The following is a seven part article based on information from www.montessori.org. You may read the article through or choose portions of it by means of the subtitle summaries at the top of each page.

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1. The Many Faces of Montessori in America
2. What makes Montessori different?
3. The Children's House
4. Montessori Teaches Children to Think and Discover for Themselves
5. The Montessori Curriculum
6. Montessori classes are made up of a two- or three-year age span
7. Montessori guides have four principle goals

• to awaken the child's spirit and imagination;
• to encourage his normal desire for independence and high sense of self-esteem;
• to help him develop the kindness, courtesy, and self- discipline that will allow him to become a full member of society;
• to help the child learn how to observe, question, and explore ideas independently.
  

Montessori teachers rarely present a lesson to more than a handful of children at one time, and they limit lessons to brief, efficient presentations. The goal is to give the children just enough to capture their attention and spark their interest, intriguing them enough that they will come back on their own to work with the materials. Lessons center around the most clear and simple information necessary for the children to do the work on their own: the name of the material, its place on the shelf, the ground-rules for its use, and some of the possibilities inherent within it. Montessori guides closely monitor their students' progress, keeping the level of challenge high. Because they normally work with each child for two or three years, guides get to know their students' strengths and weaknesses, interests, and anxieties extremely well. Montessori guides often use the children's interests to enrich the curriculum and provide alternate avenues for accomplishment and success.

Elementary level Montessori students rarely work from textbooks. Instead they learn to use the library and internet to gather information into reports and presentations to share with their friends. Naturally they also do a great deal of hands-on project-oriented learning that makes their studies come alive. Dr. Montessori often spoke of "spontaneous activity in learning."

Homework, Tests, and Grades

Many parents have heard that Montessori schools do not believe in homework, grades, and tests. This is really a misunderstanding of Montessori's insights. Whenever students voluntarily decide to learn something, they tend to engage in their work with a passion and attention that few students will ever invest in tasks that have been assigned. This doesn't mean that they can do whatever they want academically, possibly electing to learn to read and possibly not. Montessori students have to live within a cultural context, which for us involves the mastery of skills and knowledge that we consider basic. Montessori gives students the opportunity to choose a large degree of what they investigate and learn, as well as the ability to set their own schedule during class time.

This freedom of choice sometimes causes parents to worry about whether their children will be able to cope if they transfer to another school. For many families, homework, grades, and test results are the only objective evidence that can tell them how well their children are doing in comparison to children attending traditional schools. The ongoing impact of a Montessori program and its long-term outcomes are not always visible and clear to parents. Many struggle to understand how Montessori works, but all too often they come away confused and worried that they might be setting their children up for failure when they transfer to a traditional classroom. This leads some parents to have ambivalent thoughts about their long-term relationship with Montessori. They will stay as long as their children are happy and "doing well," but parents may plan to transfer them to a traditional school when they reach the age when their education "really counts."

Even very supportive parents may worry whether their investment in Montessori is going to pay off, and they look for evidence as to whether or not it is really working. Montessori guides reassure parents every year that their fears are misguided, and that children who transfer from Montessori programs normally make a smooth adjustment to their new schools and typically end up as honor students. Even when their children are very young, parents don't want to hear that Montessori schools don't believe in report cards, workbooks, homework, or tests. No matter how impressed they may be with Montessori, few parents can place trust any in school when it involves their children's future. They expect to be kept informed about their children's progress and the classroom program.

Montessori educators, on the other hand, frequently argue that testing is inaccurate, misleading, and stressful for children. Further, they argue that tests are not necessary, since any good teacher who works with the same children for three years and carefully observes their work, knows far more about their progress than any paper and pencil test can reveal; however, in our culture, test-taking skills are just another practical life lesson that children need to master. Many elementary Montessori programs regularly give students quizzes on the concepts and skills that they have been studying, and many schools use standardized tests, either annually or every other year with students over first grade.

The problem with tests is how they have been used and interpreted in other schools, rather than as a means to challenge students to demonstrate skills and knowledge. When tests are used as a feedback loop, at times indicating that a student needs a new lesson and more practice, instead of a mark of shame and failure, then they can be quite useful. Children will face standardized tests throughout their education, and they certainly need to develop good test taking skills.

Competition

In Montessori, students learn to collaborate with each other rather than mindlessly compete. Students discover their own innate abilities and develop a strong sense of independence, self-confidence, and self-discipline. In an atmosphere in which children learn at their own pace and compete only against themselves, they learn to not be afraid of making mistakes. They quickly find that few things in life come easily, and they can try again without fear of embarrassment. Children compete with each other every day both in class and on the playground. Montessori, herself an extraordinary student and a very high achiever, was never opposed to competition on principle. Her objection was to using competition to create an artificial motivation to get students to achieve. She argued that for an education to profoundly touch a child's heart and mind, he must be learning because he is curious and interested, not simply to earn the highest grade in the class. Montessori allows competition to evolve naturally among children, without adult interference unless the children begin to show poor sportsmanship. The key is the child's voluntary decision to compete, rather than having it imposed on him by the school.

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