A deep dive into reading and writing in the Montessori classroom, as well as some tips for home. A few questions covered in this discussion with 50-year-veteran Montessorian Mary Ellen Maunz:
-Are academics even considered important in Montessori?
-How are reading and writing taught in a Montessori classroom?
-How does Montessori compare to traditional school in reading and writing?
-Is there anything parents can do with their children at home to excel in reading and writing?
“This great discovery, this great emotion is one of the most wonderful feelings humankind can have. Adults will perhaps some day recollect this marvelous fact.
The following happened in the school: while children were beginning to learn to read, one of the boys came to school with a folded piece of paper which he had kept in his smock (kind of like an overcoat). He called a dear friend and said, ‘Listen, you wouldn’t believe it, but there is a story in this’, and he read it to him. The other was filled with great wonder. ‘How’, said he, ‘can there be a story there?’ He in turn hunted secretly among the books at home to see if he could find a story, and having found one, he tore out the page, folded it, and he too carried it to school. Without the teacher’s knowledge, it came about that every child carried hidden in their clothes pages torn from books.”
“The child is, by nature, hungry for words; he loves strange, long words like the names of dinosaurs and constellations.”
To reach Mary Ellen, visit ageofmontessori.org.
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