On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 1:55 AM, Martin Langhoff <martin.langh...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:18 AM, Sameer Verma <sve...@sfsu.edu> wrote: >> I've been reading "Montessori Madness" for a few hours now, and I find > > Another good one is "Montessori Today" > http://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Today-Comprehensive-Education-Adulthood/dp/080521061X > > The funny thing is that since I've been exposed to Bryan Berry's > poignant "theory" of education, I can't help looking at Montessori and > thinking that it is excellent, but not because Montessori's approach > and materials are inherently better. > > It is excellent because > > - Montessori teachers are teachers who are clearly smart and > passionate about education, and the school environment (principals, > etc) share the smarts and the passion. > > - Parents sending kids to a Montessori school are smart and > passionate about education. > > - The group of kids is small and manageable, so the smart and > passionate teachers can work their magic. > > And that wins. They could teach with computers, or abacuses or post it > notes or books written in Esperanto. It's all a catalyst that brings > the 3 (purely human!) elements above together. Indirection. A social > mind trick. > > Of course, I like most of Montessori's approach. But remove the human > elements and... poof! it's effects will be gone. Montessori strategies > in a crowded group with an unenthusiastic teacher have very slim > chances. >
Indeed. My kid goes to a Montessori (which is why I was reading this book) but we've seen several M schools around here, where an indifferent teacher destroys the environment. It reverts to a Pink Floyd'ish assembly-line of faceless students processed into pink filler meat (Cue 4:21 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VUhoD3vM9Q). Interestingly, my current discussions with them are about the introduction of Sugar in that environment (after-school sessions, maybe) but they think the kids are too young. They would like for the kids to be 5 at least... > Bryan, you need to postulate your theory more formally :-) > Or, become a Maria incarnate...I'm sure a born-again Montessori will get you tremendous following ;-) cheers, Sameer _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep