"We have been teaching for two millenia" is no way to defend an educational system that developed during the industrial age. The Montessori method was published in 1912, and experience has shown its effectiveness. It is our current public education system, not its critics, that ignores experience.
The nearest public Montessori school to me has a waiting list larger than its student body. As a result, I'm sending my kids to private school and making lots of sacrifices to do it.
I don't want to say about my kids, "As for the creative part, that happens in university."
It wasn't the Montessori system that put men on the moon. I'm pretty sure it was bright young men sitting in high school math classes, learning to use their slide rules and practicing integration until they got it perfect, then going on to engineering school where they learned even more complex mathematics and physics. Have you ever looked at a math or physics book from the 50s? They lack the full-color illustrations, story problems, and "extra activities" of a modern high school text, yet somehow generations of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers mastered the techniques.
Speculate about the moon landing all you want, but a lot of successful people, Google founders included, credit Montessori education as helpful to their success.
The nearest public Montessori school to me has a waiting list larger than its student body. As a result, I'm sending my kids to private school and making lots of sacrifices to do it.
I don't want to say about my kids, "As for the creative part, that happens in university."