JESSE MCCARTHY | MONTESSORIEDUCATION.COM
Sadly, children in traditional schooling are notoriously averse to math, and often adults feel inadequate in the subject as well. Yet Montessori children love math and excel at it. For instance, it's common to see 5-year-olds in Montessori classrooms happily doing multiplication and long division, sometimes alongside teachers who seem to be enjoying the work just as much as the students.
Today, it's considered normal for boys and girls and men and women to say math is "hard" or "boring", but Montessori children are living proof that this doesn't have to be the case.
“In all his experience of thirty years the writer has never met, or even heard of, a child brought up on the Montessori system from the beginning who disliked arithmetic.”
If you have a child who doesn't like math or who just feels "no good" at it, or if you yourself are that grownup child, plan a visit to an effective Montessori classroom and ask to see the math materials. Although general education might have failed us, that doesn't mean we can't take learning into our own hands to make a change for our children, or even just for ourselves.
For more on Montessori math, listen to this podcast episode | To learn more about Montessori education overall, watch What is Montessori?
Photo: Thacher Montessori School