Almost every education article posted to HN that boasts a "new approach" is invariably a school that re-purposing Montessori. In this case it's using technology and data to a higher degree to streamline the BS teachers have to deal with so they can get on with teaching. That's cool and definitely a step above 99% of schools out there, but not a revolution in the Montessori sense.
I wish more people would grok the basic principles of Montessori and just focus on doing those right - because when it's done well its perfect and really doesn't take much structure. My wife runs a Montessori school from our home and has been a teacher for almost 12 years now. She has found that the more hands on she is (and other teachers are) with the students, the worse the outcomes are. As practitioners we see a lot of junk that claims to be "Montessori" but doesn't really stick to the principles. These are primarily: self directed learning and building a community for exploration and creativity.
The best Montessori schools have agreements with local warehouses/mills/shops etc... where children can do internships and apprenticeships. Having "curricula" like the article states is generally antithetical to that and kills a large portion of what makes Montessori so successful - which is pupils taking prepared "vocational" paths which are liberal in educational scope. It's simpler in the long run but takes much more up-front work and I think the technology is there to make that up-front work much easier.
The real challenge is fitting these types of schools into the larger "schooling" world of standardized tests etc... One thing we found was that many students leave Montessori because the clearest path into college is through the testing system and Monetssori doesn't play well with that. That is what needs real reform.
Montessori isn't the end-all be-all of "student centered learning". There are a LOT more types of schooling out there which have similarity as they seem to have roots in Piaget, Steiner, etc. This seems to be another take on montessori + some reggio emilia and other bits.
Also, as an fyi, one of the better montessoris in our area (montessori academy of chicago) has taken a big bite of the standardization area by aligning common core with the classic montessori didactic system.
>Montessori isn't the end-all be-all of "student centered learning"
I agree in theory, but have yet to see another system as flexible or robust with any actual, measurable history of good outcomes at scale. All other systems seem to be on either extreme - either too much "freedom" and the kids never learn, like Summerhill, or are too focused around some oddly specific dogma, like Waldorf.
I didn't mean to suggest that Montessori wasn't good or that the other systems were better. All I was suggesting was that there are a multitude of student centered learning frameworks (some of which are montessori, waldorf, reggio, and summerhill). I think based on the concepts of differentiation, some of these may be more optimal for certain learners than others.
Hopefully we will see the influence of standardized testing companies diminish as more robust in-class assessment tools are developed.
Our trust in standardized testing is dependent on the expectation that teachers cannot accurately assess the skills and competencies of their students during regular lessons. To free schools to approach education however they want we just need to find a way to reliably assess students without the need for a centralized gatekeeper.
If the process of developing/proctoring/critiquing assessments was partially standardized (to allow for distribution and certification of assessment elements) and linked to student performance data then we could both reliably integrate this kind of assessment into regular lessons while also mitigating the need for expensive standardized tests.
There are some hints of this in the article; as a HS teacher I'd love to see assessment overhauled in this direction.
Standardized curricula (which is admittedly distinct from standardized testing) is useful as prior to statewide standards, it was not unusual for a move of just 10 miles to put your children in a school district with completely different curriculum for at least one subject.
The most positive thing I've heard about Common Core is that a federal standard will mean out-of-state transfer students will be more likely to be on the same page as current students.
If this were still May Day I would think that sending our seven year olds off to the mill would be a more obvious troll, but as things stand I'm not so sure.
The Montessori school my oldest went to did week-long apprenticeshps in 7th and 8th grade. I'd be surprised if any school had 2nd grade apprenticeships.
I recall that after two weeks of "work experience" on a print-shop production line as a teenager I couldn't wait to get back to the relative blissful liberation of an organised lesson programme and essay tasks based on the exam curriculum...
I wish more people would grok the basic principles of Montessori and just focus on doing those right - because when it's done well its perfect and really doesn't take much structure. My wife runs a Montessori school from our home and has been a teacher for almost 12 years now. She has found that the more hands on she is (and other teachers are) with the students, the worse the outcomes are. As practitioners we see a lot of junk that claims to be "Montessori" but doesn't really stick to the principles. These are primarily: self directed learning and building a community for exploration and creativity.
The best Montessori schools have agreements with local warehouses/mills/shops etc... where children can do internships and apprenticeships. Having "curricula" like the article states is generally antithetical to that and kills a large portion of what makes Montessori so successful - which is pupils taking prepared "vocational" paths which are liberal in educational scope. It's simpler in the long run but takes much more up-front work and I think the technology is there to make that up-front work much easier.
The real challenge is fitting these types of schools into the larger "schooling" world of standardized tests etc... One thing we found was that many students leave Montessori because the clearest path into college is through the testing system and Monetssori doesn't play well with that. That is what needs real reform.