All of the usual arguments that parents and mainstream teachers use to justify homework miss the point. Homework does not teach children responsibility, time-management skills, self-discipline, or more of what they should be learning during the day. What it teaches is how to put up with a job that they dislike.
Far too many schools have transformed the process of learning and discovery, which comes naturally to children at birth, into a stressful and often unpleasant experience. We tend to think about schools from a business perspective. We talk incessantly about high standards, competition, and holding children accountable. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that schools are meant to nurture children’s natural development, not manufacture a product.
Montessori schools are different from traditional education. But the use of hands-on materials and multi-age classes are just some of the most obvious surface differences. What really sets Montessori apart from conventional education is the outcome that we seek in our children.
Montessori’s goal is to prepare students for life, not just for admission to college. All over the world, our schools work to empower, liberate, and encourage young people to become self-confident individuals, who think for themselves, creatively solve problems, and who possess the emotional and spiritual balance, interpersonal skills, compassion, and moral courage that will prepare them to lead lives filled with purpose, meaning, and joy.
Children learn at their own pace, and they learn in different ways. Learning to read, write, and use mathematics is not a race!
In general, the more we, as parents or educators, push children to do things against their will, the more likely it is that many will learn to quietly or openly resist. Today, it has become common to find parents who feel the need to help their children excel. They seem to fear that if they do not provide this external ‘push,’ their children will not succeed.
Montessori demonstrates that children are normally born intelligent, curious, and creative. Without the need for external structure or encouragement, they will learn and explore whatever captures their attention. Keep in mind, though, that they want to learn what they find interesting, not what their parents or teachers choose for them.
Without realizing it, when parents and teachers put pressure on children to perform to adult standards, they are showing them great disrespect. They do this by using external rewards and pressure in an attempt to get children to do things they would not choose for themselves.
If a child ends up quietly resentful of lessons, tutors, workbooks, and tests, what have we really accomplished?
Montessori urges parents to allow children to develop at their own pace, within an environment that sets a good example and provides all the right stimulation and support. In an atmosphere that truly respects children as people, we have to allow them to master new skills when they are ready, not when it says they should be ready in a curriculum guide. Some children may begin to show interest at a very early age; others will not show the slightest interest until they are older. But with the right approach, we can increase the odds that, when they are ready, our children will want to learn with natural enthusiasm.
As a result, Montessori schools traditionally do not assign homework until the upper-elementary grades or middle school, and even then, it rarely looks like the homework many parents remember from their own school years.
Why don’t we assign homework like everyone else? Don’t we want children to get into good colleges? The answer is: of course, we do! We do, however, ask a simple question: Why do we believe that assigning hours of homework to children after a long school day is the right way to go about it?
My vision of the future is no longer of people taking exams and proceeding on that certificate from the secondary schools to the university, but of individuals passing from one stage of independence to a higher, by means of their own activity, through their own effort of will, which constitutes the inner evolution of the individual.” – Dr. Maria Montessori
School is only one part of a child’s day. Children work hard in school, just as their parents do at the office. All of the usual arguments that parents and mainstream teachers use to justify homework miss the point. Homework does not teach children responsibility, time management skills, self-discipline, or more of what they should be learning during the day. What it teaches is how to put up with a job that they dislike. Many teachers seem to think that they can help their students become better educated by requiring them to do tasks that few would ever do voluntarily. Gifted teachers get the job done in a normal school day by inspiring a sense of interest, curiosity, and enthusiasm among their students.
Our goal in Montessori is to inspire in children a sense of purpose in their lives, a sense of their own individual minds. We want them to pursue things that interest them, pursuing information, skills, and insights on their own; we do not want them to be spoon-fed by adults.
Homework can easily become a power struggle between children and adults. And the sad thing is that there would be no need to struggle if schools were to instill a love of learning, rather than a sense of obligation and fear. Whenever children 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. Our goal is to inspire joyful thinking, not compliance.
Tomorrow’s Child / November 2014 / p 7
