Well, the good news is that I am learning a lot and am making many interesting observations (interesting to me at least); the bad (?) news is: it would take a very lengthy post to convey them all. I will do my best to summarize, without sacrificing the charming stories that come from watching 3 to 6 year olds for hours at a time.
I want to begin by saying that I was not aware of just how difficult observation is; truly, it is an acquired skill. It is so easy to become overwhelmed with taking notes, whether on paper or mentally, on every little thing that a child is doing, so I decided to myself that is not what I am going to do. I do want to keep track of childrens' activities at the Montessori school and at the children's museum, but I do not want to become buried in notes, so I have had to remind myself to focus on one thing at a time--something much harder than it sounds. I must remind myself quite frequently of the goal of my project, though I already have a feeling that I would like to extend it to include an investigation and insights into the Montessori method and theory. Anyways, let me begin by illustrating what a Montessori classroom at Khalsa is like.
The school day begins in a circle on the floor, quiet and composed. "Check your body," the teacher says to any child who may be fidgeting or touching someone else. The teacher only begins to speak once the children are silent and listening, ready to discuss the date and the weather. The lights are off; the sunlight streams in; the atmosphere is calm. During the group circle they may sing a song, note who is absent, and/or introduce a new activity in the room. Each teacher chooses how they wish the day to begin concerning what is addressed in the circle. One day, for example, the younger children were dismissed one by one into work time, while the kindergarteners (the classrooms are mixed-age) were given the assignment to draw and write expressively about a picture of their choice--a picture found anywhere in the classroom. Meanwhile, the younger children worked.
The classroom is filled with activities relating to language/reading, mathematics, science, and geography. These activities are called "tasks" or "works" when a child is occupied with them and are kept on shelves throughout the room on trays or in baskets. During work time, individual children voluntarily choose their work, taking it carefully from the shelf to a table or to the floor, where they will work on a tray or a mat which they have laid out. Children may choose to sit at the same table, generally in groups of no more than three, but they each have their own individual work. Note: I say "work," but these activities actually look like a lot of fun. "Work" ranges from tracing pictures of dinosaurs and their names on paper; molding play dough with tools; scooping rice into small bowls; pouring water from one glass into another; cleaning toy dinosaurs with a sponge and toothbrush; to a phonics workbook. There is nothing in the classroom that is superfluous or out-of-place. Everything is meant to be multi-sensory, and stimulate cognitive processes, often involving comparison and classification in ways that engage eye-hand coordination.
There is an obvious difference in the level of concentration between older (5 or 6) and younger (3 or 4) children. One teacher explained to me that there is also a very observable different between children who are new to the Montessori method and those who were introduced to it at the age of three. After she said that, even I, having never before been exposed to a Montessori classroom, could identify which children grew up with such a method. They continued one activity until completion for nearly an hour, while other switched between activities every ten or fifteen minutes; some, the youngest of the group, didn't even spend five minutes on a task. One goal of the Montessori method is the learned ability to focus, and I was impressed by more than one child who expressed such ability.
On a different note, I will never ceased to be fascinated by the vast range of personalities. One girl, a kindergartener, approached me with curiosity, and asked what I was doing. She was articulate, composed, and light-spirited. She asked me if I knew what some things around the classroom were and explained their purpose to me when I said that I didn't. We continued to talk as she patiently waited to have snack, until another girl came up to her from the snack table and said sweetly, "You can have snack now." At that, she skipped away to the table and took a seat with her snack. I had quite the different experience with another girl, who I had been watching as she tried to help a younger boy with his work but eventually just ended up doing for him. The teacher noticed and moved her to another table right next to me, which gave her the opportunity to begin explaining to me what she was doing. I kneeled down and listened and when I noticed a small mistake in her addition , I suggested she re-check her work. She looked positively offended and horrified that I would even suggest such a thing. She then made it very clear that she needed her "space" to work, so I obliged, stood up, walked a few feet away, and re-commenced taking notes. A few minutes later, she got up from her work,came up to me and said, "I need my space, which means that you need to walk away."
I couldn't help but smile to myself. I certainly didn't expect that. I obliged, knowing that I myself was in the process of familiarization with this method of education and also that the children were used to having their own space to work in an environment where they did not feel pressured. Perhaps I had unintentionally made her feel pressured, which definitely was not the goal and was something which I wanted to avoid then and in the future.
I could say much much more about what I have learned and observed, but here are some of my general observations at the Montessori school:
1) The children are aware of their surroundings and rarely if ever trip or fall over one another's work.
2) The children are polite to one another, respecting each other's work.
3) They enjoy sharing about what they are doing.
4) They are self-confident and fairly independent (one boy, about four, spilled some water on the floor and to my astonishment, pulled out a mop!)
5) Children love to raise their hand, even though they may not have the slightest idea of the answer to a question; they'll even lie about knowing an answer just to say a few seconds later, "I don't know," which is both sad and somewhat amusing.
The children's museum is full of hands-on fun, though not quite as orderly. But hey, sometimes it's good to cast order to the wind and make room for imagination! Let's build a cave out of grey foam blocks just to destroy it; or turn orange blocks into lava and donuts into cookies--whatever suits our fancy. It truly is fun spending time with these kids, who generally fall into the same age group as the kids at the school. Though I have noticed some differences related to cognitive and linguistic skills. A number of children I have interacted with at the museum have possessed poor communication skills, ignoring my questions or answering me with disjointed words or even sounds. Also, perhaps because their parents are always so eager to intervene or help, they do not exert much energy into problem-solving. The most common form of learning I've seen so far comes from trial-and-error.
As far as concentration goes, I'm not going to make any hasty generalizations. One boy led a museum volunteer from exhibit to exhibit without spending even a minute at each, while another boy spent half and hour sending a whiffle-ball down a roller-coaster of plastic tubes: endless fascination.
It's been interesting to watch the interaction between children. Most seem to recognize the difference between another child trying to help them (by handing them something for example) and another interrupting their play. Once the children are focused on what they are doing, the become very sensitive to when other children come and use their materials or make some alteration to a system they have set up; which, I think, is understandable. At the Montessori school, distractions are kept to a minimum, but at the museum, kids are surrounded by distractions and are often pulled away from an activity by their parent or sibling wanting to move on to the next exhibit. All they want to do is sword-fight with blue, foam-noodles, but it's time to move on to the train room...*sigh*
Congratulations to anyone who read this far; only you will understand the title :)
