Parents often ask: What are the real benefits of sending a child to a Montessori school? They seek assurance that it will prepare them to survive in the ‘real world,’ by which they really question: Will Montessori prepare their children to succeed in a conventional school?
My favorite answer to this question is a simple No!
No, Montessori is not designed to prepare children to think, act, and learn the way most children do in most traditional classrooms!
Will Montessori children succeed in a traditional classroom? The odds are that they will do just fine.
But, is Montessori designed to prepare children for the sort of classroom experience that they are likely to find if they transfer from Montessori to a traditional school program before they go off the college? The answer is, of course, no. If Montessori were de-signed to prepare children for the next rung on the conventional schooling ladder, then Montessori would be like other traditional schools, and that is precisely what Montessori schools were designed to challenge and replace!
Now, is Montessori designed to prepare children for the ‘real world’?