Thaths,
I do not know about Mumbai - so will inject some noise about chennai
and bangalore stuff.
In chennai there are (at least 'were') two reasonable schools - one
is/was called abacus (adyar/taramani) and the other is in velachery
(think it is/was called navadisha or some such thing - google macht
frei). Please check them out.
In bangalore there is this very nice school called arunodoya in
koramangala (my kids dont go there though).
My children go to another reasonable (so far) montessori school, wifey
is a rabid montyssorian teacher/trainer ('adult' in montysorriese), I
taught for a while in a montessori school (for 'erdkinder') etc - so
please allow me to rant.
I think it is a reasonable approach to education (and of course, good
helpings from waldorf mode as also our own neelbagh and naitalim modes
would be very useful)
It is true that there are many schools that call/brand themselves as
montessori - but please forgive them my lord, for they know naught
what they are doing.
IMO, there are a few 'must haves' for any such M school.
1. At least a few of the teachers should have been trained by IMTC /
AMI or some such reputed organization - and these folks should be
stable; this is critical.
2. There should be some reasonable admix of age groups (in bands of
2-3 years) in every 'environment' - so that kids learn from each other
and from the adult and themselves.
3. The school should allow for 'observation' by interested third
parties - as many times as needed, with no commitments from either
side; this is a procedure by which one can observe kids 'working' in
the class rooms ('environments'); actually it is really a fascinating
sight to see a 'normalized' class working.
4. There should be 'enough' materials for children to 'work.'
5. A reasonable upgrade path should exist (in M it is preprimary ->
primary -> lower elementary -> higher elementary -> erdkinder; at the
end of erdkinder one could take national open school cert or cbse or
whatever.
6. The school should not admit 'lateral' entry of students at various
levels - who are from 'other' or 'normal' or 'factory' schools; this
IMHO creates a lot of chaos. (ref: 'sensitive periods' in
montysorriese)
Notes:
Of course like any other system M also has developed its own grammer,
idioms and ideosyncracies - and also 'jargon' - but this does not make
it a cult. :-)
There are a lot of inaccuracies in Emiley's article - but then, the
general drift is right, However I must say that - parental
involvement is VERY MUCH encouraged in any canonical school, M or
otherwise! As long as it is clueful. (for example a parent cannot go
pester the school as to why 'homework' is not given (this is because,
it is rather stupid anyway) or as to why a kid mispells (this is
because kids learn the phonetic way and then they do well later
anyway) or as to why even(?) the boys are asked to knead the dough
(they have to know) or as to why things need to be done in a
particular way (because of the need for 'control of error' as also the
given procedure is a 'building block') as to why kids keep doing what
they want till they perfect that 'work' (because they have to. sire)
etc etc).
As for Eugen's comments, I would say - careful with that axe please! :-)
Thaths, if you happen to come to bangalore in the next couple of
months and if you are still interested, may be we could meet! :-)
Warm regards:
__r.
On 5/19/07, Thaths <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 4/17/07, Thaths <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I've seen many schools in India that claimed to be Montessori schools.
> However, they seem to be following the same curriculum and processes
> as any other school. Have any of you heard of /real/ Montessori
> schools in India? I am especially interested in ones in Mumbai and
> Chennai.
I came across this article in Slate this morning:
http://www.slate.com/id/2166489/fr/rss/
<snip>
--
http://www.qsl.net/vu2sro/
"Mathematics has given economics rigor, but alas, also mortis."
-- Robert Heilbroner
