Why Montessori education from birth prepares children for life

Recently, there’s been more debates on whether the traditional education system helps students succeed in life. According to a Yougov report, the majority of students, teachers, and parents in the UK think that traditional schools don’t prepare children for the real world. This fact was already stated by doctor Maria Montessori, who started an alternative education approach: the Montessori method. And below are the reasons why I believe that this method should be integrated into mainstream education universally.?

Montessori method prepares children to be independent physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally

At the core of the Montessori philosophy is the belief in helping children to be independent, to think and do for themselves. The Montessori approach suggests that children need to learn to eat, sleep, dress, prepare food for themselves, etc. earlier than traditional belief, typically from birth to 3 years old. The adults should be the guide who facilitate this process patiently and thoughtfully, to not rush and correct the children. This type of basic independence through thoughtful guidance not only helps children gain autonomy physically, but also to become confident in their own abilities and gain awareness of responsibility early. This is based on Erik Erickson’s 8 stages of psychosocial development, whereby in the first 3 years, a child would experience shame and doubt if not supported gently in the quests for these first basic and important tasks.?

Additionally, the Montessori method strongly recommends that children’s main caregivers give enough time and attention to bond with their children, to make them feel safe, secure and that they can establish trust. Silvana Montanaro in his book “Understanding the Human Being, states that “ A good attachment means a good detachment”. In these early years, bonding is critical so they can be independent and not have to constantly seek love, affection and attention from elsewhere.?

Furthermore, Montessori’s unorthodox concept of not praising children proves to be valuable to help children to develop their own set of values and principles in this chaotic world. The Montessori method suggests that praising children from early childhood makes them place significant value on external validation instead of internal approval. The phrases such as “Good job”, “well done” are not common in a Montessori environment. The adults and teachers should instead describe how the tasks are achieved successfully by their children, and ask for their own emotions towards it so that they seek their own internal enjoyment. The adults’ positive attitude towards the children’ success in a task is enough for the children to understand that the adults are happy for them. By placing less emphasis on external approval and embracing their own emotions and feelings, children will grow up to be more confident and comfortable in their own skin, trusting their own opinions, their own set of values, principles instead of seeking outside approval and relying on others’ values and principles.?

Another unorthodox concept of the Montessori method is to discourage punishment and rewards from parents and teachers. The approach embraces natural consequences instead of punishment so that children understand and think about the consequences of their actions. Less emphasis on external rewards also increases children’s self motivation.???

One important aspect of the Montessori philosophy is to name and call out the child’s feelings before addressing them with the child. This is very much aligned with how to build emotional intelligence, according to Daniel Goleman’s concept of Emotional Intelligence. By teaching the child to practice acknowledging their own emotions early on, the child will learn to regulate their emotions effectively.?

Montessori method helps children to learn about respect and boundaries

One of the most important points in teaching infants the Montessori way is respect: respecting self, others and the environment. For example, the adult needs to seek permission from the infant in all routine tasks such as changing diapers, bathing. This teaches the child early about self love and self respect, that she has full control over her body. Furthermore, the adult is encouraged to let the child participate in these routine tasks to show utmost respect for the child. Additionally, Montessori philosophy has strict rules that the child is not to hurt herself, others or the environment. If this happens, the adult is to intervene immediately. Consequently, children learn about respect and setting boundaries very early on.?

Montessori approach equips children with knowledge about the real world

Under Montessori education, children learn about the real world through their senses, and will not watch or read about mythical creatures or stories until they reach six years of age. This is because the children need to establish their view of what is real first before engaging in fantasy. For example, children will learn that Santa Claus is an imaginary character and the Christmas gifts are from their families. Some might think that this late introduction to fantasy might negatively affect children’s creativity. But this is far from the truth. This late introduction to fantasy, ideally after children see the real world, is so that they could come up with their own fantasies, not someone else’s. For after all, characters such as Mickey Mouse are not the children’s products of imagination.?

Montessori method prepares a child for the workplace

In the Montessori classrooms, children of different ages work and learn together and they complete different tasks and activities by themselves or with small groups instead of doing the same things. This is exactly mirrored adults’ usual workplace environment. We adults work with people of different age groups, experiences, backgrounds, etc. and we all don’t work on the same tasks at the same time. Therefore, the Montessori classrooms prepare children for the workplace environment from early childhood. They learn to work well individually, as well as in teams and could learn how to work independently, to collaborate well and resolve conflicts effectively. In this environment, the children have opportunities to learn how to be effective leaders and followers.?

Montessori method teaches children to be great leaders?

There are eight criteria for Montessori educators about preparing activities for children:

1. Physical proportionate-ness: is the material small enough to hold, but not for them to choke?

2. Intellectual appropriateness: challenge the child intellectually, but not too hard that makes them frustrated. Commercial?

3. is that attractive?

4. Is that culturally adaptive

5. Perfectionment: do we provide enough items that the child needs to complete it

6. Differentiation: Each activity needs to be different from other activity and needs to have clear purpose and intention

7. Separation: to help children to categorize their toys by structure, order and color coding

8. Display of materials

Upon reflecting on these criteria, I can't help but notice that they reflect how a leader should prepare for their team in the adults’ world. These are the same steps that a leader needs to think of to set their team up for success. And by being exposed to this way of thinking and preparation, children learn how to be great leaders very early.?

Montessori method helps children beyond academic success

According to a recent study, “the children who went to the Montessori school tended to have better literacy, numeracy, executive function and social skills, compared to those who had attended the other schools. And at age 12, they showed better story-telling abilities.” Therefore, children who receive Montessori education are more likely to succeed beyond the academic realm. Peter Sims, in his article titled “Montessori Mafia” in the Wall Street Journal, states that “The Montessori educational approach might be the surest route to joining the creative elite, which are so overrepresented by [Montessori] alumni that one might suspect a Montessori Mafia: Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, videogame pioneer Will Wright, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.” Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin credited their success to the Montessori education that they received, stating “We both went to Montessori school, and I think it was part of the training…being self-motivated, questioning what’s going on in the world, doing things a bit differently.”

Conclusion

These are some of the main reasons why the Montessori approach should be integrated into the world’s mainstream education. With this method, our children will be equipped with not only foundational knowledge and skills for success in the real world, but also to fulfil their potential, to grow into their own people, and become the great humans that this world needs.