One of the big reasons that I’ve been happy with and am keeping Nefarious in the Montessori school system is that they have the same general philosophy as I do — that the role of parents and educators is to guide a young person to grow and learn independently, and become their own person that’s capable of expanding themselves. In the Montessori system, kids are expected to meet all of the Ontario educational standards (she’s definitely way ahead of where I was at her age, and I think I was a bright kid), but on the whole each child dictates what areas of study they’ll focus on and it’s done very independently, solo or in small groups of students — rather than mindless copying of lines from a chalkboard, followed by more mindless homework, all of it holding back the top students and failing to meet the needs of the students at the lower end. As a result, it’s not uncommon for kids to have areas that they’re working at a university level on by the time they are in grade six — which is not really a surprise, since the mind of a child is far more capable of learning — and desiring of learning — than a twenty year old.
It’s a broader skill set and independence as well, so when Nefarious moves up to elementary school next year (right now she’s finishing off the equivalent of kindergarten) the school integrates the students into the community. So for example, parents no longer send in snacks — the classroom has a budget for apples, which the students are expected to manage and also supply (so a small group of students is sent out to the nearby grocery store to purchase the needed apples). Or instead of having a big school library, the kids go out to the local library, get themselves cards, and understand how to do their own research in the community when they are doing projects… So as well as providing a traditional education, they build the skills that eventually create an adult that has no fear of all the responsibilities of life.
Maria Montessori died before really developing a high school system, but her basic idea, if I understand it correctly, was that at that age (twelve or thirteen) kids need to learn with increasing distance from their parents. There’s a Montessori secondary school in Ohio built on those ideas where the kids all live on an organic farm, which they help run — in addition to all the regular high school level studies — on all levels, including growing the food and managing the animals, as well as running the market and keeping it profitable… It really seems like a remarkable idea.
When I was doing the tour of the elementary school, there was another parent there as well and it was very sad. Because she’s new to the Montessori school system, she had lots of questions… One of the things she was most concerned about was homework (which is never required, but sometimes kids get excited about a project and want to continue it into the evening). Not because she objected, but because she and her husband were both hard working dentists and leave before their kid gets up and get back after their kid goes to bed, so she is tended for exclusively by a nanny that is apparently not linguistically capable of helping with schoolwork. How sad! I mean, if you’re both dentists, you’ve got more money than you need — surely at least one of you can spend some time other than at most one day on the weekend with your child! One of the teachers we were talking to created a very awkward moment when they pointed out that it was very important they they be reading higher level literature (ie. novels, not little kids books) to their child. Sorry, too busy with work. Anyway, very sad. There are a couple kids in Nefarious’s school as well that take advantage of both before and after school care — imagaine a three year old that gets dropped off at 7am, and then is picked up at 6pm by a nanny. Sure, you’ve got lots of money, and I’m sure you have a very nice house and a fancy car, but is it really worth it?
Today Caitlin and I are going to serve pizza lunch at Nefarious’s school (which reminds me — one of the other cool things is that the older kids at the elementary school plan lunch once a week, research the recipe, shop for the supplies, and cook the meal), which means I got to be lazy today and not pack Nefarious anything to bring to school… other than her tooth of course, which I watched her proudly showing to her teachers as soon as she arrived. So we had time to watch some videos this morning — a selection of what we watched is below. I like watching YouTube videos with her much more than TV because it not only offers something more than the same mindless repetative formulamatic modern kids show, but greater variety and a great opportunity to discuss what we’re watching. And after school is her yoga class, so I think today will be a very good day.
