Tim Seldin & Paul Epstein Ph.D. An Education for Life

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Does Montessori
prepare children
for the
“real” world? ...
I
started learning about
and teaching using the
Montessori Method in
1960. It is now over forty years later. Then
I taught about it, ran a Montessori school,
served on the AMS Board, and always had
to answer: “But will the children adjust
to other schools and do well in life?”
To this question, I had flip answers,
hope-filled replies, and much conviction;
but now I have experience. Also, I have
comparisons, having run two non-
Montessori schools. In addition, I’ve had
a post-Montessori career in corporate life
(CBS-TV) and have run a foundation,
which raised funds for over six hundred
independent colleges. The simple answer
to the question as to whether Montessori
prepares students to survive in other
schools is yes! To compete, yes! Prosper,
yes! And these replies are not boasts —
they are my pleasant reality.
First, children generally survive well
beyond the expectations of parents and
educators. God, or nature made, they
are built to endure and overcome.
“Overcoming” Montessori is really easy,
because it is like basic training for life; it
engages the senses, acknowledges physical
mobility, and respects the need to
manage time. It follows the individual
intellect, while providing an adequate
dose of reality and Practical Life skills.
Most important is: How does the student
think (s)he has done, “given their
givens? Montessorians do not make
genes or create home environments —
we run schools and help parents grow
along with their children using a scientifically
enlightened model and a practical
psychology and pedagogy. Maria Montessori
gathered the insights, time refined
them, and time refines them still. This is
what I call the verb — Montessori as
action, not just a proper noun. I respect the
noun; I love the verb.
For fourteen years, I sent kids off to other
schools while working within and heading
the Whitby School (The American Montessori
Center [est.1958]). I watched and
collected data. After years of working in business
and running two other schools, I’ve collected
much information. Watching my own
children, grandchildren, neighbors, nieces/
nephews, et. al, I can simply say that
Montessori allows and helps children to be
physicians, lawyers, business executives,
educators, authors, film makers, mothers/
fathers, computer experts, writers, musicians,
politicians; survivors of college folly,
parental divorce; and seekers of the mysteries
of life through faith, religion, nature or
philosophy. In brief, nothing in Montessori
guarantees success or the absolute avoidance
of all of life’s follies and failures. It does
provide many tools and, in most cases, tools
not commonly exploited in many other educational
systems. Dr. Montessori was an
excellent physician and an even greater educator.
She was not, and is not, God; neither
are those who use and advance her Method.
But if you simply want children to enjoy
their education, use their senses, find uses
for imagination and inventiveness, and
respect natural timing, while also respond-
ing to fire drills and traffic signs;
Montessori is a good bet. If you want me or
others to say it is the only way to educate
or the best, we respond by saying,
“... among great foods, we choose this
Montessori diet.” If you want guarantees,
we caution you to watch out for snake-oil
salesmen. Montessori was not a huckster
and neither are we a hundred years later.
Our students reveal their talents; we direct
their learning. God or nature, along with
their mothers and fathers and their socioeconomic
realities, play roles as well.
Montessori prepares children to use their
talents, advancing their natural abilities
and taking that development into an everchanging
world.
Montessori students are the best evidence
of their preparation. Seek them out.
Speak with them. Observe them. It is likely
you have already noticed them, perhaps
even hired them, and maybe you already
like them. What you did not know was that
they were educated, in part, within a
Montessori environment.
— John P. Blessington,
Headmaster Emeritus of
The Whitby School; Currently Executive
Producer for Interfaith Religious
Programs for CBS Television