What are the benefits of a montessori school vs private or public? If there are any significant differences.?

Question

There is one right by my house and it is time to enroll my son (4yrs) in school. I havent had time to go inside to receive any info. So hopefully you guys can help me. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

It's kind of a hard question to answer because in both Private and Public schools, you have many different styles of teaching - including Montessori.

In Montessori:

--There's an Emphasis on Cognitive and Social Development

--Teacher has a passive role (particularly in 3-6 age group).  It's the role of the child to develop to the point of independence in the classroom.

--Mainly individual instruction rather than group instruction.

--Environment and method encourage self-discipline rather than the teacher being the primary enforcer.

--Child chooses own work (Big difference)

--Child discovers own concepts from self-teaching materials rather than being taught concepts by teachers (remember how well you remember things that you realized rather than someone simply telling you?)

--Child is allocated time to work on and complete lesson

--Child sets own learning pace rather than the learning pace being set for the median.

--Child spots own errors from feedback of material rather than from the teacher.

--Child reinforces own learning by repetition of work and internal feelings of success rather than rewards and punishments.

--Child can work where he chooses, move about and talk at will (yet not disturb work of others), group work voluntary.  

--Multi-sensory materials for physical exploration organizes program for learning care of self and environment

A great video about Montessori 3-6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM1Gu9KXV...

Parents keep saying in the beginning is to observe the Montessori classroom.  As you can see from above responses, many do not do it well.  From my experience, most do, but a good percentage do not.  Enough to make you really want to look into a school first.  Just set up a time to go and watch it for an hour or a day...depending on how much time you feel you need to get a sense of the classroom.

Matt

Matt

Answer 2

Montessori is a wonderful concept where each student works at their own pace.  They receive assignments at the beginning of the day and it is up to them to complete them.  Work sheets re-enforce the work that was done in group time. Private schools tend to have smaller classes, they can be church based so the children have prayer, bible study and church related curriculum (but not always)  There are also Charter schools which a mix of private and public, and there are public schools which now offer Montessori. I agree with 75% of the Montessori Method, but I also feel that they create some very intelligent, self thinking, inquisical kids.

Answer 3

Well, i would say send him to a public or private school because if you send him to a montessori he will have no direction, and he will have free reign of whatever he wants to do. My friend has a son and she sent her son to a montessori school and it was horribble. Her son did whatever he wanted at school and then it started at home too. Then he started to back-sass and be bratty. He is now at a private school called Seabury and he is doing much better. I went to a public school and it worked out for me wonderfully though. I definetly suggest public school. I hope this information has helped you. Have a wonderful day.

Answer 4

I work in a public school system and I honestly believe (and have witnessed) that there are good and bad things in both types of schools. I wouldn't even go as far as to say that one is "better" than the other.

What you need to do is take a look at both of the test scores for state mandated tests, have they met AYP, what is the difference in cirriculum, etc. Then make a decision based on the facts, not opinions.

Answer 5

The Montesorri school philosophy is based on teaching strategies that were developed for children with special needs; they use multimodal teaching strategies (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic), and allow the child to learn and experience at thier own pace.

Private schools (seperate from Montessori), and public schools each have their own push; academic vs. developmental.

Academic (pre-academic skills in your son's case) based programs focus on the academics needed for school success; pre-literacy skills, pre-writing, pre-math, etc.  These programs tend to have a more set curriculum.

Developmental programs focus on meeting the needs of the children developmentally, following the child's individual readiness.  These programs usually have a less specific curriculum.  They often have a more exploratory type of environment.

All of these different styles have pros and cons, and very few preschool programs are strictly academic or developmental; most are a mixture, but lean more one way than the other.

Given all of this information, you know your son best, and know which environment will suit him best and help him thrive.   Once you decide, you can call or check the websites and find out about their philosophies; this will help you narrow down which ones to visit and observe.  Another really wonderful resource is other parents in your community... I have found that there are definite favorite preschools in my community... and usually there is a year waitlist!  Just remember that no matter how wonderful a program is, it needs to meet your son's needs.

Answer 6

If you have access to a public preschool I would check it out. My daughter's preschool class was based on the Montessori method with a lot of learning through exploration and play but it still kept the children in step with what would be expected of them in Kindergarten.  Believe it or not (in California) Kindergartners are expected to write an entire paragraph by the end of the year and count verbally and in writing to 100.

Answer 7

My daughter went to a public Montessori school all the way through 6th grade.  She was much more equipped to enter traditional middle school because of the Montessori teaching. Montessori uses a multi-grade classroom concept once you get to first grade - generally, grades 1-3 are in same classroom and grades 4-6 are in same classroom. It gives the children 3 years to master all the concepts. It allows them to go from youngest to oldest. The older children are encouraged to help the younger.  The children choose their own work (within lessons they've been given) and are responsible for completing and mastering it.  When they master a concept, they move on. The teacher gives lessons according to the needs of each individual student.

Read up on Montessori and seriously consider a good Montessori school. My daughter (age 16 now) greatly benefitted and attributes a lot of her school success to that beginning.

Answer 8

Well The benefits of a Montessori school vs pubic or privete is that A montessori school allows kids in the same grade like preschool to do the same things like you might have a kid in the preschool who can read but than you might have another one who cant so your child will not be held back while the rest catch up to him but in a public school all the kids are on the same page and for a privete school must make you pay and also you have to get uniforms for must so your best bet might be to send him to a montessori my ister works at one and its one of the best things for little kids i hope that helped