5 Examples of Differences Between Montessori and Traditional Public Schools

Preschool children tend to perform well in a Montessori environment. As an alternative to traditional schools, Montessori stands apart from other educational strategies because the Montessori Method is designed around children, focusing on helping each child develop in a natural manner using special activities and a completely different teaching style.

1. Children First

Traditionally, all of the children in a class are expected to always be on the same page, working on the same projects, and using the same materials. By contrast, Montessori preschool students work individually. This is only one example of how Montessori puts individual development first, but the classroom itself is another example, with everything designed to be more comfortable and appealing to the children in the room.

2. Observation and Guidance

Montessori teachers are called guides because guidance, not instruction, is their primary function. Student guides do not spend the day lecturing to the class as a group. Their approach is to observe the progress of individuals and gently guide them toward new activities or goals that help each child at a personal level.

3. Hands-On Activity

Independent research has demonstrated the effectiveness of learning through doing, but Montessori students have always used a play-based educational system. Maria Montessori recognized that children are learning when they are at play and designed activities around the idea that children will learn more readily when the task at hand is also enjoyable and engaging.

4. Mixed Age Groups

Children in the Montessori preschool are learning different skills at different speeds. In a traditional classroom where all of the kids are within months of the same age, this method would be problematic but in a class with a 3-year age spread every child has ample opportunity to learn at a pace that suits them instead of struggling to stay in step with other students.

5. Practical Experience

There isn't much room for learning to perform practical tasks in a traditional public school environment. Montessori teaches children to perform these tasks as a fundamental part of the educational process, including routine chores and lessons about culture, language, and math, and as a tool for developing important social skills. The end result is a child who not only learns academically, physically, and socially but gains practical experience in real-world tasks as they do so.

Montessori is vastly different from traditional educational approaches. It allows more freedom of choice but demands more focus on learning. It is self-guided and self-correcting, and Montessori is more fully involved in helping the child develop along several developmental paths in unison.

Do Mixed Age Groups in Montessori Schools Benefit the Children?

Over a century ago, Maria Montessori observed that children develop more effectively when they are members of a mixed age group. Through further research, she realized that mixed age groups in Montessori daycare correspond to learning phases, beginning with the absorbent mind period that spans from birth to 6 years and can readily be divided into 2 distinct groups split at around age 3. 

A Natural Order

Montessori's mixed-age groups were inspired by the natural order of things. In an unstructured environment, this grouping happens by default, based on things like interacting with siblings to the age distribution that occurs within a community of children. Even more importantly, mixed ages have an impact on a variety of developmental goals, critical thinking skills, and social interactions.

Learning Paces Vary

Children do not absorb the same information or reach the same mental or physical development milestones at the same time. By mixing the ages of the children in a classroom, each child can develop individually while allowing all of the kids to achieve the same milestones before moving on to the next mixed-age group. And since some children develop more quickly, they have the abilities and experience to help guide the development of those who follow.

Building Future Leaders

When older children are encouraged to identify and assist others, they are building strong emotional skills such as empathy and practicing leadership skills such as diplomacy. Montessori is renowned for producing adult children who have done extremely well in leadership positions, and this is related-- at least in part-- to having begun learning to be leaders at an early age.

Bolstering Self Esteem

Immersion in a mixed-age group helps children develop vital social skills, but to do that they must also have a healthy sense of self-confidence. The self-esteem to help others and the willingness to ask for help when it is needed are both based on developmental skills that are available through social interactions in a mixed-age classroom. This effect is part of Montessori's method as well and corresponds to the observation that children need to feel good about themselves before they can feel good about learning, or even interacting appropriately with others.

 

Not only does mixing the age of students benefit them, but the idea itself is also one of the founding principles that Montessori relies on to work so well. Just as children need to develop practical experience with tools and utensils, they also perform at their best when they have practical experience with social interactions that involve people of different ages than their own.