Montessori vs. Piaget?

Question

what do you think? which kind of school would you rather send your child to?

Answer 1

Piaget

Answer 2

What most people aren’t aware of is that the experimental nursery school in Geneva, La Maison des Petits, where Piaget carried out his first studies of children in the 1920s, was a modified Montessori institution, and Piaget was the head of the Swiss Montessori Society for many years. The two philosophies have a lot in common with the main reasons the two ceased to work with each other being either ethical, (Piaget was frustrated with what he perceived as, ”Montessori's lack of theoretical rigor in psychology”) or political, (Piaget was dismayed with her long and ultimately unsuccessful alliance with the Mussolini regime in Italy).

But I digress, Which school would I put my child into? Well both Montessori and Piaget were constructionists who believed that children develop in a progression sequence or order. They also believed in hands-on, multi-modality activities, learning focused on creating mental models, not the pure rote memorization of facts, multiple measures of assessing learning to mastery, and incorporating students' prior knowledge into the curriculum. Where they disagreed was on timing. Piaget believed children had specific periods of "cognitive" or intellectual development, and did not reach their” concrete operational" stage until age seven. On the other hand Montessori believed that while children had specific "sensitive periods" for development, they should be encouraged to develop all of their senses from a very early age since each child was different and there was no way to predict when and how learning would develop.  Overall: Piaget claimed reading, writing and mathematics should be left until the period from 7 years onwards: Montessori: much earlier.

Keeping this in mind, I have to say Montessori.  Children are different.  They mature at different rates. And, even within a specific child, not all areas mature at the same rate or on a consistent pace. Therefore I like the extra access to materials of all sorts that a child receives in a Montessori school. There is more of an ability for them to get their specific needs, whatever they may be, met.

Answer 3

i don't know.

Answer 4

I dont know what a Piaget school is about, but I work in a Steiner-Waldorf school.  In S-W schools the belief is that children learn firstly by 'doing' (the hands), the child either likes or dislikes the experience (the heart) and then thinks about it (the head).  In Montessori, the learning comes in directly through the head.  

I prefer my way!

Answer 5

Montessori'

Answer 6

One responder said:

"In Montessori, the learning comes in directly through the head. "

In my years as a Montessori student, teacher, and son of Montessori teachers, I have never heard of this in my life.  Curious as to what that means.

To answer your question, Montessori.

Matt