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FAQs
| Q. |
I am thinking of enrolling my three year-old child in a Montessori School. How do children who go to a Montessori school adjust to the pressures of regular mainstream school once they complete at the age of six? Do they find it difficult to adjust? |
| Ans: |
The aim of the Montessori 3-6 programme is not to prepare children for mainstream school. The greater aim is to assist with the natural development of children and to help them to develop to their fullest potential. If supported children draw tremendous benefit from the Montessori programme, they develop good communication skills, they write creatively and have good reading comprehension, they have laid a sound foundation for many mathematical concepts and have good social skills, they can cope with changes with self-confidence and seek solutions to their own problems - to list just a few. As a result they cope very well in mainstream schools. |
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| Q. |
Does Montessori Education work only in the 3-6 age group? |
| Ans: |
Over the course of her life, Dr. Montessori evolved a complete framework of education centred around the individual’s developmental needs from birth to twenty four years of age. It so happens that the Montessori programme for the 3-6 age group is the most popular, and therefore offered by more schools around the world than the programme for any other age group.
Dr. Montessori looked at the growing individual in the following four age groups: 0-6, 6-12, 12-18 and 18-24. |
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| Q. |
How does the Montessori system with its emphasis on individual learning fit into the competitive scenario that exists everywhere? |
| Ans: |
Although there is incredible similarity among us, and although we have much in common with each other as human beings, each and every one of us is unique. We have unique talents and unique temperaments. The Montessori system recognises both this similarity and this uniqueness. The system equips them to handle real life situations by learning how to collaborate with others in the classroom: by mentoring those who may be at a different developmental stage than themselves (by being in a mixed-age environment) and learning from those who may have already progressed to a more advanced developmental stage. It also provides a nurturing atmosphere where children can make choices about what they wish to do within the broad framework of rules that apply in the classroom, and strive to improve themselves till the activity of their choice is mastered.
These broad principles of collaboration in an interdependent, win-win atmosphere and mastery of self-chosen tasks, build increasing levels of competence in the child. And it probably stands to reason that with these skills, and with increased competence, the child will probably adjust and thrive in any kind of atmosphere. |
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| Q. |
How does a child learn a sense of discipline in a Montessori environment which is such a free environment full of choices where the child can do anything? |
| Ans: |
While the Montessori environment is indeed a ‘free’ environment, in many ways, the child is still within an environment that he shares with others. The activities in the environment are free for use by the child only if they are available i.e. if no other child is using that material. This simple aspect builds in the child the value of patience, the value of respect for another’s choice and the ability to decide what else to choose in the meantime, to name a few. The freedom within the environment is not absolute freedom (i.e. to do whatever one wants, however and for however long), but rather, is held together by a broad framework of common rules which apply to everyone and which guide the entire community of children. In this sense, every moment in a Montessori environment is full of freedom and discipline – both of which go hand in hand.
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| Q. |
If I admit my child into a Montessori school, will he be able to transition into the mainstream and study medicine/engineering or will he have to choose an ‘alternate’ career? |
| Ans: |
A Montessori environment provides the space for a child to explore activities that are in keeping with his natural developmental stages. At each stage, he explores and attempts to master activities that help him define his place in ever-increasing social contexts. As a part of his development, he may discover interests which could well be categorised as ‘mainstream’ (in engineering/medical/IT/legal streams). But during his natural development, he may also discover interests in other (so called ‘alternate’) areas. Whether his family and support group allows him the freedom to pursue his choice of interest, whether ‘mainstream’ or ‘alternate’, or whether he is persuaded to make ‘mainstream’ choices (or ‘alternate’ choices, for that matter), is probably beyond the scope of the pedagogy. |
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| Anyone wishing to succeed in some aim for the good of society must necessarily turn to the child, not only to save him from deviation, but also to learn from him the practical secret of our own life. From this point of view the figure of the child presents itself as powerful and mysterious, an object of meditation, for the child who holds in himself the secret of our nature becomes our master. |
| Dr. Maria Montessori |
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