Montessori questions
Mar. 17th, 2009 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chhotiiRich thought of a question, regarding Montessori education at the higher levels, after we had left the school already: Do the kids get homework? I mean, if the choice of material is so kid-directed, how do you assign homework? But, then again, at the higher grade levels, the Montessori schoolwork does seem to get more structured, so maybe that's not so puzzling. Then again again, we are not sure that having lots of homework at the pre-high school level is a good thing anyway. Anyway, I think Rich talked about the homework question with Issac's mom, and must have found the answers not too objectionable.
Rich was also wondering how kids do with the transition from a free-choice format to a traditional school format. Eventually, your kid is going to wind up in a rectangular grid of hard chairs, listening to someone lecture for an hour. Eventually. Rich asked this question of one of the elementary teachers at the Montessori school, and she said "they do very well, because they are so self-motivated." I can believe this, it makes sense to me; although, of course, the Montessori teacher's views would not be the most objective. I'm not worried about this, but it would be nice to hear first-hand from some survivors of the process.
This new school emphasizes a lot of involvement by the parents, even requiring a certain amount of volunteer work from each family. I can see how that would tend to keep parents more in the loop regarding what's going on at the school. But it's new and different for us. Sophia's preschools up to this point have only required from me that I pay their bills on time. I have no idea what kind of volunteer work. What could I even do? I have no expertise in the subject of educating children; that's why I want to send Sophia off to a school, duh. Hmm, well, I guess I can read stories to little children, re-shelve books in the library, bake trans-fat-free snacks, and plant flowers on the grounds; Rich could play his guitar for the children if paired with a compatible folk singer (a big if) and de-virus the computers. How much of this kind of thing would not tread on the turf of paid staff?
So one of the things that we are supposed to talk about in the application essay is "a history of your involvement in your current school or community groups". Sophia's preschools up to this point have not involved a whole lot of "involvement". Or did I just not notice? Did I fail this test? What exactly are they asking here anyway? Is it a listing of the time I helped chaperone the preschool circus field trip, the time we made a quiche for the preschool families potluck, etc.? As far as "involvement in... community groups" goes, what do they mean by "community groups"? It sounds like they are looking for the kind of parents who have been organizing the snacks for the local church's weekly women's group coffee meeting since forever. I've never been really embedded in my community, in my adult life: I don't go to church, don't do book clubs, haven't yet reached the PTA meeting phase... Rich did a bunch of volunteer work for the local access television station when he lived in Wakefield; is that the kind of thing they are looking for?
Our notion of "community" is more based on commonality of interests than geography. If I were to spontaneously take on more volunteer work, it would more likely be for Arisia than for any group based in the little town we happen to live in. Rich, in the past, did a whole lot of volunteer work for Arisia TV. Is that "community"? Yes. But is it a "community group"? Um.
I have to admit, though, that I've only done volunteer work for a small fraction of my life, and Rich hasn't done much volunteer work lately either. I did not expect to be judged on this, and I shouldn't feel ashamed of how we have spent our time; we've done a lot of other things that are interesting (for example, taking classes) and/or make the world a better place (for example, me: political stuff; Rich: becoming quite the sustainable energy maven).
Rich was also wondering how kids do with the transition from a free-choice format to a traditional school format. Eventually, your kid is going to wind up in a rectangular grid of hard chairs, listening to someone lecture for an hour. Eventually. Rich asked this question of one of the elementary teachers at the Montessori school, and she said "they do very well, because they are so self-motivated." I can believe this, it makes sense to me; although, of course, the Montessori teacher's views would not be the most objective. I'm not worried about this, but it would be nice to hear first-hand from some survivors of the process.
This new school emphasizes a lot of involvement by the parents, even requiring a certain amount of volunteer work from each family. I can see how that would tend to keep parents more in the loop regarding what's going on at the school. But it's new and different for us. Sophia's preschools up to this point have only required from me that I pay their bills on time. I have no idea what kind of volunteer work. What could I even do? I have no expertise in the subject of educating children; that's why I want to send Sophia off to a school, duh. Hmm, well, I guess I can read stories to little children, re-shelve books in the library, bake trans-fat-free snacks, and plant flowers on the grounds; Rich could play his guitar for the children if paired with a compatible folk singer (a big if) and de-virus the computers. How much of this kind of thing would not tread on the turf of paid staff?
So one of the things that we are supposed to talk about in the application essay is "a history of your involvement in your current school or community groups". Sophia's preschools up to this point have not involved a whole lot of "involvement". Or did I just not notice? Did I fail this test? What exactly are they asking here anyway? Is it a listing of the time I helped chaperone the preschool circus field trip, the time we made a quiche for the preschool families potluck, etc.? As far as "involvement in... community groups" goes, what do they mean by "community groups"? It sounds like they are looking for the kind of parents who have been organizing the snacks for the local church's weekly women's group coffee meeting since forever. I've never been really embedded in my community, in my adult life: I don't go to church, don't do book clubs, haven't yet reached the PTA meeting phase... Rich did a bunch of volunteer work for the local access television station when he lived in Wakefield; is that the kind of thing they are looking for?
Our notion of "community" is more based on commonality of interests than geography. If I were to spontaneously take on more volunteer work, it would more likely be for Arisia than for any group based in the little town we happen to live in. Rich, in the past, did a whole lot of volunteer work for Arisia TV. Is that "community"? Yes. But is it a "community group"? Um.
I have to admit, though, that I've only done volunteer work for a small fraction of my life, and Rich hasn't done much volunteer work lately either. I did not expect to be judged on this, and I shouldn't feel ashamed of how we have spent our time; we've done a lot of other things that are interesting (for example, taking classes) and/or make the world a better place (for example, me: political stuff; Rich: becoming quite the sustainable energy maven).
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-17 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-17 05:00 pm (UTC)This, as you and
We do a modicum of "volunteering" for our school, but it doesn't demand sudden immersion into a strange community (altho that opportunity exists; the parents who dive in most kind of creep me out).
My main point is that, even given the Montessori Method, not all Montessori schools are the same.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-17 05:18 pm (UTC)I'm sure it's not required for you to use your college degree thing to help; sometimes it's just needing another adult around that will do the trick.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-17 11:26 pm (UTC)In the Lower El (1st-3rd grade), the kids are expected to get most or all of their work done in class, although they might have to bring home work they haven't finished, or that needs extra attention; e.g. Michael A. often brings home spelling and math sheets.
In the Upper El (4th-6th grade), the work is made more explicit, and the kids have "work contracts" that they have to fulfill over the course of the week. They generally get to choose what to do when, but they may end up bringing more of it home.
In the Middle School, they have fewer projects on the list, but bigger ones, and they're expected to do significant work outside of the classroom. They also get an introduction to time management, with multiple overlapping short-term, medium-term, and long-term projects. For some reason, Kylie finds this easier to deal with than having a whole bunch of little projects to check off by the end of the week. In any case, it should serve her well in high school.
As to the volunteering, there are a lot of things that don't require being in the classroom, e.g. library work, field trip transport, or school social events and fundraisers. When Kylie was much younger, I used to supervise pre-school lunch so the teachers could eat, but I haven't done anything to speak of for years, and they haven't kicked us out.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-17 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 11:30 am (UTC)