Going to School the Montessori Way

April 27, 1992 — Going to school the Montessori Way and planning for middle school education, the head of one of the largest Montessori schools in the United States said at the weekend.

Mr. Tim Seldon, headmaster of the 500-student body Barrie School in Wheaton, Maryland, who is no stranger to Bermuda, is visiting to help the board of governors of Bermuda's newest school, Montessori Academy, with the second phase of its development.

Montessori Academy opened its doors at the old Tivoli farmhouse on Middle Road, Warwick, to some 60 students last September.

The school, which was set up by parents of children at the five-year-old Bermuda Montessori School who wanted the school run as a non-profit operation, now has 80 students and expects 110 in September.

Both local schools are licensed to take children up to 12 years old.

Mr. Seldon said Barrie, which sits on a 45-acre campus, has students from two-17 years old.

He said he knows of at least 3,000 Montessori schools worldwide, including Japan, Korea, Germany, Holland, and India. He estimated that there are about 1,500 schools in the United States alone.

Explaining that Montessori schools allow children to progress at their own pace rather than compete for class rankings, Mr. Seldon said such schools offer a "very warm and loving environment for students who would be stifled in traditional schools''.

But he stressed that Montessori is "not a cult'' and its schools do not "lead to mediocre standards''.

"It is not just for, as many believe, young children or for the child who is not able to compete in other schools,'' Mr. Seldon said, adding that second to Catholic parochial schools Montessori is the largest education system in the world.

"Montessori offers exactly what education reformers all over the west have been calling for,'' he said. "Under the Montessori system children are trained to grow up with a sense of honour and to enjoy life.'' He said as opposed to the traditional education system in which only about 20 percent excel, in the Montessori system "the people who have learned internal discipline and are clear about why they want to be there (at school) and succeed''.

"We need a highly competent, motivated society with a meaningful approach to teaching people education that goes way beyond the text book, sermon, and platitudes,'' Mr. Seldon added.

The Montessori system, named after Italian doctor and mother Dr. Maria Montessori in the early 1900s, is based largely on practical lessons rather than role learning and memorisation.

Montessori promotes the idea of the classroom becoming more student oriented rather than subject oriented. And, Mr. Seldon said, it can be applied in the work place and other institutions.

"Bermuda schools have been very traditional,'' he said. "But Bermuda has a strong sense of community, a strong sense of the environment, and an astounding understanding of what needs to be done if Bermuda is to look like this in the future.

"Middle schools are definitely a move in the right direction,'' he added.

"It recognises that children at 11 and 12 are different.

"But I think Bermuda will gain better results as teachers have the ability to be more flexible with strategies they use with children.'' STIMULATING STUDENTS' DESIRE TO LEARN -- that is what Mr. Tim Seldon, Montessori advocate and headmaster at The Barrie School in Wheaton, Maryland, is committed to doing.

Originally published in the Royal Gazette