Bursting the Montessori Bubble

EV

I would add that in traditional schools teachers speak of "natural testers." Other children must be taught how to think like the test writers - not to question too much, not to ponder too much, how to anticipate what the question is seeking. (Yup - sad. Because that is what you want in friend, employee, citizen of the world.) Montessori eliminates that issue, however, the first couple of tests can be rough if your child leaves a Montessori school and isn't a "natural tester." We put AV and JV at a two year college for some of their middle/high school classes.* This helped ease them into the stressors of tests - one natural test taker and one totally over thinking test taker. Our logic proved correct for our children. Society had trained them to be stressed by tests. They have friends who went to traditional school; they've watched TV; they've read books. Still I wouldn't change our Montessori choices. The kids still want to learn at 16 and 18. They love looking at all the facets of a problem. They are responsible and provide thoughtful responses for situations. They don't objectify people but look for the soul of each person. They attempt peaceful resolutions but will speak up for justice. They are focused and work to true completion of a job not just "enough." They've chosen to walk between a traditional and non-traditional path. They are attending American College of the Building Arts (4 year liberal arts college but very non-traditional). One in Architectural Carpentry and one in Forged Architectural Iron Work. One because he loves wood and the other because he wants to travel the world and blacksmithing is a job he can use to supplement his income after he gets an archeology degree. We went through quite a bit of questioning of our schooling decisions every step of the way from family, friends, even random people in the grocery store. There are times you question what you are doing because it is so different or because you're worried about how they'll do later because of learning differences or not. There are times we wanted to chuck it all and go mainstream and be "normal" - sometimes for our own sake and sometimes for our children's. We didn't. It was hard. But we stayed true to our children's needs. Now, as we continue to open our hands and release the children into their full service to the world, we don't regret our decisions, and the questions from others are quieting as they see the qualities associated with mature adults being demonstrated by our sons in ways that are not often seen in their peers. Being a Montessori parent, whose children are in college. I would yell at the top of my lungs - "Don't forget which is the real bubble!" *We didn't have money to send them to a Montessori Erd Kinder and nothing in our city/region past Upper El. So a bit of Montessori homeschooling and then an online public high school that was mastery based.

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Bursting the Montessori Bubble

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