The Montessori Method
I cannot say enough about how much I LOVED researching this topic. I feel as though I could recite the history of the Montessori Method coming into America and Canada with all the little details without any notes, I dedicated maybe too much time to research…. Although it was a huge pain to find the primary documents, what I found was so intriguing I honestly couldn’t believe I had found it. Old news papers, peoples biography, volumes with accounts of the first Montessori School in New Brunswick… All of it fascinated me so much I didn’t really want to stop reading it. I have never had a research project that I was so compelled to do, and I am so thankful I had this experience in my last semester of undergrad, better late than never!
I ended up focusing less on Montessori within the school systems today and more in the assimilation of Maria Montessori’s methods into America, and subsequently Canada in its first wave (1911-1917). It was very difficult to write within the word count because there are so many minor details I wanted to elaborate on, such as Montessori and McClures relationship and Alexander Graham Bell’s relationship with the two as well. This movement is more complex than I had thought it would be, but overall a learning experience I will not ever forget.
This was especially rewarding because my boyfriend attended Montessori school for his elementary years and didn’t know as much as I did. Him and his sisters claim they learned about it’s evolution in the school, but none of them can recollect what they learned, so I was able to educate them and open their eyes to even more. I was asked many times after doing this project if I would consider becoming a Montessori teacher… and this was a tough question to answer. After much thought I determined I would not. I believe Montessori is a viable answer to our education system, but I do not want to start off my career as the solution, I want to be a part of what gets education to that solution; therefore I want to start in the public school system and be the change. There are aspects of the public system that do and do not make sense, as well aspects of the Montessori method. If we find a happy medium and mix the freedom of Montessori with the structure of public schooling, I believe we will have an education system that best fits what the world is becoming. This seems dry and obvious, but it cannot be as obvious as we think if it is not present in our education system.