I'm in the market for some books about Montessori and Waldorf schools. Anyone have suggestions? My wife keeps sending me website after website (which is useful), but I need something to page through. Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks!
Parenting Right Now
2 years ago
3 comments:
Hey there -- I would highly recommend reading Maria Montessori's _The Absorbent Mind_. It is, obviously, an outdated text in many ways, but I think you can get the purest idea of the pedagogical underpinnings of the Montessori method. For what it's worth, I taught Montessori for two years down south before we moved to the Midwest. I'd be happy to share my thoughts on it offline sometime...
JLG
I would also recommend reading a book by Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind or The Montessori Method, probably. It's an approach I really like. The school that I work at started out as a Montessori school and has held on to a lot of the Montessori philosophy and approach, particularly in the early years. I would consider sending The Bean (our son) to a Montessori school once he reaches pre-school age. One thing to be aware of is that "Montessori" is not a trade-marked name, so anyone can say that they offer a Montessori program, whether they have the credentials or not. If you're going to put Yogi into a Montessori school I would suggest making sure that the teachers have qualifications from a Montessori teacher training institute.
As for Waldorf, I love the focus on nature and the arts, but I find the whole woodland fairy thing a bit strange and also I feel that there are quite a few Christian undertones, which I wouldn't have a problem with if they were acknowledged as such, but I feel that they aren't acknowledged at all. Anything by Rudolf Steiner should be helpful in explaining Waldorf philosophy, maybe Anthroposophy in Everyday Life, as a starting point.
You may also be interested in looking into Reggio Emelia. It's another child-centered approach.
I'll be very interested if you find one you like! We're looking at those and a quaker school in town.
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