Montessori vs Conventional Education

Montessori Education vs. Conventional Education

Montessori Education
Emphasis on cognitive structures and social development
Child is an active participant in learning.
Environment and method encourage internal self-discipline
Mixed age grouping
Multi-sensory materials for physical exploration
Child chooses own work based on abilities, high-ability children work at faster pace.

Conventional Education:
Emphasis on rote knowledge and social development
Child is passive participant in learning.
Teacher acts as primary enforcer of external discipline.
Same age grouping
Curriculum structured with little regard for child's natural interest
Curriculum pace is usually set by the group norm or teacher, every child works at the same pace regardless of their cognitive ability.

phonics

A 2 1/2 year old boy, who has been learning the sounds of alphabets is now ready for blended words. Here he is working with the small moveable alphabets, spelling out the word of the objects, such as "dog".

Nurturing the Love of Learning

Experts who study the acquisition of language tell us that the basis for learning oneís mother tongue begins in the womb. In the study of the lives of great musicians it is often found that the exposure to good music also began in the womb.

Parents who learn songs to sing to their babies long before they are born find that these songs are very soothing to the infant after birth.

Just as with Montessori, the purpose of the Suzuki method is to create a loving relationship between child and adult, to give the child the joy of accomplishment and developed talents, and, by meeting the needs of children, to help create a more peaceful society. The best way to help children is to work with parents even before birth. Today Suzuki parent education classes, given to help parents prepare for their infants, are similar in many ways to Montessori parent education classes.

It is possible that the fetus absorbs the particular characteristic rhythms of the motherís language. In a sense the fetus is already at work, learning language! It is thus important to sing to the child even during pregnancy. The brain's growth during fetal life is astonishing, with 20,000 cells being added every minute. Dreaming begins at the end of the seventh month of pregnancy. —Silvana Montanaro, M.D., AMI Montessori teacher trainer