When you walk into a montessori classroom such as Mrs. Diana Boren’s 4th-6th grade, it’s a world of wonder and learning; like going to a museum where you can touch and interact with everything. Your mind does this: Oh I could write and adventure story, oh I could learn square roots with these colorful blocks, should I audition for the play my classmates are putting on or go to the “Ruby Mountain Journal” class newspaper meeting? Then ideas come to you for interviews for the next issue. What’s over here? Scientific experiment!
Boren says it is very purposeful to have variety in the room at all times because kids are inspired by all the activities around them. The 4th graders want to do what the 6th graders are doing. ”Kids see interesting things going on that they are not currently doing and they go ‘Wow, can I do that? When can I get to cube roots?’…I say ‘Wow I would love to teach you cube roots but there are a lot of things between where you are and where that is so let’s get started on the next thing.’” One premise of Montessori is that what keeps kids “on track” is their interest in learning.
And it’s true: rather than being shut off or walled in, they are encouraged. So it seems there’s an unusual level of individuality, creativity, thinking, and respect in the montessori classroom. Kids are encouraged to be in their own worlds. They are allowed to choose what they want to be working on, and they take pride in their work. Rather than “No, don’t do that,” it’s “Yes, but how about that? How do we make that work?” The teacher is also a mentor and coach.
Boren, who taught for 15 years in the traditional public school system before switching to montessori told us over lunch (local, organic cooked at the school, the same lunch the kids eat) why she is passionate about it. “The treatment of children as people who deserve respect… All the decisions at this school- the first thing people consider is what’s best for kids. And I’ve never been at another school like that, believe it or not.”
Boren also talked about how montessori can be good for kids with Attention Deficit Disorder because they won’t be yelled at for getting up 10 times a day to sharpen their pencil, for example. In the past she has even had arrangements with kids who feel like they just need to move: They will go run a few laps around the playground then come back. But then again, montessori “works pretty well for almost everybody… because they get their needs met in different ways,” says Boren. ”That’s the bottom line- What does that child need to learn?”
Mrs. Boren says that making traditional education look more like montessori would require “making children a priority” along with additional training for teachers. Universities don’t talk about montessori a lot so young teachers don’t know much about it, and then by the time they learn about it they’d have to make a huge commitment to travel or move for extensive training. Montessori teachers can be trained either for one whole year or for 3 summers at one of the 4 montessori training centers in the US. It leads one to wonder how the world may look different with more people educated in this way.
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