First, let me say, I know NOTHING about Montessori, but from the little bit I read, it seems pretty good. Second, I’m going to make a complex situation as simple as I can.
My girlfriend, who’s Taiwanese, and I will be moving back to the US next year and getting hitched before going to wherever I get accepted for gradschool (New York, Boston, D.C., etc.).
A while back, the ladyfriend translated a French book on child psychology into Chinese, which gave her a great interest in childhood development, and during a visit to the states for four months last year she spent a lot of time babysitting for kids in my parents’ neighborhood. Now that we’re back in Taiwan, she’s taken up a job teaching kids. This isn’t her first experience with kids, though. Her little sister is actually 14 years younger than she is, and my girlfriend had a big part in raising her since their parents worked quite a bit.
She’s decided teaching children is the right path for her, and she’s thinking of getting Montessori certified.
So I have some questions:
First of all, say she gets certified, will she be able to get a teaching job teaching at a Montessori school in the US?
She speaks fluent French and, obviously, Chinese: do they do language classes?
Oh, and should she get certified? Just, well, in general. Is Montessori good? By good, I mean, do most people think its good? It’s not an educational fad is it?
Parent of a child who attends a Montessori school chekcing in.
First of all my understanding is that practically any school can call itself a “Montessori” school, there is no trademark or whatever on the name. Consequently the size and quality of Montessori schools in the US seems to vary quite a bit. So it is entirely possible that your GF (who if I understand correctly has no formal background in education at all, correct?) might be able to get a job at a school that calls itself Montessori. Most likely they would not have her teaching a class by herself from Day 1 but maybe as an aide or some kind of teaching assistant. I think her chances of being hired would be much worse at an older, larger, established school, from what I have seen they generally want some formal teaching experience. They do seem to give more leeway in this regard to special subject teachers (like, for example, foreign languages). That’s just my guess, IMHO, YMMV, etc, etc.
Language classes: yes, some Montessori schools offer it. In addition to the two languages you mention how is her English fluency?
Is it an educational fad? I have to say objectively speaking as parent who has spent thousands of dollars to send his kid to a Montessori school over the past few years, yes I sometimes detect elements of faddishness, or maybe cultish-ness among the more devout Montessorians.
We decided to send our son to the school he goes to because we felt that particular school would be a good fit for him, and we were willing to pay their tuition price. I certainly wouldn’t argue that the classical Montessori teaching methods are the only or even the best way of teaching all children.
On the other hand I think you will find the name “Montessori” does carry a certain, well, cachet, in some circles. I think most of the middle to upper middle class parents in our social circle assume that a school with “Montessori” in the name offers a better education than your average run-of-the-mill public school.
Indeed, I should have mentioned that her English is quite good. I think her comprehension and expression is actually better than French, but she’s just less <i>used</i> to speaking it because we speak French and Chinese together and most of our friends here are French or Taiwanese.
She spent four months with us in South Carolina and had no problems, though.
Also, another thing I forgot to mention: she loves art. She studied cultural mediation in Paris, and she’s a painter.
I think she should consider seeking employment at private schools generally and not get hung up on the Montessori thing, unless she has looked into it and feels it is something she really believes in and feels she needs to pursue.
There are a lot of good private schools out there that aren’t Montessori that might consider hiring someone with her background. The art and foreign language background is a plus.
You guys should look through the job listings here, and similar sites:
A quick glance through the state I am most familiar with (MA) indicates Montessori schools there generally do want a bachelor’s in education or a related field, teaching experience AND Montessori certification when they are looking for teachers. However for things like after-school programs the requirements are much more flexible.
Back in 1996, I looked into the Montessori certification process and gave up when I saw that the costs ran into the thousands of dollars. I suppose if one were dedicated to the Montessori methods it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but if one is only interested in early childhood education, there’s a broader range of options.
Seconding the private schools suggestion.
Yes, I went to a Montessori school and it was badass. We learned QBasic, VisualBasic, Logo (!), and woodworking in fourth grade. It was a top notch education for young kids, even though I still got into trouble all the time, looking back on it I would highly recommend it.