Paula Polk Lillard begins the Preface of Montessori Today by telling about a chance encounter with a man whose two sons, age nine and eleven, attended a Montessori school in Chicago.
Iasked him how he had come to choose a Montessori education for his children. “It was my wife’s decision,” he said. “I was busy with my work. I left it up to her. In fact, I was not in favor of their staying in Montessori when they reached first grade. I was worried that it was too sheltered an environment. I’ve changed over the years. I’ve become very involved.”
When I asked what he liked about Montessori, he responded that it was the sense of teamwork that the children developed and their self-direction.“They are competitive,” he said. “All kids are, but it is different. They get along so well and they are so confident. They are almost adult-like in their attitudes toward others.They care about the world. They have even gotten me involved in a community-service project for the homeless.” He paused and then said, “I realize that I’m not telling you about Montessori.I’m telling you what my children are like because of going to a Montessori school.”
He then commented about the other children in the neighborhood who were friends of his sons, many of whom attended a fashionable private school with a reputation for high academic achievement. “I don’t mean to bad-mouth these children,” he continued. “They are basically good kids but they are pseudo-sophisticated, even to the point of being smart alecks. I don’t get any sense that they care about doing their best for its own sake.Their focus seems to be on beating others.”
I asked this father if he was worried about his oldest son’s transition to high school, where he would be with these neighborhood children or others like them who had had such a different experience in their early schooling. He answered quickly, “Yes, because I’m afraid that my son will seem eccentric to them. He’s always studying something, looking up the answer to some question of his.” Immediately, however, he reversed himself. “Actually, no. I don’t think it will be a problem because he is so confident. He won’t be bothered by teasing if it comes to that. He gets along with everyone and he is used to being independent. It’s a fear that I have.”
He went on to describe his own early education. He had gone to both public elementary and high school in a district which I recognized as one of the best in the Chicago suburbs. Yet, he said, it had been a lonely experience. “None of my teachers were mentors to me. It was all so cold. Montessori is such a caring way to teach,” he continued.
We want to once again thank John Long and the Post Oak School for allowing us to republish John’s wonderful essays in Tomorrow’s Child and in our online resource collections.
