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Although every family must make this
decision on its own, we offer a number
of thoughts which should be considered before transferring a child in
the kindergarten year.
1. |
Does your child love school and can’t wait to
go every day? If so, consider yourself lucky. Why tinker with a winning
school situation when so many families are frustrated and disappointed? |
2. |
Your child has waited for two years to be one of the five-year-old
leaders of her class. The kindergartners are looked up to as role
models for the younger students, and most children eagerly await
their opportunity to play this role. |
3. |
The third year, the kindergarten year, is the time when many of
the earlier lessons come together and become a permanent part of
the young child’s understanding. An excellent example is the
early introduction to addition with large numbers through the Bank
Game. When children leave Montessori at age five, many of the still-forming
concepts evaporate, just as a child living overseas will learn to
speak two languages, but may quickly lose the second language if
his family moves back home. |
4. |
As a five year old, your child has many opportunities to teach
the younger children lessons that he learned when he was their age.
Research proves that this experience has powerful benefits for both
tutor and tutored. |
5. |
As five year olds, Montessori children normally go on to still
more fascinating lessons and more advanced Montessori materials,
such as the Stamp Game. |
6. |
The Primary Montessori curriculum is much more sophisticated than
that found in most kindergartens. |
7. |
Having spent two years together, your child’s teachers know
her very, very well. They know her strengths and areas that are presenting
challenges. |
8. |
Your child already knows most of her classmates. She has grown
up in a safe, supportive classroom setting. |
9. |
If your child goes on to another school, he will spend the first
half of the year just getting used to the new educational approach. |
10. |
Montessori math is based on the European tradition of unified mathematics.
Montessori introduces young children to basic geometry and other
sophisticated concepts as early as kindergarten. |
11. |
In many Montessori schools, five year olds are beginning to read
the Junior Great Books; kindergartners in other schools may be learning
to recognize letters and numbers. |
12. |
Five year olds have a real sense of running their classroom community. |
13. |
In Montessori, your child can continue to progress at her own pace.
In traditional kindergarten, she will have to wait while the other
children begin to catch up. |
14. |
Even in kindergarten, Montessori children are studying cultural
geography and beginning to grow into global citizens. |
15. |
In Montessori, five year olds work with intriguing learning materials,
like the Trinomial Cube, instead of coloring books and insipid basal
readers. |
16. |
With the Land and Water Forms, he’ll learn about lakes, islands,
isthmuses, straits, capes, archipelagos, peninsulas, and other geological
forms, rather than circles, squares and rectangles. |
17. |
In art, she’ll learn about Picasso and Renoir, rather than
learn her basic colors. |
18. |
In Montessori, your child has been treated with a deep respect
as a unique individual. The school has been equally concerned for
his intellectual, social, and emotional development. |
19. |
Montessori schools are warm and supportive communities of students,
teachers, and parents. Children can’t easily slip through the
cracks! |
20. |
Montessori consciously teaches children to be kind and peaceful. |
21. |
In Montessori schools, learning is not focused on rote drill and
memorization. Our goal is to develop students who really understand
their schoolwork. |
22. |
Montessori students learn through hands-on experience, investigation,
and research. They become actively engaged in their studies, rather
than passively waiting to be spoon-fed. |
23. |
Montessori is consciously designed to recognize and address different
learning styles, helping students learn to study most effectively. |
24. |
Montessori challenges and set high expectations for all students,
not only a special few. |
25. |
Montessori students develop self-discipline and an internal sense
of purpose and motivation. |
If you still have any doubt, spend a morning observing in your child’s
class and compare it with a morning in a kindergarten class in the other
school you are considering. Sit quietly and take mental notes. The differences
may be subtle, but most likely they will be significant. Then project
your child into the future and ask yourself how the positive differences
you
observed in the Montessori classroom might help shape your child to become
the teenager, and later the adult, you envisioned for you child’s
future.
Montessori schools are warm and supportive communities of students,
teachers, and parents. Children can’t easily slip through the cracks!
Montessori consciously teaches children to be kind and peaceful. In Montessori
schools,
learning is not focused on rote drill and memorization. Our goal is to
develop students who really understand their schoolwork. Montessori students
learn through hands-on experience, investigation, and research. They
become actively engaged in their studies, rather than passively waiting
to be
spoon-fed. Montessori is consciously designed to recognize and address
different learning styles, helping students learn to study most effectively.
Montessori challenges and set high expectations for all students, not
only a special few. Montessori students develop self-discipline and an
internal
sense of purpose and motivation.
Tomorrow’s Child—Winter 1998 |