Montessori students break away from rote learning

By Linawati Sudarto

JAKARTA (JP): "The secret of all nature is to be found in the soul of the child," wrote Maria Montessori, Italy's first medical doctor, in describing the journey of discovery of English poet William Wordsworth.

Written in one of her many books, The Discovery of the Child, it embodies this educator's passion in discovering the full potential of children.

Forty-five years after her death, schools bearing her name worldwide still try to live up to her ideal of doing away with most of the rigid constraints presented in conventional classrooms.

"We don't want children to do rote learning, or burden them with excessive homework. We want them to do tangible research, provide them with the tools to do that, so they can understand concepts," said Genia Sonneville, principal of Jakarta's PSKD Montessori Kindergarten and Elementary School, one of the schools in Indonesia which implements the Montessori system.

The school, in the heart of Jakarta's elite Menteng area, is far from ordinary.

The building itself is an understated, elegant three-story construction on 4,000 square meters.

It is a preserved architectural monument from the turn of the century, formerly a Dutch elementary school later taken over by the Protestant school foundation, PSKD.

The first thing which strikes the visitor is the air of quiet serenity and lack of buzz of children's voices, usually clearly audible from the gates of most Jakarta schools.

Indeed, a low teacher-student ratio is part of the backbone of the Montessori system.

"While conventional classrooms mostly have 40 to 50 pupils, our maximum class size is 25, usually under the care of three teachers," Sonneville said.

Those not familiar with the Montessori system will do a double take when they realize they have stepped into an elementary school class locale, not a playroom.

All classrooms are large and airy, the walls filled with colorful drawings and crafts the pupils have produced, instead of a blackboard.

While some chairs and long tables are present, that is about the extent of its vague similarity to a most Jakarta classrooms.

There are carpets with pillows on the floor, computers and literature from picture books to reference texts.

Also present were knickknacks like photographs, kites and an aquarium, and open cabinets full of a spectrum of games, from word games to biology kits.

At first glance, the classroom has very little structure to it: some children play with word puzzles in one corner, others sit on tables drawing and discussing coins, while one girl was quietly reading in a corner.

Planning

Monica Zumpolle, one of the elementary school teachers, said the children's days were a mix of spontaneity and careful planning.

"We begin the day with me asking each student what they plan to do that day," Zumpolle said.

"The most important thing is to teach the kids independence and self-esteem, and this can only be reached when they are first shown how to do things themselves."

Yet Zumpolle assured that there was careful organization in the classroom.

The children, she pointed out, were also expected to follow through on their chosen activities, which always include math and linguistic endeavors on any given day.

"We want (them) to take their own initiative instead of just sitting back and accepting what the teacher says," Zumpolle said.

She added that the children were also responsible for cleaning up after themselves.

The most striking feature of the classroom is that there was none of the passive, stationary states found in many other schools. These children were animated, free to speak and move around the room throughout class sessions.

"Again, this doesn't meant that there are no limits," Zumpolle said, after reminding one boy that he was not to run in the classroom, and warning some girls to keep their voices down.

Sonneville said children were taught to take responsibility for their actions and respect their community and environment.

"They are taught to be patient and respect their peers. For example, if one child is using a tool, another child who wants to use the same tool has to wait her turn," she said.

Sonneville, whose poise and elegance smacks more of a senior business executive than a teacher, started a Montessori kindergarten in Jakarta 11 years ago.

In 1995, Sonneville and her husband Jamieson Bryan, who is English, together with their friends including Ani and Hashim Djojohadikusumo, Edwin and Jully Soeryadjaja, aspired to have an elementary school ascribing to the Montessori philosophy.

"That's when we talked with (educator) Toenggoel Siagian, who is on the board of the PSKD. He also shared some of our ideas," Sonneville said.

PSKD then agreed to provide the building for the school, which opened in July 1996. It currently has 85 students, both Indonesians and foreign nationals, aged between three-and-a-half to nine years old. It has four classes taught in both English and Indonesian.

Steep

Then there is the subject of school fees: annual tuition is US$6,500 for kindergarten and $7,250 for elementary school, unattainable for most people.

Sonneville said that even parents who do have money often considered the tuition too high.

"It's where your priorities lie. Many of the people complaining about the high fees have very expensive cars, for example," she said.

A senior economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Mari Pangestu, who has enrolled her two sons in the school, praised the school for spending the tuition money on skilled teachers and first rate material, "not on swimming pools or horse tracks...

"I want my children to like learning, and have fun while doing it".

Sonneville said that despite the high tuition fee, "it will take us at least eight to 10 years just to break even", adding mentioning that building renovation alone cost $1 million.

She said that finding skilled teachers, especially local educators, was the other main hurdle.

Although Montessori children play a much more active role in the classroom, teachers are responsible for observing each child.

"They keep careful logbooks on everybody, so a child's progress is measured against his own skills, not merely as a group," Sonneville said.

Indonesian parents can rest assured that the school does incorporate the national program in its education, which means the children also learn and get tested on subjects like Pancasila, the state ideology.

Rubby Tan, one of the teachers who is a graduate of the IKIP Jakarta teacher's college, said he tried to present the national curriculum in a more exploratory way.

"We present and discuss the concepts and details with them, and they are then asked to explain the information in their own words."

Nevertheless, Sonneville admitted that "it has not been easy dealing with two curricula".

She expressed hope that the national curriculum would "ease up a bit" on the heavy workload and concentrate more on the learning process.

"The education level here is so far below standard, mainly because of this rigid, orthodox approach," she warned.

As circumstances stand now, only a handful of Indonesian children have the privilege of exploring methods such as the Montessori way. The millions of others have little choice but to go through the "rigid, orthodox" system of conventional classrooms.