CINCINNATI - Teacher led vs. student-led is the main difference between the traditional and Montessori approaches to education.
This is Juanita Johnson's 21st year teaching 3 to 6 year olds in a Montessori environment in the Carson Dater area.
"In Montessori, we're kind of taught that we're not the source of knowledge," Johnson said. "So our goal is to teach children how to acquire knowledge independently, how to use resources, how to tap into resources."
Dater Montessori is is one of Cincinnati Public Schools' magnet programs. While it's Montessori, Christine Wolff says it must also meet state standards.
"We have to test at certain grade levels," said Wolff. "So the teacher does have to make sure that that class is moving at the right pace so that they're ready to be tested at the grade level. The State doesn't care whether you're Montessori or not. They're going to test you."
Dater's Principal Beth Schnell has worked in both traditional and Montessori environments.
"The parent really has to take a look at both settings to see which environment fits their values. It's all based on a value system," Schnell said.
For many of us that were raised in a traditional public school, observing a Montessori classroom might be difficult because there is a lot of movement.
"First, people go with the myth, 'well they get to make all their choices so there's no order.' Well, there is lots of order," Schnell said. "It's order within choice. You have this choice and you get to choose your order. It's for the child who's able to be independent. Who's a self-learner."
Johnson says the Montessori environment can be for any child.
"I do think that it can sometimes be over stimulating for children," Johnson said. "But I think that we're taught as Montessori teachers, directresses, that it's our responsibility to kind of call to the child, and that if there's something that's not working for the child, then we have to figure out how to make the environment more appropriate, how to engage the child better so I think it really can work with any child."
You may be used to children sitting in neat rows or circles, being lead by a teacher, which works well for some children. That doesn't exist in Xavier University's Montessori Lab School. In the Lab School, the teacher and the student decide on their work plan, and the student then decides what he or she wants to work on. The children are also multi-age classrooms.
Xavier University's Montessori Lab School Director Gina Lofquist says they look at every child individually.
"We don't, per se, look at benchmarks and set forth the child should be able to do this at this point because each of us have a natural flow to the way that we're going to develop," Lofquist said. "It's our job as Montessori teachers to find out what the unique nature of that child is... and to bring that out."
Lofquist says standardization focuses on limits.
"We have to look at what are the possibilities and the positives with this child because I think sometimes when we look at standardization, we're looking at the minimum," said Lofquist. "We're always looking for the minimum. And for Montessori, we're looking at what is the possibility which is much greater and it's a shift in thinking."
Wolff says testing is the state's way of ensuring that the diploma means something when students graduate from high school.
"Testing is our measure," Wolff said. "It's our accountability it's how the state keeps us accountable. How the federal government watches us. Your test results are tied to federal funding and state funding and just your overall accountability to the tax payers."
Whichever approach you take, Lofquist says parents are the customer and they have the power to ask for what they want.
"If you are tired of the testing, if you are tired of the standardization, if you are wanting us to teach your child in a very holistic way, you have got to speak up," Lofquist said. "You have got to say no more. No more."
The choice is up to you.
CINCINNATI PUBLIC MAGNET SCHOOLS
CITYWIDE
Arts
School for Creative and Performing Arts (Grades 4-8 Magnet)
Montessori
Clark Montessori (Grades 7-8 Magnet)
Gamble Montessori (Grades 7-8 Magnet)
Online Program
Cincinnati Digital Academy (Grades K-8 Magnet)
Foreign Language and Culture
Academy of Multilingual Immersion Studies (Preschool to grade 8)
Academy of World Languages (Preschool to Grade 8)
Fairview-Clifton German Language School (Preschool to grade 6)
Gifted
Cincinnati Gifted Academy (Grades 3-6)
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)
W. H. Taft School (Preschool to grade 6)
Hughes STEM (Grades 7-8 Magnet)
WEST
Elementary College Preparatory
Covedale (Grades 4-6 Magnet)
Pleasant Hill (Grades 4-8 Magnet)
Montessori
Dater (Preschool to grade 6)
Winton (Preschool to grade 6)
Fundamental Academy
College Hill (Kindergarten to grade 6)
Paideia
Roberts (Preschool to grade 8)
EAST
Elementary College Preparatory
Mt. Washington (Grades 4 - 8 Magnet)
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