The Many Faces of Montessori

LONDON— The word "Montessori" can produce an astonishing array of responses, from "too lax" to "too strict" to "cultish." The images range from pre-schoolers running wild to others forced to sit still with folded hands.

Neither extreme approaches the truth, say Montessorians, who explain that such misconceptions have arisen largely because the Montessori name is not well protected by trademark. Just about anyone can hang up a shingle and call a school "Montessori," however tenuous its links to Maria Montessori and her ideas. More than one school has been known to operate with "Montessori" in its name and no authentic training behind its staff.

And even among the more established and respected Montessorians, the definition of what makes a true Montessori school can vary quite a bit.

The Montessori approach to education holds that children should develop at their own natural pace. Teachers, or "directresses," are there to help and encourage, letting the child choose his or her own activities, in a noncompetitive atmosphere. Montessori students aren't separated by grades but are grouped with other ages, with respect and social responsibility stressed as much as individuality.

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PARENTS seeking a Montessori school can quickly end up lost in an acronymic alphabet soup. Although Montessori public schools do exist in, for example, the United States and the Netherlands, for the most part they are private. And there is no single, official accrediting organization, internationally or nationally.

"The best thing parents can do is look for schools which in their opinion fulfill the conditions they consider a Montessori school should have," says Renilde Montessori, general secretary of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) in Amsterdam, founded by her grandmother, Maria, in 1929.

"Parents send their children to Montessori schools for a colorful variety of reasons," she said. "The range is from uninformed parents doing so because the school is down the road, to highly knowledgeable, well-informed parents who make the deliberate choice to send their children to a Montessori school because they believe in the pedagogy.

"It is important that the school's philosophy and that of the parents should be in harmony," she said. "AMI is quite convinced that excellent Montessori schools exist not only within its organization, but also elsewhere." AMI has a U.S. branch that accredits schools there, and is finalizing a similar program in Canada.

From the beginning, a century ago, people who heard Maria Montessori speak "were enthused by her ideas and established societies, schools, training centers and other types of organizations and institutions under the name Montessori," says Ms. Montessori.

"A few individuals remained within her ken," she said. "But the majority functioned independently, some continuing to follow her pedagogy as fully as possible, others adapting it to suit their needs or those of their environment. Yet others branched out to create totally new methods."

As with schools, "Montessori" teaching colleges can vary enormously. "They're opening up 10 a penny on every corner," says Lynne Lawrence, director of training at the Maria Montessori Training Organization, the AMI teachers' college in London. "There's no way of stopping that."

Points of departure have included teacher training by correspondence and the use of non-Montessori equipment, like computers and calculators, in the classroom.

"Montessori always takes on the coloration of the country/city in which it is being used, and the people who founded and are running the school," says Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. "Maria Montessori would not recognize what goes on under her name in many places, and that is probably inevitable and perhaps not even a bad thing."

In Britain, for example, a half-dozen nursery schools run by graduates of various colleges are accredited by the Montessori Association of Teachers and Schools, whose stamp signifies "that the essential principles of Montessori education are actively being practiced on a daily basis — and I purposely didn't use the word 'method,"' says Kim Simpson, the association's chairman. "'Method' means it's static, and Montessori is a living philosophy."

In the United States, the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (Macte) has accredited 118 teacher-education institutions (though no correspondence courses), mostly in the United States but also worldwide. It does not accredit schools, but members say its stamp helps parents gauge teachers' qualifications.

Maria Montessori founded AMI "to give structure to her work during her lifetime, and to ensure that it would be carried on according to her directives after her death," Ms. Montessori said. "Whether other groups or individuals pursue her principles unadulterated or not, for ethical or other reasons, is not, cannot be, AMI's concern."

"It would require a small army to keep track of all Montessori activities going on around the world," she added.

BARBARA ROSEN is a freelance journalist based in London.