Customer Reviews

Montessori Today: A Comprehensive Approach to Education from Birth to Adulthood

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Three years ago - I was scrambling for alternatives to public schools and I NEEDED to know what a Montessori shool was all about. I read Maria Montessori's book and that explained her goals and her methods in a highly abstract manner - it left me at a loss of how a Montessori class was conducted, how it operated day-to-day. In other words, I understood the theory, but I could not visualize the application.

This book explained the practical application should look like - ie:
1. what a Montessori class should look like when you're observing.
2. What/How your child will be guided on a day-to-day basis.
3. How to track his or her progress in the absence of a report card, etc.

This book was extremely informative on what you should expect from your montessori school for your children over age 6 (it also described before age 6 but there are many books on the 3-6 age group for Montessori). I have found it very difficult(until this book) to find out what the montessori education has to offer over traditional education after age six. Boy was I blown over at the difference between the Montessori theory/practice over the traditional form of schooling. It seems almost cruel to ever put your child in traditional public schools that still teach children to take a submissive role. I urge everyone to please read this book. Learn about the Five Major Lessons and the positive,cooperative, interactive approach to education/life.

I must respectfully but vehemently disagree with "A Reader" who said that this book was inaccurate. I am a Montessori directress with a diploma from the Association Montessori Internationale - the international organization founded by Dr. Montessori - and a Masters in Montessori Education from Loyola College in Baltimore. In fact, my trainer was trained by Dr. Montessori herself. I have ten years' experience teaching in Montessori primary classrooms. I have found all of Ms. Lillard's books to be quite accurate. She does an excellent job of taking the great volumes written by Dr. Montessori and distilling them down to the points that are important for parents to understand. She presents things in very straightforward terms. For those of us who have devoted our lives to studying Montessori principles in depth, some of the points may seem to be "oversimplified" but they are most certainly not innacurate. These books are meant to be a resource for parents, not for Montessorians in training. I recommend her books over and over for parents who want to learn more about Montessori education.

Montessori Today is one of the best books I have read regarding how a Montessori elementary school educates its students. It answers alot of questions regarding the content of the elementary program and how it works. It gives parents who are considering or who have children in the elementary Montessori school a very good synopsis of what is covered. I feel that Paula Lillard has a special gift in being able to write a book that is so easy to understand. It makes you want the very best for your child or children and it gives parents a wonderful tool to use to help them evaluate and improve their child's education. It is also extremely helpful, I think, for the Montessori educator. It gives a clear overview of the elementary program and can help them better inform their student's parents about the Montessori program. Overall, I feel that it was a well-timed and well written book. It is very much needed

This book was extremely informative on what you should expect from your montessori school for your children over age 6 (it also described before age 6 but there are many books on the 3-6 age group for Montessori). I have found it very difficult(until this book) to find out what the montessori education has to offer over traditional education after age six. Boy was I blown over at the difference between the Montessori theory/practice over the traditional form of schooling. It seems almost cruel to ever put your child in traditional public schools that still teach children to take a submissive role. I urge everyone to please read this book. Learn about the Five Major Lessons and the positive,cooperative, interactive approach to education/life.

Fabulous book explaining Montessori (especially Elementary level--the only book to do so in clear
terms. Excellent for parents considering Montessori
elementary.

I read this book at the same time I was also reading the Montessori Method. Lillard did a great job at clearing up some of the misconceptions I had had about Montessori, or the general lack of knowledge. I'm not going to lie, the Montessori Method was a tough read. Towards the end, I was struggling to get through it. Lillard's book was an easy read that put things into perspective. I loved the first hand accounts of what it's like in the classroom, and the children's comments throughout the book. This really helped illustrate some of the practices mentioned in the Method. My favorite chapters were last in the book and about the adult planes. Montessori had wrote a frames work about these later planes, but had dedicated her entire life to elementary education. I loved the idea of students being active members of the community and more or less finding more about themselves through finding out how they fit into a community. In one of the last chapters, a tale is told about a high school Montessori teacher that brings students out of their element for 2 weeks. They learn about agriculture and how to maintain a farm. They also learn not only about all of the processes, but the business aspects of maintaining a farm. Experiences like this just make sense to me. Good book, filled with many of perspectives. I felt it could have been a little longer, maybe because I wanted to hear more stories.

This is the best book on the Montessori method that I've found. It is so powerful and moving and really clears up many of the unfortunate misconceptions people have about Montessori education. A must read for anyone who wants to know more about Montessori.

After blazing through two of Dr. Montessori's works it was a nice refresher to pick up MONTESSORI TODAY and learn more about the elementary material. I, too, feel that Lillard's work(s) are an accurate representation of Dr. Montessori's method and approach. What I've read of Lillard's (MONTESSORI: A MODERN APPROACH and MONTESSORI TODAY, and from what I understand of MONTESSORI FROM THE START) serves as an introduction to the Method, not an overall understanding. I appreciate her restraining from constant admiration (as I have recently witnessed one author do in regards to Charlotte Mason) of Dr. Montessori and reserving her praise for the Method (and, consequently, the results of the Method). Like many others, she has devoted much of her life and work to helping parents, educators, and especially the layperson understand and appreciate Dr. Montessori and the Method. I will soon begin my training for all levels (for the purposes of homeschooling) and I dare say that a new graduate barely has the right to judge 20 some-odd years worth of effort and research. However, I do appreciate your warning that not everything labeled "Montessori" is an accurate representation or account of the woman, her work, and/or her Method. Lillard even says herself that in some years time that "Montessori" may become as common a term as "Kindergarten". It will do well for budding trainees and parents of Montessori children to do their research :)

This book provides an overview of Maria Montessori's educational philosophy and curriculum, often quoting Montessori's work, including a quote in chapter 9 from an unpublished lecture.

In chapter 1, the author presents core observations that Montessori made about the child development process:

"1. that human development does not occur in a steady, linear ascent but in a series of formative planes.

2. the the complete development of human beings is made possible by their tendencies to certain universal actions related to their environment.

3. that this interaction with the environment is most productive in terms of the individual's development when it is self-chosen and founded upon individual interest."

The four "planes" or stages of development are six years each, evenly split from birth to age six (primary years), six to twelve (elementary years), twelve to eighteen, and eighteen to twenty-four.

Chapter 2 describes the primary years, while chapters 3-9 describe various aspects of the elementary years. At the end of chapter 6 are a series of photographs of Montessori toys and children working on self-initiated research projects. Here, one discovers the Binomial Cube toy, featured in color on the cover of the book, which the caption describes as allowing children to "experience algebraic formulas in concrete form." I was surprised to learn in chapter 7 that children are allowed on "going out" trips, introduced in phases. First, children may visit other rooms in the building. Second, children can visit other areas of the school grounds (e.g., to study rocks, leaves, and insects). In the last stage, the children can go into the surrounding community. The author explains that this freedom and independence comes as a surprise to adults but is highly valued by the children. The freedom granted here come in stages, where showing responsibility grants additional levels of trust and autonomy.

Chapter 9 describes both the twelve to eighteen and eighteen to twenty-four planes. Given that Montessori died before she could complete a fully developed curriculum, the material described here isn't as complete for the adult planes as chapters 3-9 are for the elementary plane. Instead, material covered here is based on a theoretical framework that Montessori devised in the 1930s and presented in a series of lectures.

At the end of the book, the author warns of schools that borrow the Montessori name while implementing only a subset of the curriculum, resulting in substandard results. To safe-guard against this, many Montessori organizations in the United States formed an umbrella organization, the Montessori Accreditation Counsel for Teacher Education (MACTE) to certify teachers. Does your Montessori school use MACTE certified teachers?

The book is meant as an overview of the Montessori system, not a critique. There are some questions that are not answered by this book:
1. Does this approach work for every kind of child? Are there some children that require a more rigid structure and wouldn't be comfortable in a self-directed environment?
2. Since children learn and grow depending on their own area of interest, are Montessori instructed children less well-rounded? Would a teacher be able to successfully balance the child's interest with other subjects?