Job Discussion Forums

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

From what I understand ..to teach at Montessori, one needs a teaching certficate from Montessori...

Now my question is this ..ho w do you get the certificate from Montessori and how much does it cost..I understand it s whooping pile of money...

Where can you use this certficate besides this school...

Is this a scam or a career pathway...

mjlpsu · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 128 Location: NJ to Shenzhen

I don't know too much about it, but I know it's not a scam. It's a well-known school in the US that caters to gifted students (or so they say). I think there are ways around the certificate... such as teaching for minimum wage with them for a few years. I also think most public and private schools in the US will accept the certificate as well.
Sorry, can't be more helpful, but I'm pretty sure that's about accurate.

vikdk · Joined: 25 Jun 2003 Posts: 1676

Kilroy · Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 42 Location: Dalian

My thoughts as well. The Chinese will use the brand name and ride it to the hilt to get the maximum amount of profit from it... as they do with all things 'western'. Copy is the name of the game here.

Also, what I have seen about the Chinese style of education, and what the Montessori teaching philosophy advocates - they are worlds apart. It's chalk and cheese. Will that stop the Chinese from latching onto it? Hell no, on the contrary... it's something new to copy and exploit.

vikdk · Joined: 25 Jun 2003 Posts: 1676

copying would be no problem - at least there would be some good teaching then - no alas, mutating in the name of money making is the name of the game here - poor Madame Montessori is a rollin in her grave Laughing

OGFT · Joined: 24 Jun 2006 Posts: 432

There is some deal where you can work for them and pay for your training..(if that is what you call it) and get a Montessori certificate from the school in which you work..and from what I understand you pay for the training out of your pay and this makes your first year or two of employment equal to a low wage earning job, but that would be contingent on how much you are paid. Does anyone know the base pay?

HunanForeignGuy · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 989 Location: Shanghai, PRC

Maria Montessori, an Italian educator from the late 19th century, was the founder of the Montessori method. It was a direct reaction against the prevalent Catholic school learning-by-rote and by-group method in practice at the time.

A previous poster wrote that the Montessori method is used in "elite" schools in the United States. That is not true -- what is true is that there is an entire school system in place in the United States and in most developed countries -- of Montessori schools.

It is also not true that it is based entirely on the individual. It is both individual and group-based, depending upon the situation. It was the first method to suggest that each child may advance to a higher or different grade through his or her own learning curve and not be subject to a yearly promotional basis.

The Montessori method as it is applied is for children from the ages of 2 - 17. It was never intended to be a senior year university method. It is frankly a very brilliant method.

As opposed to seating in rows, an approach traditionally used in both Chinese, European and American schools, children are seated in blocks of either five or six, in a square. A perfect Montessori method should truly consist of a "walless" classroom.

Maria Montessori directly linked the learning curve to the ability of students to absorb knowledge and to retain it. Passive learning tends to be discouraged (i.e., the teacher stands in front of the classroom and lectures for 45 minutes) and activity learning is highly favored. Maria Montessori was one of the first to discover the relationship between passive learning and retention and active learning and retention.

Additionally, a typical class is scheduled around a series of "activities", the length of which are set to match the active retention abilities of the class. Younger students tend to loose interest after 8-10 minutes and this is taken into account when scheduling "activities" in a Montessori classroom.

Additionally, the Montessori method actively prones objective teaching vs. subjective teaching. It is from this method that George W. Shrub stole his phrase "No Child Left Behind".

Discipline methods in the Montessori method favor a postive approach and it is not permitted to make use of regressive disciplinary methods at all.

For more about the Montessori method, please read here:

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/montessori/method/method.html

Recognized and certified Montessori training will cost you anywhere between USD 2,500 - USD 5,000. See here:

http://montessoritraining.net/elementary_program/price_lists/international_prices.htm

Contrary to what the other posters have written, Montessori is not a scam at all but a highly valuable and exeedingly valued teaching approach, even in China. Because of the costs, indeed it can be prohibitive for all but the more comfortable classes but it does produce results.

Any more questions, please PM.

Steppenwolf · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 1769

Maria Montessori revolutionised the kindergarten and primary school education in the West at a time when the child was not perceived as an individual; she helped bring about changes to the European, later U.S. American, school systems and how they treated learners as recipients of prepackaged knowledge - much as they still do in China.

There is no recognised one-size-fits-all Montessory teaching technique but rather a variety of "approaches". Thus we must not be surprised to see different approaches being used in different school systems.
The Chinese do, however, abuse the brand-name "Montessori" rather than use the Montessorian philsophy. I personally noticed the name being used in one Foshan kindergarten that had no Montessori-trained kindergarten teacher.

The nearest place to get better information and/or training might be HONG KONG. I am not sure you can get a Montessori cert there though it would seem to me to be a distinct possibility.

Overreliance on the Montessori philosophy is not recommended either; the lady died sometime in the 1960s and I am not sure her philosophy has since been developed further. In her time, Italy's fascists came to power and at one time Maria Montessori saw herself associated in spirit to the Fascist Party of Italy, which was not completely true though she hobnobbed a bit with the party grandees before she emigrated to Holland. This must have been an irony since her pedagogy must have been anathema to the genuine Fascists.

vikdk · Joined: 25 Jun 2003 Posts: 1676

why PM you???

HFG have you ever experienced a Montessori class Chinese style?

if so your experiences - rather than a rendition from some on-line encylopedia would be of far more relevance to the discussion Laughing

By the way a major step in creating an active learning environment is to focus on the indivdual in relation to the group - something also to do with education as tool for social (not just academic) education - and to do this the individual student is very much in focus within montessori system!!! One of the major reasons for the high teacher to pupil ratio and all that individual performace recording that goes on in a true Montessori system. If that phrase - "no child left behind' - isn't something associated with individual - then what is Laughing

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

At BIBS I did have several Children who had been in Montessori schools in Beijing according to their parents..and also according to their parents .. they had enjoyed the experience...and also according to their parents they had learned little and the parents wanted a more traditional approach.

I never though much about it until a friend who had a message from Epoch (I think) asking if he had this training..he didnt and so he was asked if he would be willing to pay for such training...

HunanForeignGuy · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 989 Location: Shanghai, PRC

vikdk · Joined: 25 Jun 2003 Posts: 1676

so from that we can can deduce you have not experienced montessori chinese style - dude Laughing

(no amount of ivy-league qualification needed to come to that conclusion!!!)

HunanForeignGuy · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 989 Location: Shanghai, PRC

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

Thanks, HFG...you pm was most appreciated and informative..I will pas on the information..you were a big help.....

no_exit · Joined: 12 Oct 2004 Posts: 565 Location: Kunming

I was educated in Montessori schools. You can't teach in a real Montessori school without the certification from a training center, no buts. You can be a teaching assistant, but never lead a classroom.

My family has pretty strong ties to Montessori, and I use a lot of Montessori ideas in my teaching, but without that certificate I wouldn't lay claim to the name. My aunt is a trainer for AMI (the association founded by Dr. Montessori to set standards for teachers and schools), my mother is certified to teach Primary (3-6 year olds) and Upper and Lower Elementary (6-9, 9-11 year olds respectively) and younger brother is a Montessori teaching assistant (which you can be without the certificate, but not have your own classroom). My brother's school offered to sponsor him to do the training so he would be able to someday have his own classroom, but they won't give it to him without completing the training. Most schools also require teachers to have a B.A., but sometimes teachers with lots of life experience can teach without it.

My mother was invited to a conference in China this summer hosted by AMI. Apparently Montessori is gaining ground here, but there are still only a handful of actual accredited schools in China, and a lot of them seem to be international schools, catering to expats kids. I've seen kindergartens using the Montessori name, but it seems to be in the same way lots of Kindergartens use the word "bilingual," just a gimick. There is a sort of trend with parents, especially rich ones, of giving kids an "alternative" education. Lots of my students' parents deplore the Chinese educational system, but haven't got a lot of options.

In America, by the way, Montessori schools are usually private, and expensive, but some cities have Montessori charter schools and magnet schools, schools which are public, but which students must qualify for in order to attend. My uncle has opened a Montessori public school in inner city Dallas for kids from low income families. Lots of the families are Spanish speaking, so they hire bilingual staff and cater to their needs adapting Montessori methodology, which a lot of the kids respond to better than they would traditional education.

By the way, if you're interested in learning about Montessori cj, you should read a couple of Maria Montessori's books. The Absorbent Mind and The Secret of Childhood are my favorites, and I've seen them for sale at the English bookstore here, as well as in Chinese translation. The AMI website also has a lot of literature available, and statistics on accredited schools (Although there are other governing bodies, this is the oldest one, and the one I'm most familiar with having gone to AMI schools throughout my childhood)http://www.montessori-ami.org/.

There is a LOT to Montessori, much more than just creativity and freedom, which seem to be associated with Montessori frequently, however the main goal is to cultivate a lifelong love of learning in the child. Since children are born with the goal of learning everything that they can about the world around them, then learning is the most natural form of "play" for a child. People often get confused about this point in Montessori, and just assume that kids are left free to do whatever they want in the classroom, and not "made" to learn anything at all, although in reality the "play" is quite guided and the Montessori classroom is structured too, in its own way. Anyhow, Montessori herself says it better than I do, I'm sure. Check out the books and the link. Cool