My follow up to the HBR article comment...

• Jeremiah Stanghini

  While I don't foresee this happening in the immediate future, I think it would be altogether wonderful if the education policy in the US included the likes of Montessori and Waldorf as part of massive reform. I don't usually like to promote my own posts in comments section, but it's poignant to this particular conversation: (http://www.genuinethriving.com...
  
  There are some really interesting examples of schools that succeed (even not within the Montessori/Waldorf model). One particular school by Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin in Russia known affectionately to the Ringing Cedars folks as "The School," operates under the premise that children are very capable of directing their own education. More than this, the students depend on each other for learning. For instance: there's a 'group' of students. Within this group, one student may like mathematics, while another, biology. The student who likes mathematics will learn all that they can about mathematics (and the biology student the same). After this, they then teach it to each other and the rest of the group. The students arrive at the school sometime between the age of 5-8 (if I recall correctly) and then leave somewhere in their late teens with a (at minimum) a high school degree and often times, a Bachelor's degree (sometimes even a Master's degree).
  
  With Love and Gratitude,
  
  Jeremiah

   

• Elisabeth Gorra  in reply to Jeremiah Stanghini

  Am I correct in assuming that these schools are private or at least magnet-style in their admittance? If so, than there is one key ingredient at work here that has not been addressed: Parental involvement. The aforementioned school types assume this aspect of education by sheer virtue of the fact that they are self-selective and require an active effort on the part of the parents to place their children in such an environment.
  
  I completely agree that there are aspects of the Montessori education that make learning a more natural, tangible, and creative process. For younger grade school aged children, it can do wonders for conceptual and social development. However, it also leaves gaping holes in the functional development that, if parents are not very aware and involved, can lead to huge problems down the road. The lack of homework assignments and other fundamental educational structures can create a huge opening for children to miss the lesson of accountability. While Montessori may have, or probably, contributed to the creative development of the people mentioned in the article, but it is important to remember that these methods don't succeed in a vacuum. If lessons in personal responsibility are not taught at home, they need to be enforced elsewhere.

   
James Moudry  in reply to Elisabeth Gorra
Montessori is primarily in private and magnet schools.  There are some significant inroads into public and charter schools.

Can you share more about what you know about the "gaping holes in the functional development?"  You've written it with such certainty, but I've not heard it put that way before.  Is it from your personal experience with the schools or another source?  Either way, I'd love to know the background of that perspective.

In my experience and observations of Montessori schools over the past 30+ years, Montessori students develop a strong personal center and sense of self that fosters a deep sense of personal responsibility (accountability to oneself), not to kowtow to an external motivator, but to work for their own best outcome, regardless of external reward.  They go above and beyond exactly because they are allowed to follow their interest in school.  It is the teachers' trust in the students and the students' engagement in the subject matter that optimizes the environment for learning.  The trust is THE central component.  As Guy Kawasaki put it in his book, "Enchantment", "When people trust each other, they stop playing games, they look beyond temporary problems, and they expose themselves with less hesitation."  Imagine what effect that has in teacher-student relationships.

Regarding homework, the best predictor of academic success after parents' education is the amount of time children spend reading outside of school.  The typical (busy)worksheets assigned as homework in other educational systems actually serve to kill interest in a subject, not augment it.  Interest is the spark, or as Arthur C. Clarke said, "If children have interest, then education happens."  It is natural for interesting work to be pursued beyond the class time.  It shouldn't have to be synthetically manufactured.

With respect to the "lack of...other fundamental educational structures," it's not clear to what you're referring.  Desks?  Grades?  I'm curious!

Bottom line: We may have had different observations, but for mine, I've not seen kids graduate from kindergarten, 6th, 8th or 12th grades at their Montessori schools , any worse off (on the whole) than kids from other schools full of different "fundamental education structures."  Quite the contrary, I'd say the Montessori students are at least at parity with their non-Montessori peers in terms of 'academic success' and are superior on some other dimensions such as tendency toward creative perspectives (innovation?) and character development (beyond just familial support).  Check out this link for some research on Montessori public school vs. Conventional public school:

http://www.montessori-ami.org/... (The original is in Science Magazine, but would require a login to view, so this is the extracted PDF.)

NB: I don't disagree at all about the value of parental support.  The family is still the primary environment (through age 12 at least).

If it's not Montessori, you're in a gulag.

Too severe?  As Andrew McAfee, author and former Montessori student, put it in his Harvard Business Review article:

When I got too old for my Montessori school and went to public school in fourth grade, I felt like I'd been sent to the Gulag. 

Fortunately, McAfee survived and gained a deeper understanding of his Montessori roots:

The main thing I learned there is that the world is a really interesting place, and one that should be explored. 

Well, that seems like a fairly noble takeaway for a system that he only experienced through age nine.

Now play a little game in your mind where you imagine that he was able to stay in such an environment until age 18 and then went to college to follow his passions and interests in exploring the interesting world.  Next step: (still keeping your eyes closed, but somehow reading this) imagine that ALL students were in schools that fostered such an outlook.

Generation Z: Why school?

I'm not all-in on the unschooling bit, nor on homeschooling as I understand it (which is limited).  However, the democratization of education is becoming fun to watch as awareness of the power of AUTO-EDUCATION grows.

When I read this little Tech & Learning article from Lisa Nielsen a lot of it made sense or just sounded right.  Like,

Alternative education children will be better prepared in life than traditionally schooled: She explains that because of the emphasis on independent investigation, Generation Z will be the first group of knowledge workers who were trained to do their job before they started working.  For example, Generation Z will be great at synthesizing information because they will have been doing that— rather than memorizing—the whole time they were in school.

Doesn't that just sound like straight butter?  Take a look for more...(read on)