Children learn at own pace at Montessori

By Rudy Madanir

JAKARTA (JP): It was half an hour before noon. Dozens of luxury cars, each with a name-card posted on their windshield, lined up at a school gate in Kemang, South Jakarta.

A car with a famous Italian name on its windscreen took its turn to stop at the gate. Its left back door opened, ready to receive a beautiful child, handed over by a teacher to a babysitter inside. As soon as it had received its precious cargo, the car sped away.

The other cars did the same. There were 80 of them in all, one for each student in the school.

That is how students leave the Srikandi Montessori school. Their departures are carefully arranged to avoid traffic conflicts with other motorists.

"It is also part of the school's program to teach orderliness and discipline to the children," said Gloria Kalff, the school principal.

The children, almost all of whom come from high society, are between two and a little over five years old. They are just among a few fortunate children in Jakarta who are growing up in a Montessori way.

They stay from 8 a.m. to 11.40 a.m. daily at the school which they call "another home". The teachers prefer to call it "a prepared environment".

The Srikandi Montessori school is attended by students of 22 nationalities, including 20 Indonesians. It is the oldest international school in Jakarta and the only one recognized by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

It follows the method created by Dr. Maria Montessori, who formulated an education method for early-aged children that has been practiced for years all over the world.

Dr. Montessori emphasized that the goal of early childhood education should not be to cram children with facts from a pre- selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate their own natural desire to learn.

She proved that a young child can learn to read, write and calculate in the same natural way that he learns to walk and talk.

Kalff, who established the school in 1982, denied that the school is expensive and just for the elite few.

The school tuition fee per student is about the same as other international schools in Jakarta, which may range from US$3,000 to $5,000 per year, she argues.

Kalff admitted that a high tuition fee does not necessarily correspond with the best education.

"At the current tuition level, 70 percent of our money is used to pay the teachers' salaries," she explained.

All of the teachers, who are mostly foreigners, must meet special qualifications set by the school. They must also have completed training on the Montessori method, she said.

"They deserve a salary that is consummate with their high qualifications," she said.

Classroom

Although the starting age varies per individual school, children can be admitted into a Montessori classroom between the ages of two-and-a-half and four depending on whether they can be happy and comfortable in a classroom situation.

"Most of them cry on their first day but after a little while they to love the school," said Vilma Salarda, a Filipino teacher at Montessori school.

The absence of a teacher's desk in the classroom is intentional. This is because, according to the Montessori tradition, the stimulation for learning comes from the overall classroom environment.

The tables and chairs are movable, allowing a flexible arrangement for many activities. Educational materials enable children to learn when they are interested and ready.

The classrooms are neither a baby sitting service nor a playground. Instead, they usually give the child an excellent preparation for traditional kindergarten classes, said Kalff.

"Babysitters are not allowed here. All children are directly handled by the teachers," said Kalff. He added that the school always maintains an ideal ratio between the teachers and the students.

The children are grouped based on improvement in ability. Unlike other schools, there is no level or grade division. The students' ability is identified with colors such as yellow, red, and pink or animal names such as the elephant, monkey or crocodile.

"This system is also good for the parents, who worry when their children are grouped in the same class with younger students," she said.

Kalff added that the grouping system is not a rigid one since it also serves to simplify the administration procedures.

"The most important thing is that every child is treated individually," she said.

Materials

Children usually retain the ability to learn by absorption until they are almost seven years old. For this reason, the administration feels that the children's experience is enriched in a classroom where they can handle materials which demonstrate basic educational information.

"The learning process is approached in two ways. First, by allowing each child to experience the excitement of learning by choice rather than by being forced," Kalff said.

"Second, it is by helping the child to perfect all his natural tools for learning," she added.

The Montessori learning materials carry this dual, long-range purpose, in addition to the immediate concern of providing specific information to the child.

The use of materials is based on the child's unique aptitude for learning, which Dr. Montessori identified as the "absorbent mind".

The materials can be divided into three main groups: The practical life exercises, which are the beginning activities for three and four years old children, the censorial materials, which can be used by all ages in the class, and the academic materials, which are in store and ready for use if a child expresses interest in reading, arithmetic, or geography.

A censorial exercise called the Pink Tower, for example, is aimed to teach a child how to make three-dimensional measurements. This is a series of ten pink cubes whose sizes vary from one to ten centimeters. All the blocks are of the same color, shape and texture.

To perform the exercise, a child must recognize the gradation in size and build the tower starting with the largest cube and finally placing the smallest cube on top.

"The exercise is self-correcting because a block placed in an improper order will be immediately noticeable and may cause the tower to topple," said Kalff.

Parents may wonder why the school introduces grammar, geography and math to children that young.

This is because, according to the Montessori method, at this age youngsters can joyfully absorb many difficult concepts if presented in concrete form. The common stumbling blocks of the middle elementary grades can be exciting if they are presented to youngsters at an earlier age when they enjoy manipulating materials.

"The construction of children's characters during their childhood is determined by what they find in their surroundings. If the materials are poor, the construction is also poor," wrote Dr. Montessori.

Unique

The materials at the Montessori schools might have already been used at other schools. Does it mean that the Srikandi Montessori school is no longer unique since the materials are not exclusively owned by the school?

"They may have the materials. The question is, do they have the teachers who have been specially trained to use the materials with the proper Montessori method?" asked Miranda, another Filipino teacher in the school.

Kalff admitted that many schools, which are actually simply traditional schools, claim that they practice the Montessori method.

"That's why I always suggest that parents have a thorough observation of our method before enrolling their children in our school," she said.

Although the materials are similar, not any two Montessori classrooms are exactly alike, she added.

Each classroom reflects the individual characteristics of the teachers and children. Some teachers, she said, only use the materials or mix them with local area situations.

"We, the teachers, also have to follow the latest development in the Montessori method, using the newest and most modern materials," said Miranda.

Kalff also said that a school practicing an original Montessori method allows the students to do anything they want to, turning the classrooms into a play area.

"This school cannot do that because most of the students are foreigners and may move to other places where there are no Montessori schools," she said.

It will make it difficult for them to adapt to the traditional schools, she explained.

"But it does not mean that we lack discipline," said Miranda.

Like other school children, for example, they have to line up wash their hands before eating.

There are some parents who sought out the school specifically because of the Montessori method, while others chose it because it provided a fertile learning environment for their children.

"I don't think the school practices the original Montessori method. Frankly, I don't care whether it is Montessori or not. What I care about is that the school accommodates social and intellectual development of early age children," said Olivia Jacob, whose son Jonathan is four.

Sonal Nair, whose son has been with the school for a year and a half, said she was not specifically looking for a Montessori school to enroll her son, then two-and-a-half years old.

"I wanted to have a school where my son, who is overactive, could channel his energy into a creative and constructive work. I think the school was the right place for him," she said.

"The thing that I like is that the teachers don't push the children to learn something, but until they are ready," she added.