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Comment by cubicle67 | Hacker News Reader

If you're considering Montessori, there's a few things I need to warn you of (I speak as a parent who's put 4 children through)

1. You'll never look at normal schooling the same way again. You'll find the thought of sending your kinds to a traditional school depressing and wonder how anyone can think it's a good idea

2. Every parent/teacher you who finds out you send your kids to a non-traditional school, and who hasn't experience of them, will find the need to defend traditional schooling

3. Unless you're lucky enough to have access to a Montessori high school, or you're able to homeschool, you'll have to face the day when you send your kids back into a normal school.

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I went through a Montessori school and struggled to make the transition to regular education resulting in poor grades, mostly due to me being bored. On one hand it lets syudents explore curiosity but on the otherhand it doesn't teach important skills like paying attention. As I learned in college not everything can be learned by doing, or perhaps that it would take too long to do everything by hand.

I had to learn these the hard way, my and cannot recommended the system. Interestingly in practice Montessori education is not a chouce between traditional and experimental education, but rather a choice between dysfunctional public schools or experimental education.

I think my kids are having the same problem (boredom) as you did.

What do you mean by "paying attention"? One of the thinks I really like about Montessori, and I'm guessing each school is different, is that the children are able to develop long attention spans and learn to stay focused on something for as long as they like; half a day is not uncommon, and an entire day is possible. Normal school allows children just long enough to become absorbed in something, then interrupts them with "change class!". Montessori allows that child so keep focused on their activity (drawing a map, writing a story, maths, etc) for as long as they want.

The up-side is that I've found Montessori to be a very efficient means of learning. My kids have no homework and an enjoyable relaxing day, but they're far ahead of their friends in normal schools.

Down-side is, like you say, low tollerence for droning teachers and being bored

I think what frozenport means with 'paying attention' is paying attention when not in an active and participating role and more in a passive, listening role. Where it's much harder to stay focused. But like frozenport said it is necessary to acquire a lot of knowledge reasonable fast in a college setting for example. Self study is also an option (I have seen many do it) but not everyone is good at that.

>>keep focused on their activity (drawing a map, writing a story, maths, etc) for as long as they want.

Kids can play a video-game for 8 hours straight. Focusing on something you don't want to do, or is hard to do, is a better indicator of discipline.

>>but they're far ahead of their friends in normal schools.

The real problem isn't the failure of an educational style but rather particular institutions. Where I grew up the kids who went to good private schools were at the same level as us. As I wrote earlier we often compare apples to oranges when we compare against Montessori schools, comparing bad (public) to Montessori(more expensive, private). If we can't find a familiarly priced or ranked school, with a similar level of parent involvement, we should avoid making a judgement about the method.

I went to a Montessori preschool for a year or two before doing public schooling K-12, and in retrospect I think it worked out pretty well. I was in Montessori for a short enough time that I didn't feel too weird during the switch (although I distinctly remember wondering why Kindergarten was so easy compared to preschool), but long enough that I was way ahead of most of the other kindergarteners. Then in the following years I was put into various accelerated learning groups with the other smart kids. Once you're in that group it's pretty easy to get a good education, even in public school (that or I got lucky with good public school teachers).

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