What causes Montessori elementary students to thrive?
It’s no secret that children thrive in a Montessori environment. In fact, the longer a child has the opportunity to learn in a Montessori environment, the more benefits they receive coupled with a lifelong love of learning. So many of our students come back after moving to traditional high schools and universities and share their perspectives, only fully appreciating the benefits a Montessori foundation gave them now that they’re able to perceive it from the ‘other side’.
Montessori classrooms are fundamentally different from traditional ones. They are so unique in fact that it is hard to identify the differences that contribute to enabling children to thrive. We could write an entire book on this (and in fact, many have - refer to Paula Polk Lillard’s book Montessori Today for more information on the workings of a Montessori elementary classroom), for now, here are 5 key factors that contribute to your child’s success.
Children have choices. There’s no one-size-fits-all curriculum
Think about when you do your best work. Is it when you’re engaged and passionate about the topic and you freely choose it? Or is it when someone assigns you a task? Autonomy is a huge factor in motivation, and Montessori elementary enables children to have a say in their learning. Of course, each child has to learn certain skills; mastering arithmetic isn’t optional. But instead of forcing each child to complete the same worksheet, the Montessori elementary classroom ensures repetition by offering a variety of materials for practicing a given skill - for example, multiplication practice includes work with the Bead Chains, the Stamp Game, the Checkerboard, the Large Bead Frame, and the Flat Bead Frame.
Students are encouraged to be curious. They are engaged and love learning. When we take our students on field trips, the people we encounter, from museum guides to park rangers, regularly comment that our students are the most curious and engaged group of children they have seen. This is common feedback for Montessori elementary schools - children love learning, because they have a chance to be actively engaged in the process.
The classroom is full of materials, instead of textbooks and worksheets
A lot of the work in traditional elementary schools is focused on textbooks and worksheets. While there is nothing wrong with this (as we love reading as well!) you won’t find textbooks in a Montessori elementary classroom. Many visitors to the classroom comment - how do the children learn then? What curriculum is taught to them?
Dr. Montessori viewed the early elementary years as a critical stage in the mind’s development, when the concrete thinking of the preschool years matures into abstract thinking. During the Primary years, children explored many materials, such as the Trinomial Cube or the Golden Beads, primarily for the sensorial interest. Now, in elementary, children use materials to understand how the world works. They are interested in the why and the how of things; they’ve become “reasoning explorers of the abstract”. The materials in Montessori are not mere instructional aids: Just like in Primary, much of their learning happens as the children use the materials to explore topics from grammar to division, from the fundamental needs of man, to the role of water in erosion. With the materials, learning is focused on the world; children acquire a mindset of thinking about things and figuring them out, rather than memorizing words or processes because an adult says so.
Teachers are guides, not lecturers
In traditional elementary education, a lot of the teaching happens at an all-class level where students generally move through the same curriculum at the same pace. This is truer now more than ever before, as mandatory standardized testing forces teachers to ensure that all students meet common minimum standards. This approach by definition fails to optimally challenge most of the students, most of the time. For example, a child who is advanced in a subject will be bored and one who is behind will quickly become anxious and concerned about their shortcomings.
Montessori is different. Most instruction happens in small groups as teachers observe students and bring together children who are ready for a particular lesson. After the lesson, each child has time to practice a skill or further explore an area, either alone or with freely chosen partners. They have time to think, and they are kept interested because they are consistently challenged.
In a Montessori classroom, an advanced student will be challenged to perform at their best. For example, it’s not unusual for a 3rd grade Montessori student to tackle what would typically be considered 5th grade math. At the same time, a child who struggles can get the extra support they need without suffering the negative effect on their self-esteem that comes from needing remedial work in a traditional elementary school setting.
Children learn with and from each other, in a mixed-age environmenT
In traditional education, the emphasis in preschool is on “socializing” the child, and children are expected to do things together in groups. Come elementary schools, class time is largely focused on individual work, in strictly same-age classrooms, and social interactions are limited to recess and lunch.
This approach - a focus on group activities in preschool, and individual activities in elementary school—is fundamentally wrong, according to Montessori. It all comes down to Montessori’s scientifically tested (and now validated) Stages of Development. Young children in preschool are focusing on building themselves - left to their own devices, they often choose to do things by themselves, and much activity in a Montessori Primary class is in fact individual work. As children near the end of Primary, they often start to work together in pairs. In fact, becoming interested in and able to work with a peer is one indication that a child is ready to move up to elementary!
In Montessori elementary, children interact with each other, across age groups, all day. You’ll often see 2-4 children working together on projects, negotiating roles and learning social skills in a safe, supervised setting as they choose co-workers and figure out that they can work with a range of companions, not just with their closest friends.
The Montessori mixed-age elementary classroom encourages them to grow into a community and practice important social skills everyday, instead of competing with each other on adult-assigned, similar tasks.
The day has two 3 hour work Cycles, instead of a schedule where activities are constantly changeD
As adults today, our concentration and focus levels are decreasing at an alarming rate. It’s unlikely you need the results of recent studies to prove the impact that emails, social media, notifications and other digital distractions are having on your own ability to concentrate on individual tasks (though, in case you’re not in the majority, studies show concentration levels have declined at an alarming 33% in the past 10 years alone).
Now, more than ever before, the ability to concentrate and focus on the task at hand is vitally important - not only for our intellect and ability to achieve tasks, but general mental health as well.
Protecting children from interruptions when productively engaged is key to their development of concentration and interest in their work. Dr. Montessori commented that traditional schools have broken up the day in many short time periods in an attempt to hold the children’s interest. In fact, it’s had the opposite effect as children remain mentally fatigued despite the alleged benefit of variety.
In contrast, Montessori schools have proven that children need a cycle of work for which they are mentally prepared. Intelligent work that is interesting is not fatiguing and children shouldn’t be cut off from it by a call to play, or change in topic. Interest is not immediately born and if, when it has been created, the work is withdrawn, it is like depriving a whetted appetite of the food that will satisfy it.
Therefore, there’s no morning recess at a Montessori elementary school. There isn’t an hour-by-hour schedule. It’s one of the most overlooked benefits of a Montessori elementary class - that children have time and space to think.
Montessori elementary classrooms are very different from traditional schools and these are just some of the factors that contribute to an environment that enables children to thrive.