Montessori supports Homework, Tests and Competition…..
As a child we have always had butterflies fluttering in the tummy for every class hour beginning for various reasons – completing the previous day’s homework, surprise test, test papers been corrected. I’m sure all of us (the brightest or an average performing student) can relate to it in our own ways.
With our memories there, let see how Montessori works. Will you be surprised if I tell you that Montessori too supports homework, tests and competition?
In a proper Montessori school, children learn concepts by working with materials. They work, rework, explore, explode and then move to abstract working. In this process, children are never corrected with their work. For eg: If a child records 2+5=6, he will never be corrected at that time. Instead, the adult will observe that the child needs more help and will re-present the work, where he will learn 2+5=7 without knowing that he was wrong earlier. Learning is always in positive way in a Montessori class. So along with learning the concepts, children blossom into a very strong confident individual. His love for learning is continuously fuelled everywhere in a Montessori Environment.
So, it is not a practice to give homework in Montessori Primary Classroom
• As children are still working with materials, that are not available at home
• As children need a positive way of learning where they are not corrected for their mistakes at their work.
• Montessori doesn’t believe in using work sheets and work books that calls for a repetitive work with less intellectual involvement from the child
Most parents feel homework will help a child get engaged at home for sometimes. Though it is not a right way to look at it, I personally encourage my parents to do some homework daily
• Involve them in all house chores possible – vegetable sorting, folding clothes, dusting the house etc.
• Read books to them – Love for reading is the best gift you can give your child for life. And that work starts right now. Please enjoy reading as a fun habit like we may feed the pigeons, baking a cake or Sunday morning gardening.
• Planning for a day out as a family. Involve them in your planning and see how responsible and helpful they are for you. There is lot to talk and share with them in every such planning that helps them a lot than writing “A, A, A, A,….”
Some Montessori Schools starts giving little homework for Elementary Classroom. This homework is not given to engage the child back at home. They are not given to include the parents in what their child learns. Often we hear that children finish these works without even the parents knowing that they have homework. This homework
• At First place, sow the sense of responsibility to the child
• Give a chance for the child to explore more on what he has learnt at school
• Encourage the child to relate to the concepts outside the classroom
• Should make him move slowly towards abstract learning
• Should give him more opportunities to read and write on self-motivation.
• Should fuel the minds for curiosity and create the thirst for knowledge. The homework will be like collecting leaves of different laminas they learnt in botany cabinet rather than copy drawing those laminas from the book. Finding the area of their living room rather than doing 10 addition problems on homework note.
It is myth that people say Montessori doesn’t have Tests. I feel children undergo tests every day in a good Montessori Environment. Let me explain you this. Children will be introduced Scripts individually by tracing. He has to remember the sound of the letter, the way it is traced and also tries to come up with words beginning in that sound. He will be practicing this for his own development without realising that the adult is observing him from a distance. Only if he succeeds in his attempt to remember and recollect what he has been shown, he will be introduced with the next activity. Don’t you feel this is a test which every child undergoes in the classroom every day? Children are constantly observed and taken to the next challenging activity only if they exhibit expertise in what they have learnt. But children undergoes these test with lot of fun and happiness (No butterflies here in the tummy!)
I’m sure there is another big question in every parent’s mind. Will Montessori prepare my child to this competitive world? Let me answer you this. “There is no competition in Montessori Classroom” is also a Myth. Definitely Montessori sows the seed of competition at very young age. Yes. I can loudly say this hard fact. Competition is not with his friends in the classroom. Competition is within himself. “Where I was yesterday, where I’m today” is the inner voice of every child in Montessori. In a mixed age group, often children get so fascinated with the work chosen by their peers. But you can hear them clearly communicating among themselves. ” Aunty will show me that work after I finish all this work”. They feel responsible and so get self-motivated to learn to move ahead in their learning. What a lovely environment for a child to blossom!
Montessori supports homework, tests and competition in its own Style!