[IAEP] Montessori madness...

[Gerald Ardito]

I wanted to add something to this conversation.
I am a public middle school science teacher, and, as some of you know, the
technology facilitator in my building working with our 5th grade students
and teachers with a set of 150 XOs.
I am sympathetic to the thread of this conversation about Montessori
schools. "Small classes and passionate teachers," somebody said. I think
that this does a disservice to the passionate teachers in all kinds of
settings (and I work with very passionate teachers). I spend much of my
non-teaching time with teachers who are very interested in transforming
education. They have real demands (state and federal assessments, for
example) along with student needs, parent expectations and demands, etc. But
this does not make them less patient.
I believe that transformation takes place in situ. It does not wait for (or
need) an ideal situation.

My point is that I think that Sugar with and without the XOs has an enormous
possibility of empowering children AND their teachers to do great things.

Best,
Gerald

On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:48 AM, Yama Ploskonka <yamaplos at gmail.com> wrote:

> Some sweet old brother already pulled me over once for basically agreeing
> to somebody's post, but I will risk that again.
>
> Martin is so very right here, painfully so considering that with XOs and
> Sugar we are trying some very different options to work.  We are assuming
> that we can use technology to improve over (sometimes very) limited teacher
> skills and other issues.  Of course the saner among us are aware that
> getting rid of teachers will just make things worse.
>
> Yes, dedicated, highly trained, enthusiastic, "smart" teachers with great
> materials, small groups of kids from families who care for education cannot
> but succeed, at least compared to the alternatives.
>
> Let me go a step further than Martin.  Anything, including the bestest and
> newest computer thingie, will fail when the expected enabler is an
> unenthusiastic teacher.
>
> And enthusiasm itself, alas, might not be enough, or at least something
> hard to actually make last long enough so that actual skill, the real deal
> maker, gets a chance to grow in the teacher and kids.
>
> BTW, spending half an hour in a Montessori environment (as claimed in the
> website) will not give you the right picture, which is of an actually *very
> rigid and disciplined set of procedures*, actually the only way that
> exploring and creativity can get anywhere good.
>
> Kids build their perception on their own, but their exploration itself is
> very constrained to specific events and objects in a Montessori classroom,
> with a high degree of follow up and teacher intervention.
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 3:55 AM, Martin Langhoff <
> martin.langhoff at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:18 AM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
>> > I've been reading "Montessori Madness" for a few hours now, and I find
>>
>> Another good one is "Montessori Today"
>>
>> http://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Today-Comprehensive-Education-Adulthood/dp/080521061X
>>
>> The funny thing is that since I've been exposed to Bryan Berry's
>> poignant "theory" of education, I can't help looking at Montessori and
>> thinking that it is excellent, but not because Montessori's approach
>> and materials are inherently better.
>>
>> It is excellent because
>>
>>  - Montessori teachers are teachers who are clearly smart and
>> passionate about education, and the school environment (principals,
>> etc) share the smarts and the passion.
>>
>>  - Parents sending kids to a Montessori school are smart and
>> passionate about education.
>>
>>  - The group of kids is small and manageable, so the smart and
>> passionate teachers can work their magic.
>>
>> And that wins. They could teach with computers, or abacuses or post it
>> notes or books written in Esperanto. It's all a catalyst that brings
>> the 3 (purely human!) elements above together. Indirection. A social
>> mind trick.
>>
>> Of course, I like most of Montessori's approach. But remove the human
>> elements and... poof! it's effects will be gone. Montessori strategies
>> in a crowded group with an unenthusiastic teacher have very slim
>> chances.
>>
>> Bryan, you need to postulate your theory more formally :-)
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>>
>>
>> m
>> --
>>  martin.langhoff at gmail.com
>>  martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
>>  - ask interesting questions
>>  - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
>>  - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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