y ago
  I have a lot of experience with public Montessori, wife taught as a middle school Montessori teacher for the past 3 years and both my kids went through the same school. My youngest is still there at grade 5 and my oldest is in 7th grade at a traditional middle school. My wife has taught traditional high school for about 10 years and then did a summer of training to be a certified Montessori teacher. One thing we learned is that Montessori isn't for every child. My oldest did OK but he much prefers traditional schools and is thriving at his middle school (a public magnet). My youngest, on the other hand, loves the self-guided learning and pace. He's more organized and self-motivates better than my oldest which makes a big difference. He reads like crazy and finishes books in a week that would take me a month at least, not sure where that came from but he gets a lot of free time at school when his "works" are finished. Both kids are diagnosed with ADHD and so am I (my poor wife heh). Another thing, the Montessori we attend is public so it still has to meet district and state testing requirements. That put it in an awkward spot where it could never be pure Montessori because of the district and state mandated testing. It also puts the teachers in an awkward spot because they're rated on testing results which contradicts the Montessori method. My wife got fed up and left last year and no teaches at a traditional public high school. I live in DFW and the Montessori i'm referring to Mata Elementary. DISD is a notorious hellhole of a district but Mata is hanging in there. It's not perfect by any stretch but they're hanging in there and doing their best with what they have. https://www.dallasisd.org/mata https://www.dallasisd.org/mata
  • spooky_action 4y ago
    How did you determine that Montessori wasn't right for your oldest?
• smallstepforman 4y ago
  My son went through Montessori from ages 2 until 11 (finished grade 5). As with any other institution, it depends on the quality of teachers. He had 1 great teacher, one good teach, and 1 not so good teacher during his schooling. There are a couple of key factors which made us choose Montessori: - mixed aged group classrooms. So in one year of the 3 year cycle, he is the younger child (and receives mentorship from his older buddies), and in year 3 of each cycle, he is the older buddie mentoring younger pupils. Since he has no siblings, this is a benefit to his development. - Montessori follow the state curriculum, however they allow children to manage their own time. So if he wants to do math all day, he can, and the teacher is there more for project management and giving him assistance than to drive him by a strict 45 minute schedule. At the end of the week, he is supposed to accomplish the assigned work (regardless of which order he wants to do it in). This will help him in the future with his own project management and prioritising work loads (we hope). - the parents sending their kids to Montessori are not of the Elitist breed. I wont explain what I mean by that here. Its better than Steiner type schools (my personal opinion). Other than the above, there wasn't anything particular about Montessori compared regular State run schools.
  • borbulon 4y ago
    > the parents sending their kids to Montessori are not of the Elitist breed. I think that will depend on the school. My daughter went to two, on opposite sides of the country: one was filled with super nice parents, the other had a lot more pretension.
• j-bos 4y ago
  tldr went to Montessori, thumbs up. I went to a Montesorri school from 1st through 4th grade. I enjoyed the atmosphere. In recent years I've read about Montessori and found that my Montessori experience was different, but much the same wrt a gentle focus on practical individual learning. Non Montessori school was a process of checking boxes and actual thinking inbetween, while Montessori was a cycle of thinking through problems for yourself, sometimes as a group. One thing I didn't appreciate until later school years is that Montessori blends different ages and skill levels together. I neither felt the need to keep up nor to excel, just to figure stuff out. For example, I remember a a classmate writing an essay using movable letters on a mat, but he didn't space them out so it was hard to read. I asked why he was doing it like that and the teacher responded that he had chosen to do it that way, I felt it was wrong, but instead of letting me get on a high horse, the teacher drew my attention to what I was already on my way to do. He continued to write without spaces, and I continued to think someone should correct him. Lo and behold, he learned to use spaces, all without someone, teacher nor child, scolding him, with words or with red marks. That's hard to do in typical bureaucratized classroom. If I were pressed to find fault in Montessori itself, I'd say, it cannot succeed at all without good teachers/emotion/energy conductors, while a common classroom can get ok enough outcomes with an authority figure and good textbooks.
• JustAPerson 4y ago
  Yes, I went to a Montessori school through 6th grade (now 25 years old). I have mixed feelings about the experience. I agree that it did well to set my up academically. I ended up going to middle/high schools that were relatively average academically, so I was pretty strong in all subjects in comparison to my peers. Ultimately I went to a very prestigious college and now work in a wonderful finance job I love. However in the many years of therapy I’ve had as an adult, I continue to identify Montessori school as a foundational contributor to my social anxiety, and ultimately my ensuing clinical depression over a lack of social life which haunted most of my college years. My Montessori school had about 15-25 kids / class year. Some of the larger years were split into two groups with separate teachers. Every year, maybe one or two kids left to go to other schools and one or two new kids joined, but for the most part I grew up with the same core set of children for seven years. I honestly believe this had a permanent negative effect on my ability to socialize and form new friendships that I am only barely beginning to correct over a decade later. Admittedly I did not participate in any extracurricular outside of Montessori school (particularly because it had its own after-school programs). So when I transitioned to a public school for middle/high school, it was a sharp culture shock and I definitely struggled to fit in. I think Montessori schools are worthwhile academically, but you should be careful to keep your children in contact with other kids outside the Montessori bubble.
  • Moissanite 4y ago
    I had never heard of Montessori schools before this thread so I'm sure there is more going on than I'm aware of - but I wanted to point out that what you describe here: > school had about 15-25 kids / class year. Some of the larger years were split into two groups with separate teachers. Every year, maybe one or two kids left to go to other schools and one or two new kids joined, but for the most part I grew up with the same core set of children for several years. seems perfectly normal from a UK primary school perspective (up to age 11 or 12 depending on the area). I'm surprised to hear that kids younger than that age would be expected to have larger peer groups in the US.
    • JustAPerson 4y ago
      Huh, is that the maximum number of students of the same age? To be clear, the Montessori school I went to had a little over 100 students with all 6 class years combined. For context, in the US many public middle/high schools are like two orders of magnitude larger per class year. Many schools have like 1000 kids / class year.
• 2snakes 4y ago
  I have very old memories (6? or earlier) for attending for a approximately a year. It might have been Waldorf, it might have been Montessori. There were several young people who I later transferred in HS back into their district and remembered. Lots of little learning puzzles and nap time. LOTS Of stories. In fact I would say the curriculum, and this is a long time ago, was primarily fables besides what was self-directed and puzzles. The teachers were mostly kind.
• kqr 4y ago
  I did Montessori between ages 6 and 15, then transitioned into more traditional education for the last three years. The main difference was how much more challenging Montessori education was. The teachers really observed me and how I performed on assignments, and they could tell when I needed more of a challenge, and assign something to me that was just at the edge of what I was able to do. In the traditional education, if I consistently just did the bare minimum expected of everyone, I was a double-plus A plus student. I was also allowed to explore subjects that interested me in greater depth, as long as it didn't come at the expense of subjects I found less interesting. I learned a lot of English and maths in the first few years! If I had a disagreement with a Montessori teacher, we would sit down together and have a mature conversation about it and reach some sort of mutually beneficial solution (yes, even when I was under the age of 10!) In the more traditional education, there was the assumption that if I disagreed with the teacher, I was wrong and should shut up. (I ended up not passing a few classes in the traditional school because of disagreements with the teacher – I simply stopped attending the class at that point. Didn't seem productive to go on.) I also had a lot more spare time in the Montessori school. As long as I did well on the work assigned to me and didn't bother my classmates, the teachers didn't really care how I spent my time. I could sit in a corner and read or do long multiplication, or go out and kick around a soccer ball. I would like to think this helped me learn independence. On the other hand, I also have a notable lack of respect for authority figures. I like to think this is good, but it has also gotten me into trouble for disagreeing with hardline managers, refusing to do things I think are unethical, etc. I think some of this can be attributed to the Montessori school, where respect was based on fact, rational argument, and patient listening, rather than who should be commanding whom.
  • boringg 4y ago
    In terms of authority figure respect - - I always get the feeling that's something thats innate. I have the same aversion to authority and has gotten me into trouble not reading the politics of a situation / power dynamic. I probably could attribute it to be raised in a public school system though my recollection is did respect the teachers. Interesting take.
  • ramtatatam 4y ago
    > On the other hand, I also have a notable lack of respect for authority figures. I went through "classical" education system (with lots of aggression, as somebody else already mentioned in another thread here) - and can tell I also obtained no respect for authority figures. School taught me to survive school by tricking those teachers who had no respect to pupils. Give them what they want and you'r going to be fine - even if you don't learn anything useful. Same when it comes with relationships with other pupils, especially those aggressive ones. I observe my kids who I send to Montessori and can definitely tell they are not easy when it comes to disagreements - and I like it that way, it keeps reminding me that I have no right not to treat them with respect even when I'm tired or in hurry. I see teachers putting lots of attention to mutual respect as well.
• zhdc1 4y ago
  > Am curious what peoples experiences from Montessori transitioning to other education systems was like and how they perceived the school worked or didn't for then? Have some children decisions and looking for outside opinions! Thanks! I went through something similar through the end of high school. I did, however, go through public school for elementary. My experiences mirror a lot of what others on here have already written. The transition to back to traditional education (university) wasn't an issue. If you are already motivated, going from a low to moderately more rigorous style of learning is easy. The issue is going in the other direction, which is why so many first year university students fail.
• pandemicsoul 4y ago
  Very small anecdotal experience, but I was in Montessori school for grades 2-3 (in the late 80s) and it ruined my math education. When I should have been learning the standard ways to do basic math, they were teaching me nonsense like "skip counting" with rhymes. Despite coming from a family of people very good at math (which also put a focus on math education at an early age), I fell behind and never caught up.
• rossdavidh 4y ago
  My child has been homeschooled and many of the other homeschooling families I have talked to have used Montessori. My primary impression is that it varies a _lot_ from one Montessori school to another, and there isn't much preventing someone from claiming that their private school is "Montessori". So while it's great that you are asking for feedback on HN, make sure also to find out the inside scoop about the _particular_ Montessori school you are considering.
• borbulon 4y ago
  My daughter went to a Montessori until she was in 2nd grade. Her friend went through 5th grade. They are both together again in 6th, in the same middle school, and her friend is really struggling with math. FWIW, my daughter also struggled with math coming into 2nd grade out of Montessori, but it being second grade math, it wasn't hard for her to catch up. Also, something to watch out for: Montessori is not a registered trademark, so any school can call itself a Montessori school, without offering a Montessori education.
• gabcbrown 4y ago
  I went to a Montessori School from k-8 then switched into a fairly fast paced public school district for high school. I absolutely loved Montessori, and feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to attend. I felt a lot of ownership/independence about my learning from a young age, and it really supported my curiosity about the world. Interactions with teachers felt like collaboration, not being told what to do, so I felt trusted and it felt very safe to make mistakes and learn. There was no homework, which meant the school day had lots of time built in to work on assignments and move around, which I didn’t realize how much I appreciated until I got to high school and was sitting at a desk all day with hours of homework every night. There were lots of opportunities to learn from people who were really excited to teach what they were teaching. We got to do lots of weird science experiments, big class projects, woodworking, learning about ancient history, several different languages, lots of different instruments... the list goes on. There were two notable challenges for me, though not everyone in my class experienced these. Some of it will also be limited if you only have them there through 6th grade. The first was figuring out how to socially transition from a small private school that effectively functioned like a big family, to a large public school. I didn’t really learn how to meet people being at the same small school for so long, and the culture shock of leaving of leaving Montessori was pretty bad. (Both with the way people my age approached learning and the way the public school system operated, i.e. everything is for a grade nothing else matters). The second is because of some combination of the curiosity driven learning and the particular sequence of teachers I had, I managed to avoid getting a good foundation in algebra because I didn’t really feel like it. This turned out to be a big problem for me for many years, partially because no one realized so I kept being put in higher math classes, doing well through brute force, and being very frustrated and confused about all of it. I’m now getting an advanced degree in math, so everything worked itself out, but I do think math specifically wants a little more structure at those early steps than what I got. Overall it was still absolutely worth it for me. Sometimes I wonder who I would be now if my curiosity hadn’t been so strongly reinforced when I was young. Happy to answer any specific questions! Hope this helps.
  • boringg 4y ago
    Thanks for sharing - glad to hear you managed to get through your lower level algebraic struggles! That's a tough thing to have to fix. One of the things you mentioned (and i've seen in many comments) is the transition from Montessori to another system (an aside: usually while implying saying how poor the structure/goals of the other system is). My product development part of my brain points to this as as systemic problem that could try to be addressed by the school/parents - though that is such a holistic change that the best you could do is minimize impacts but maybe that should be considered. The other part is that it seems that most people have very positive memories of their Montessori days. As I see it the big family, highly personalized, explore at your own pace, keep children curious, unstructured but guided combination is very attractive but the concern is really that transition after the fact to a larger more structured institution & smaller amount of emphasis on athletics are the sticky points. Without going into a larger debate about education - I kind of wish the state system was less results oriented and exploratory in the early years for all children and then the program changed as they got older. I recognize there are inherent challenges. I'm curious if the two challenges that you had (which would probably be different challenges for other children) could have been identified at an early time and given some support - or if you think that struggling through both of them help develop your internal strength without sacrificing too much?
• germinalphrase 4y ago
  I don’t have personal experience with Montessori, but one of my best friends is a long time Montessori teacher. Just posting to echo the comments stating that different Montessori schools will operate and feel different, so do your research before enrolling to be sure the experience will be a good fit for your child.
• eclarkso 4y ago
  I went to a private Montessori school grades 3K-5, and my children have been or are in Montessori school grades 3K-6. As you might have guessed, I am a fan. As most Montessori schools are private, my impression is that the variance in the quality of Montessori implementation varies considerably, but at a high level I have positive views of many of the same method characteristics as other comments: - mixed-age classes - learner-driven scheduling/work - non-test-centric evaluation - etc. I would guess that most Montessori schools are smaller than schools kids transition into, which might make transitioning to other schools hard socially (it was for me, but not for my kids), but that also is highly dependent on the individual I think. Other than that, I think the method tends to yield: - independence in both learning/working and life in general - love of learning - kindness towards others Things I would ask about before choosing a school: - are you accredited by AMS, AMI and/or SAIS? - are your teachers trained primarily through AMS or AMI? - how long have your teachers been with the school, on average? - where do students go after this school, and what are their outcomes (what colleges, high school honor graduates, etc.)? - does the school do standardized testing that is accepted by the local school district or otherwise make it easy to transition to other schools after they age out?
  • perlgeek 4y ago
    > As most Montessori schools are private, my impression is that the variance in the quality of Montessori implementation varies considerably Having gone to a different kind of "alternative" school (Waldorf / Steiner), I agree 100%. Variance in quality among teachers was pretty high, higher than my children's public schools. Sadly my school was also used a bit as dumping ground for children who failed in the public school system, so at least in the later classes most of the newer students were below-average in performance, making progress slower and classes more boring. Switching from an "alternative" to a public school (after 9 years for me) was a pretty big culture shock.
  • eclarkso 4y ago
    FWIW I just realized that my AMS/SAIS references are US-specific, so substitute relevant accrediting bodies for Montessori/private schools... AMI is international, though. In the US, AMS vs AMI is a salient difference that is worth understanding... it's a bit of a which-linux-distro-is-best type holy war.
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• Radiot88 4y ago
  Yes, my education began with Pre-K Montessori, and then transitioned to prep school in 7th grade. The dynamics of my family were chaotic at the moment of transition, so there was not much support for me, and the transition difficult. 40 years later, the self-driven learning informs my work, ceeative practice, and ongoing learning. Montessori taught me to look for the next challenge and embrace it. Dyslexia / dysgraphia / learning differences were not diagnosed in Montessori school, where I excelled at mathematics. When the pressures of prep school ran into the reading writing differences problems ensued. The bottom line is Montessori taught me to challenge myself and gave me a lifelong love of learning and independent study.
• monkeyguy37 4y ago
  Preface, I went to a Dutch Montessori school. Curriculum is probably very different. Also school starts from the age of 4/5 and goes till 12/13. (group 1-8) Monstessori is definitely not for everyone, I really enjoyed my time there (not counting the traumatic experiences caused by classmates). I definitely feel like the teachers there can give you a more personalized way of learning which just isn't possible on standard schools. The national curriculum did not challenge me enough and had me really struggling to do any work, eventually my teachers allowed me more time on the computer if I did my work and that worked really well for me. For transitioning to high school, at first I quite enjoyed it as it was all new but after a while I just lost all motivation. Every meeting with my parents and the school basically came down to "We really think monkeyguy can do better, but he just doesn't seem interested". It sucked, I barely did anything and I barely passed each year. Eventually I graduated and the same thing happened with college/uni. Work life has been great however. I'm not going to recommend anything however, I do not know your children as well as you do.
• griffinkelly 4y ago
  I transferred to a Montessori school at age 10 and was there to age 12; my family moved overseas after that, so I couldn't continue. That said, it was the first time in my life that I started to enjoy learning, and really started to love math. The fact that I could learn at my own pace, and get individualized learning at the same time from my teachers was life changing for me compared to my prior public school. It's left an impression on me to this day.
• czbond 4y ago
  My wife is a Montessori teacher of 1-3rd. From what she's told me, students transitioning to Montessori should do it as early as possible. Apparently older students in the "established" system have a hard time achieving the mental switch in thinking. What I've enjoyed is watching how lessons are very "touch" oriented. Seems every lesson has a visual or touch oriented wood tool. The students are dividing 6 digit numbers in 2nd/3rd (!).
• forgueam 4y ago
  My daughter (14) is currently going through this scenario. She was in a Montessori school from pre-school through 8th grade. The school she went to did not offer 9-12 so we had to transition her to a more traditional school for high school. We were extremely concerned that the daily classroom structure would be a problem, but she's adapted wonderfully. Despite never having traditional grades, tests, and quizzes, she currently has all A's and B's and is doing great. Speaking for myself, I don't think I give my kids enough credit for just how adaptable/resilient they are.
• huevosabio 4y ago
  I did Montessori from kindergarten until grade 6 (age 12), in Mexico. I really, really like it. I think it reinforces the kids natural curiosity. In middle school, my first year out of Montessori, I was shocked at how little other kids cared about learning. I remember the teacher discussing something about astronomy, and I raised my hand to comment on some fact I had read, and what followed was mockery by my peers and antipathy by the teacher. I learned quickly to never again show that I cared about learning. This was a huge contrast with Montessori where most us were eager to learn and share what we had learned. I had friends that had built the solar system to scale out of their own initiative (in hindsight they may have taken some liberties, nonetheless). I kept tabs more or less my classmates that came out of the Montessori, and I think they overall overperformed the non Montessori people in middle school and high school. Harder to gauge adulthood success. I also liked that they had children of various years in the same classroom. I think it promoted knowledge sharing from the older kids to the younger ones, and it removed barriers for friendships. Some of my best friends back then where older than I was. That would never happen in middle or high school. Finally, I don't think it's perfect. Because we were all expected to join a traditional school after grade 6, the school made some effort to make sure that the outgoing class had covered all the basic requirements (a not necessarily a simple thing since we had great liberty of pursuing what was interesting to us). All in all, I would strongly recommend it.
  • SQueeeeeL 4y ago
    Damn, that part about being excited to learn and share knowledge with your peers only to be shouted down dredged up some memories. Most American schools are so regimented that any exploration of knowledge is actually sneered down. How did our communities let it get so bad...
    • tobyjsullivan 4y ago
      I'll note that this comment assumes standardized education was somehow better in the past. We all have specific memories of being inspired by a teacher or something but that seems like a happy accident more than anything intentional. The universal education system we have today was never meant to "inspire learning" or anything similar. It was designed as a vaccine for illiteracy across a handful of subjects. I would argue it continues to deliver on that goal quite well (all things considered). As someone who never attended, what Montessori offers is more the University-style inspiration and idea of learning for the sake of learning. This sounds amazing for the right people but I find it unlikely it could ever be universal. Students who go to Montessori will have parent who believe in education in one way or another. The students will learn these values from their parents and so there's an inherent selection bias in the attendees and the positive outcomes. However, education is not universally valued across our society. Public school exists for everyone to hit that minimum literacy bar. What would be great is something like Montessori for every student who wants it. A different style of school universally available for the families that value it.
• riley_dog 4y ago
  An old friend of mine, who's now a crazy antivaxxer, sends his kids to Montessori because the public schools won't take his kids. Makes me wonder what'll happen after Montessori.
• eor 4y ago
  I went to a Montessori school from pre-K through 6th grade. Overall I think it was a good experience. But the transition to traditional school was very rough. I was mostly fine academically, but socially it was brutal. I had been going to school with the same 10 people for most of my life, and then suddenly found myself in a crowd of hundreds of strangers with no clue how to make new friends. Add to that all the hormonal stuff going on with 12-13 year olds, and it's a bad scene. It took me about 3 years to acclimate. I think 7th grade is a particularly bad time to be making the transition. It might have been easier if I'd made the jump in grade 5 or 6.
• nowardic 4y ago
  I went to a Montessori school through the end of grade 7 and then transitioned to a traditional school for grades 8-12. From what I can remember from the transition, it was certainly a bit jarring but ultimately I was able to adapt to the new system fairly quickly and got good grades throughout the rest of my high school education. Regarding the Montessori experience, I have fond memories of the 7 or so years I spent there. Although it's impossible to tease out causation, I generally attribute my love of learning and personal autonomy to my years there and very much think it was worth it for me.
• shove 4y ago
  My wife is a Montessori teacher and I'll warn you to watch out for schools that are Montessori in name only. I know, I know ... as if it wasn't hard enough already.
• cpascal 4y ago
  I was in Montessori through kindergarten. I do remember feeling a bit disadvantaged socially when I entered 1st grade in a conventional school. Most of the other students had done kindergarten at my new school and already knew each other. I did eventually make friends, but I always felt like a bit of an outsider since I didn't have that shared kindergarten experience with my peers. I imagine this would only get worse the longer a child stays out of the conventional schooling system.
• scirocco 4y ago
  Montessori from age 6 to 15. - Self paced learning and choosing how to spend your time - Need to collaborate with your peers on scarce resources (everyone can't read the same book / solve the same challenge at the same time) - Small classes, no one could get away with anything/bullying - Responsibility for completing the weekly plan yourself and being rewarded for hard work ("the diligence light is well lit" sticker you got when sharing your weekly progress - sry poorly translated Swedish"
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• ritzaco 4y ago
  I was homeschooled, but we used a lot of Montessori principles for that age range. Completely recommend. I can echo the other comments already here about how I think it strongly promoted curiosity, independence and a love of learning, at the cost of some 'social adaption' - for me, mainly when I went to university and everyone had shared experiences that I was missing, but overall totally worth it IMO if the Montessori school is good.
• tducasse 4y ago
  My wife went to this indian alternative education school, a boarding school called Rishi Valley. They've opened many branches now, though I can't speak for the ones I don't know, all based on the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti; you can read more about them here: https://jkrishnamurti.org/schools https://jkrishnamurti.org/schools Rishi Valley's teachning style is, honestly, what I wish my education had been. I remember being a kid and asking my teacher for "more", questions about what happens _beyond_ what we had just learned, and them saying "don't worry about it, you'll learn next year". Rishi Valley's approach is "why don't you come later and I'll show you? is anyone else interested?". They really try to emphasize learning for the sake of learning, and kids can choose from multiple subjects. The teachers are often PhDs who have decided that they care a lot about education. Since it's a not for profit school, they're not paid a lot, but they live on campus, and get to interact with kids all day everyday. Most of the money the school gets is put back into rural education. Now, the transition back to the "standard" system when the kids have to go to college is not smooth. Most of the ones I've talked to mention that they were extremely overwhelmed with the "rat-race" and the fact that everyone was so competitive, where they had been focusing on learning for the sake of learning. Everyone I've met from this school is very good at critical-thinking, and they don't accept a conclusion just because "someone said so", they will fact-check, do their own research, debate, ... Which I think should be the goal of education. My anecdotal experience is that they overperform their non-weird-school peers though. But is that due to the teaching itself? Or is it maybe because the kind of parents who would put their kids in this school already did some sort of ground-work? I'm not sure!
• j45 4y ago
  The Reggio Emeila approach might be what some parents are looking for when they’ve heard about Montessori. It was designed for children after ww2 to reintegrate with their neighborhoods and communities after being shut ins and isolated from other children. It has turned out to have especially meaningful parallels in the past few years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach I have heard a lot about Montessori and how it’s relative to the practitioner. One thing that comes up is how reintegrating into society can be harder.
• rejectfinite 4y ago
  My daycare had it. I don't really know if it made a difference or what I think about it or what it even is. My mom liked it, I guess?
• alexb_ 4y ago
  I'm curious as to what the "failure state" of a Montessori education is. There's a lot to support that good Montessori teachers are better than good "traditional" schoolteachers, but what about the bad teachers? Assessing a system based on good conditions only can miss a lot - anyone here have a bad teacher while going through one of these programs?
  • technothrasher 4y ago
    I see two big failure states at Montessori schools. The first, and biggest, is constant parental pressure to move away from Montessori and more toward traditional education. This is typically because parents don't actually understand or value Montessori, they either want to brag about sending their kid there, or they're simply using it as a preschool with no intention of keeping their kid there after public school options begin. A school without a strong leader at the top will get kicked around by the parents and start to implement weird and non-useful policies and educational choices. The end failure state here is parents on the board, and a school which moves away from Montessori and ends up a middling small private school with nothing to guide its direction. The second, as you're alluding to, is just poor teachers. It's very obvious when you walk into a Montessori classroom if the teacher has control of the class. A good Montessori classroom will have the kids engaged in group projects or quiet individual work, some kids helping other kids or giving lessons, and the teacher simply watching ready to step in if a child needs a lesson or some help moving forward. A poor Montessori classroom will have kids scattered about, chatting with each other, running around or being inappropriately loud, and a teacher haggardly running from problem to problem trying to fix it. The best Montessori teachers know how to give constant joy and encouragement, but also come down like a ton of bricks for misbehavior. But they also need to be able to know each child well. If you don't know the kid, you cannot keep them pointed in the right direction, because each kid is different, and you'll lose them to idleness and lack of motivation.
• dyingkneepad 4y ago
  I have a slightly negative experience to share. I put my kid in a Montessori Preschool. The school was one giant 25-kid classroom with about 5 teachers. He absolutely loved a specific and was learning from her. He was starting to learn to read at the age of 4, super interested in everything she brought him. Then his favorite teacher left the school and it was never the same thing again. Even though he already knew the others, they could never actually get him interested in reading again or simply learning. It seems to me he didn't like the "focus time" (I forgot the name they use!) and doing activities all by himself. School as mostly boring to him, I ever wonder what the heck he was doing there all that time, 99% of the stories he shared with us happened during the little outside play time they had. Then we put him in Public School for Kindergarten and he absolutely loved it. He loved doing the same activity as everybody else, he loved the teacher, he loved the more energetic environment. He immediately got interested in learning again. So my conclusion is that it has much more to do with the teacher and the environment than with the method. Choose well, and trust your feelings when you see and talk to the teachers.
  • boringg 4y ago
    Sorry to hear that - that sounds concerning as a parent but I'm glad your child found their way again. Agree with you that and my sense is that teachers are the foundational component of education regardless of systemic benefits/drawbacks - all the way through your adult years where someone interesting at work can light up topics that you wouldn't otherwise be interested in.
• liveoneggs 4y ago
  I went to certified and uncertified montessori until mid 5th grade after public kindergarten offended my mother. It was fine and nice (especially the certified school) but going into a regular school was a bit of a culture shock. The social structure of my tiny parochial school was just so different. I can't even imagine what kids in public middle school go through (although I'm about to experience it by proxy with my own kids). The montessori was probably a great fit for me because I couldn't sit in a desk all day after moving to regular school and got in a little trouble for being unable to do so until I was about 16.
• odessacubbage 4y ago
  there are advantages to both systems. alternative schools are more like an idealized & harmonious version of the world while public ed mirrors the dysfunction and corporatocracy of 'real life' (and not to mention the blatant incuriosity & joylessness of managerial figures) hippie school teaches you how to love the world, state school teaches you how to live in it.
• DemocracyFTW2 4y ago
  I went to a Montessori kindergarten and I'm sure to this day it must have been the best kindergarten in the world. I remember one single time that I felt uneasy there because I had to stay with another group for some time, and the lady in that group was thought to be rather strict. I did whatever I thought I was expected to do and probably didn't look too happy, for at some point she turned to me to tell me, "you don't have to do that, y'know, it's totally up to you". For a kid too shy too ask that was a great deal. It still counts in my life although it's half a century ago. Thank you Mr and Ms Montessori.
• subpixel 4y ago
  My wife was a Montessori 'lifer', this topic actually came up in conversation no our second date, and our child is currently the happiest Montessori pre-k kid, perhaps ever. As others have pointed out, the Montessori program is strong, but the execution is everything. FWIW my wife, who is in her 40s, regularly visits her Montessori campus when visiting her hometown, and is friends with several of her classmates from the time, all of whom might give you the impression that Montessori is some sort of MLM thing to judge by their unbridled enthusiasm. EDIT - we plan to start our child in public kindergarten, because money. Tough choice, but that $12k isn't peanuts to us.
• cadr 4y ago
  I did Montessori though 4th grade. Moving to public school in 5th grade was a shock because, while I had been doing algebra self-directed, I never memorized my multiplication tables. I really resented being forced to memorize lists that I could just look up in a table (though I would freely memorize other things). So when I got into 5th grade, I failed all my math tests. I decided that didn't feel good, so I memorized those really fast. :) In retrospect, I am really glad I moved a bit earlier, because I think going straight from Montessori to 7th grade (junior high there) would have been a big jump. Moving over while still in elementary school eased that. But that was me and my situation.
• bmelton 4y ago
  I was hesitant to put my daughter into a bad / violent public school system (ranked bottom 5% in the nation at the time) so we opted for Montessori. She's in college now on a blended CompSci/math major, but in (non-Montessori) high school she developed a Lego robot that has landed her an exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which is probably never a bad thing for her burgeoning career.
  • ispo 4y ago
    My daughter is better.
  • boringg 4y ago
    That's a cool project - chapeau!
• Yaa101 4y ago
  Yes I did in the 70's. It worked out well up until my 6th grade (8th grade if you count kindergarten) The higher education part (Montessori Lyceum) never worked out for me as lack of structure and wealth of time freedom killed my effort and work ethos. The difference between how primary and higher education was structured on a Montessori based education is to far apart of each other. Primary Montessori education was more about getting the kids curious about the world and make them ask questions and get knowledge that way into the kid. Higher Montessori education was more like standard pumping knowledge that you have to remember for terms and tests. I was never prepared for that higher education part in my primary education period so I went from bad to worse in my higher education before giving up totally and went to work instead. Later I did catch up when I was grown up. Still, I am thankful for getting Montessori education as it formed my worldview and kept me curious and inquisitive the rest of my life and even now. I do wish that in the last 3 years of my primary schooling I had more support for conquering the higher education years.
• doctor_eval 4y ago
  Montessori is awesome, have put two kids through it and everything about the approach is wonderful. We committed serious financial resources (for us) to do this. However, as others have said, the individual school can have a huge influence on the quality. We moved interstate a year ago and sadly the new Montessori school doesn’t even have a Montessori teacher in my kids class, so we are leaving. So make sure you go to an established school where the teachers are Montessori trained and have been in the school a long time. That’s the #1 metric of a Montessori school if you ask me.
• scottshea 4y ago
  My daughter went from 18 months through 8th grade and my wife runs the school so, as you may guess, we are big fans. One thing to look for is the certifications. In the US there are (at least) two main Montessori Certification groups, AMI & AMS. The school my wife runs is AMI but I think AMS would be just as good. What is slightly different than other experiences here is that the school is a Charter school which poses some challenges but does offer Montessori beyond the normal tuition based model. As for my daughter, her transition has been fairly smooth. The high school she goes to has more than 10x the students as her old school so is much larger. On the other hand, her grades are good, and she is involved in a number of clubs too. Montessori is not for everyone but I definitely recommend checking it out.
• kashunstva 4y ago
  My daughter attended Montessori through grade 8, with a stint of homeschool in there. She is in high school at an arts boarding school studying classical violin (well, and those academic things on the side…) She felt well prepared for the type of work required because of foundational experiences of independent work in Montessori. Transition was not difficult at all.
• glhast 4y ago
  I attended a Montessori from Kindergarten to 5th grade in the 90's. I loved it. The teachers let me teach an art and drawing class in 2nd grade. Another student taught an algebra class (he's a brilliant cancer researcher now). I co-wrote, illustrated, and sold a comic book with another classmate in 4th grade during class time. It allowed me to complete the curriculum on my own time and held me accountable. Montessori was something I made my own, not something that was happening to me. The transition out wasn't that bad. I did 5th grade again (June baby) at a standard private school. The biggest things: - I had never written a formal essay, or an essay outline. - I had never taken nor prepared for a real test Like others here, I never really enjoyed school as much after Montessori. For the right kid, it can cultivate curiosity, independence, collaboration, and a love for self managed learning. For the wrong kid, it can be an unstructured nightmare.
  • bawolff 4y ago
    > The transition out wasn't that bad. I did 5th grade again (June baby) at a standard private school. The biggest things: - I had never written a formal essay, or an essay outline. - I had never taken nor prepared for a real test I went to public school. Im pretty sure grade 4/5 is around where tests and formal essay writing started anyways, so that doesn't sound that terrible.
    • mod 4y ago
      We started spelling tests in first grade in the 1980s. We also read (aloud as a class) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that year.
      • bawolff 4y ago
        I guess it depends if spelling tests are "real" tests.
  • boringg 4y ago
    So I've been reading this and I'm not sure how I feel about it. "Like others here, I never really enjoyed school as much after Montessori." It's almost like school peaked as a child and then it was just disappointing after that. Not that I would say don't do the program because everything afterwards is less good but I am a bit split on it. It also speaks to how powerful the program is to elicit such responses. And it seems from the small subsection of commenters on this HN thread (which is already a specific subsection of society) that there is a transition afterwards but people seem to be well adjusted for the most part. From my own experience I can say I don't really think I enjoyed school (not Montessori) - and I'm realizing as I type this that in itself is unfortunate.
• rco8786 4y ago
  Not me, but my wife did. Through 5th or 6th grade, I forget. She has very fond memories of it, and hated the transition into traditional school. Her account is that once she got there she was a) appalled at being expected to sit at a desk all day listening to teacher's talk or doing worksheets and b) bored as hell because she was significantly further along in her own education. Worth noting that she ended up at a pretty bottom of the barrel public school.
• bcrosby95 4y ago
  Just an FYI, most schools I see that label themselves as Montessori aren't actually Montessori, they're just high performance schooling environments for young kids. In our neck of the woods it's the hip thing and well off parents will pay lots of money for it.
  • caminante 4y ago
    Are they really not using montessori methods? Or is your critique more along the lines of the bigger driver for montessori outcomes isn't the montessori methods, but the affluence of the families?
    • bcrosby95 4y ago
      That they aren't actually using montessori.
      • caminante 4y ago
        Do you have criteria though? According to this article [0], it's pretty vague (Montessori isn't trademarked and tough to enforce) and not all schools stick to the "classic" Montessori methods, which, I guess there's a handful of certification bodies (in the US). To this point, > Out of more than 4,000 so-called Montessori schools across the country, only 1,250 are affiliated with the American Montessori Society (and only 204 are AMS-accredited) and about 220 are recognized by AMI. [0] https://hechingerreport.org/will-the-real-montessori-please-stand-up/ https://hechingerreport.org/will-the-real-montessori-please-... edits: re-vamped text
        • bcrosby95 4y ago
          It was based upon talking with the people that ran the place, discussing with parents why they put them in the place (all were high achievement academic reasons), and discussing these issues with my mother in law, who was an early child development college teacher for 20 years and ran a preschool lab where they taught their college students, hands on, how to be preschool teachers.
• _mh0j 4y ago
  I attended a Montessori in the Midwest until third grade. When I entered the California public school system, I was in some ways years ahead of my class (especially in reading comprehension). I coasted through every gifted program they threw at me until high school. Montessori gave me a huge advantage at one of the most critical stages in my development. I wish I could have been there longer.
  • technothrasher 4y ago
    It is interesting if you look at the data on this. Your advantage from Montessori school by third grade is well documented, but then you typically see that by high school the traditionally schooled kids catch up and the Montessori kids come back toward the average, even if they are still in a Montessori school. Obviously this all depends upon the individual child (which is, of course, a big component of Montessori philosophy) but statistically over a population, that's how it plays out.
    • boringg 4y ago
      I'd be interested to see the data. Also to commenters opinion - coasted after montesorri afterwards until college -- so many gave them and early boost and not necessarily need to keep the work ethic in high school which would bring them back to average per your comment -- (alternate theory)
• movedx 4y ago
  My wife did. She's now also a teacher. If you've got a contact email, I'm sure she'd be happy to answers any specific questions.
• ranbato 4y ago
  We put our 2 oldest kids in Montessori. The oldest one loved it and thrived in Montessori and stayed in it until we started a Charter school to avoid the local Middle School. The second one HATED Montessori and we had to move him out to the local elementary school. In the end it came down to personality. The second kid had a personality that just wouldn't work in a Montessori environment. He would do what he wanted to when he wanted to and would refuse to be redirected in any way, shape or form. Same school, mostly the same teachers, but totally opposite outcomes.
  • csa 4y ago
    > He would do what he wanted to when he wanted to and would refuse to be redirected in any way, shape or form. In what way did a kid with this disposition like traditional school more? Did your kid respond better to a more rigid structure? Or was it something else?
    • ranbato 4y ago
      It was the rigid structure. Until he was a junior in HS he refused most guidance and advice about school and learing. Then, one day, the light came on and he did a 180 on his schoolwork and life planning. Now studying for the MCAT to become a neurosurgeon with a minor in CS where before he was a C student.
• epolanski 4y ago
  My ex did, she loved it. She largely outperformed all her peers later in life.
• rr808 4y ago
  I sent my children to regular public elementary school. They loved it, was a great environment. They are now confident, curious, smart & successful high schoolers with loads of friends. The local Montessoris around here are 20->30k a year, a waste of money.
• pigtailgirl 4y ago
  -- did Waldorf - it was fantastic: https://www.masslive.com/pioneerparent/2007/09/a_tale_of_two_preschools_compa.html https://www.masslive.com/pioneerparent/2007/09/a_tale_of_two... --
  • devmunchies 4y ago
    Seconded. My kids have been in Waldorf for a couple years. I plan on keeping them in Waldorf and when they’re older maybe supplementing with extracurricular math (like Russian school of math) since Waldorf excels more in creativity, imagination, and mindfulness but weaker in STEM (but still present). But that seems like the right priority for elementary aged children.
• technothrasher 4y ago
  I was in Montessori from pre-school through grade 6, and then transitioned into a traditional private prep school for grade 7 through 12. Honestly, it wasn't that bad of a transition, even though I had to completely relearn what school was supposed to be. My Montessori school day by grade 6 was a lot of unstructured time, often outdoors, sometimes doing math in the bathroom because that's where it was quiet, very often project based learning with other kids rather than the teacher. Never any "homework" assigned, but often doing school work at home because I wanted to keep working on something. My prep school was eight periods a day, sitting in desks, learning whatever the day's lesson plan was, getting fixed breaks for lunch and recess, and getting several hours of homework assigned a day. The two environments were very different. But I adjusted and moved on. The biggest annoyance I had with the prep school was that they controlled my movements so much. In 6th grade, we'd leave the school and go down to the center of town for lunch, getting something at the sub shop or eating our bagged lunch by the town's waterfalls, and returning to school on our own when it was time. In 7th grade, I needed a hall pass to even be out of the classroom during a period, and would definitely get suspended if I left campus during the day. But from most of the local Montessori schools I toured when I was looking for my son, the freedom we had at my Montessori school in the early 1980's seems to be very much more restricted these days, simply because the larger culture doesn't allow it any longer. The one that actually offered the most freedom for the kids was still the school that I had gone to. But I live too far away from it now for it to have been a real choice. As it turns out, my son failed spectacularly at his Montessori school because of some learning disabilities he has that they were unable to handle, and he actually is much more happy now in a more traditional school which helped him overcome his disabilities and be successful (not specifically because they are more traditional, but because they are a school well-versed in handling learning disabilities).
• fideloper 4y ago
  Montessori was bad for me. At least the Montessori I was placed in. I need to find out where it was (and how old I was - I would guess 5 or 6), but the situation is that I was not ready (or perhaps not the right type of kid) for Montessori. I was painfully shy, and I'd avoid attention. The teachers (there were 2 I believe) must have been happy to ignore me. How else do you spend an entire year not paying attention to a student? Perhaps they were overworked. I'd spend a lot of time in the bathroom, or ... I'm not even sure what. Playing with something, but generally not learning. The strong theme of these comments here are how Montessori really allowed some to thrive, but I cannot imagine that - it was very much not my experience. Perhaps that was me, or perhaps it was that particular school. Likely both. I have a distinct memory of another student (a friend) learning the alphabet. A teacher was spending time with him, letting him draw the letters out. For whatever reason, I wanted to be included in that. Even at that young age, I suspect I knew that something was off. I wanted that attention as well. I expressed interest in doing what my friend was doing (I'm not sure what - writing out the alphabet perhaps), but was told no. I don't remember why, this was some 30+ years ago now - but I recall that rejection. I eventually went to public school, but was very nearly held back. I didn't know anything! My mother interceded and I was allowed to stay in that grade (which is good, I'm still on the older side for my grade - holding me back could have been even more awkward). She helped me learn what I needed to know at home - I imagine it was quite the effort. I still wonder why I was put in that position to begin with! You think they would know that I wasn't learning anything, but I'll bet it was easy to hide. Kids born in the 80's and 90's tended to have parents who were very hands-off it seems (certainly my case, and anecdotally, that seems to the trend of those times). I've asked what was going on before, but answering specifics from decisions from 30 years ago is a tough question for a parent in their 70's now. They were probably struggling with money at the time and had their own worries. I'm not sure I'll send my kids to Montessori, although I suspect they would thrive where I did not. Parents now a days (me!) are much more involved in their kids lives (for better or worse) and I imagine between internet reviews and us being top of it, my own issue wouldn't be repeated for my kids.
  • ojame 4y ago
    > She helped me learn what I needed to know at home Assuming this _wasn't_ the case when you were at Montessori - which goes against one of the core principles of "school is an extension of home". It's understandable, of course (you said it yourself, especially with the 'hands off' nature of that time), but kids generally thrive when education is a life thing, and not a 'school' thing. > You think they would know that I wasn't learning anything Teachers in any ecosystem can fail (intentional or not) with specific kids. Perhaps they knew, perhaps they didn't, but again, if school is an extension of home, as a parent it should be very, very easy to pick up on. It's not uncommon in any stream to have parents say "my kid isn't advancing like i thought" or "my kid is struggling with their reading, how are you helping?". > I was painfully shy, and I'd avoid attention. This is my son. These days we call the behaviour mostly being "an observer" because at the end of the day that's what he does if he's not engaged with himself, and I hate the term 'shy' as it's generally pretty negative (that's me, too, even as an adult). Montessori school has been fantastic for him - he's really flourished and his development has well and truely exceeded my expectations (both academically and socially). Being 'shy' hasn't caused his teachers, or 'Montessori' as a framework to fail him this far. Again - it could be any teacher, any student in any school that fails. I'm sorry your initial environment failed you and I'm happy you saw success elsewhere! My daughter is the polar opposite of my son in every way, and I'm very excited to see her start school.
• turndown 4y ago
  I did Montessori for preschool and kindergarten, and my review of it is that it will definitely trampoline your kids knowledge in certain subjects they have interest in relative to other kids their age who go to a normal school. I was very strong in math going into 1st grade, but was practically illiterate because I didn't like reading very much. Your kids will probably be able to socialize with people outside their age range better, but will not be as socially adept with kids their age. I'd recommend some outside activities with strictly people in their age group.
• Exuma 4y ago
  I did, best thing my parents ever did for me.
• sakras 4y ago
  I went from preschool to second grade, and I thought it was OK. My teacher in first and second grade was really mean to me which caused me to beg my mom to let me go to public school as I was not willing to go back for a third year of that lady. Overall I felt it was very restrictive on my education. My day consisted of a few required activities (copy down a few sentences by hand, do 5 addition problems, etc.) followed by doing whatever I wanted. My favorite one was putting together a cube out of these colored blocks, but there’s only so many times you can put that together. The rest of the day was basically spent in boredom as I’d exhausted all the activities that interested me. I spent a fair amount of time reading. The restrictive part however was the complete lack of preparation on the part of the teachers to teach anything. I remember after doing addition for a while, I asked my teacher to teach me how to multiply. She said “no, that’s for third graders” and left. I basically pieced together that “two times three” meant 2+2+2 just from the way it sounded in English. What a way to shut down a child’s education. I’m sure I had an abnormally bad experience, and my sample size isn’t enough to discredit the Montessori methodology as a whole. However, I was much happier and felt I learned a lot more from public school. My conclusion is thus that the quality of teachers is vastly more important than the methodology. If you have well-funded public schools in your area, I would definitely suggest them over a poorer private Montessori school.
• andrewedstrom 4y ago
  I attended Montessori from 3rd-6th grade and then went to a 2-year transition program called "Project Based Learning" before returning to traditional schooling for 9th-12th grades. I loved Montessori and it helped shape me into the person I am today. However, transitioning back to traditional schooling was extremely painful, and sadly it never got easier. I hated the rest of my school experience, from 9th grade until basically the end of college. In Montessori, when it was time to learn a new subject, I'd have a brief, one-on-one conversation with the teacher to get oriented, and then after 10-20 minutes, they'd set me loose to apply the ideas on my own until I mastered the material. Compared to that freedom, ordinary classrooms were miserable. Trapped, listening to lectures for 45+ minutes at a time before I was able to get my hands dirty and try anything out. And if I caught on early in a lecture, that made things even worse! Now I had to sit there for a half hour and listen to a teacher explain something I already understood—to no one's benefit. I'm getting worked up just thinking of it. Suffice it to say that moving at the pace of the slowest person in the class was torture for my ADHD brain. Montessori spoiled me and I never really reacclimatized. I don't have any advice except that for some people (like me) Montessori works extremely well, and for many others, it doesn't work well at all. But if it works well, then transitioning back to regular schooling can be tough.
• mcv 4y ago
  My children are both going to Montessori schools in Netherland. One to primary school, the other to secondary. And not because we absolutely need to have our kids in a Montessori school, but simply because the primary school is very close to our home and seems like a decent school (though they've had a few issues a couple of years ago), and the secondary school is the only one in Amsterdam that offers 4 hours of programming per week. I do sometimes worry that the freedom might not work well for my kids; maybe they need a bit more guidance. The youngest (7) simply refuses to do his work, and while the oldest (now 13) skipped a grade when he was 7, he failed last year because he was not doing any homework and not turning in his assignments. Stricter guidance might help them both. Or maybe not. It's hard to tell. My parents apparently did consider Montessori for me, but I've only gone to regular schools, never did my homework, always passed, and in university discovered I had no work discipline at all, so it seems like everybody in our family is going to run into that problem at some point. Maybe it's better to learn it early.
  • boringg 4y ago
    I'd be curious how the Montesorri is implemented in Netherlands vs North America. As mentioned it does come down to how each school runs their program with some consistencies across the board.
    • mcv 4y ago
      I have no idea how it's implemented in North America, but from what I can tell, there's a big emphasis on kids making their own planning. My kids are terrible at planning (no surprise to me), so they receive help with that. Of course being part of the Dutch educational system, they have to follow the same rules, meet the same criteria and receive the same funding as other schools. I've been told that their approach is somewhere halfway between true Montessori and a regular school.
• ForHackernews 4y ago
  I attended Montessori school for many years and, in retrospect, I don't think it was very good for me. Montessori education allows children freedom to explore and follow their own interests, and this lack of structure can be problematic. I was a bright kid and many things came easily to me, so when I encountered something that didn't, I would get frustrated and quit. Unfortunately there are many topics that require pure grinding to master: multiplication tables, musical scales, foreign vocabulary[0], etc. Not only was there nobody to force me to focus on repeating difficult, unpleasant work, I also failed to learn the meta-skill of how to make myself stick at doing things I suck at. This eventually came to hamstring me later in my education, and even in my adult career I struggle to make myself do necessary yak-shaving.[1] [0] maybe less so for young children [1] https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/388092/what-exactly-is-yak-shaving https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/3880...
• dekleinewolf 4y ago
  I did Montessori from age 4-8 and then transitioned because of a move. Montessori worked really well for me. I have always been 'ahead' and I could explore my own interests. I was never bored in school which is something that changed later on in life. I have very fond memories of that school and my own kids (currently 5 and 3) are in a Montessori school and day care as well. My son specifically is also doing awesome in Montessori and loves going to school. They have themed shelves with 'tasks' (this is translated, not sure about the common English terminology). Every day they have to do at least one task from the 'language' shelf and one from the 'math' shelf. They also have geography, practical life skills and 'cosmology' (basically anything else) shelves. Teachers keep track of their skills and accomplished tasks and basically sweep behind if they are lacking in one or more areas by encouraging them to pick up more tasks from those areas. According to the school on average Montessori kids are more independent, great at critical thinking, more self-confident and tend to pick up leadership roles later in life (I do feel like this applies to me, but I've only had a couple of Montessori years so hard to judge). I am a big fan. Is there anything specific you are worried about/interested in?