I have a gifted 4 year old son who currently attends a Montessori school that refuses to place him in kindergarten simply because they feel “he is not ready”. I have provided standardized test results indicating his intelligence: was reading before the age of 2 and had a memory of an 8 yr. old at age 3. He has also mastered the kindergarten benchmarks set forth by the school and they continue to refuse our requests. We also provided supporting research on the benefits of grade skipping for gifted children both academically and socially. In addition, the article, “Are We Failing Our Geniuses”, Time magazine, Davidson Institute states: It is criminal to place a child in kindergarten who is already reading, this is emotional torture, any school that does this should be put in jail.<br> What can we do to get the proper placement for our son. We are in NJ. Thank you.
When you put your child in the school, you entered into a partnership with the school. My advice is simple: allow the experts, i.e., the teachers, to determine where to place your child. Perhaps they are looking at elements in your child's makeup and personality which warrant keeping him in kindergarten. Children grow up so quickly these days, that I kind of think that not rushing your child's growing up process might be a good thing.
The Real Montessori Nitty-Gritty
Well, our four-and-a half-year-old is an only child and we are of the "jellyfish" (as in "spineless") persuasion when it comes to discipline, so E. has been bringing himself up since age two. He loves going to bed late (like 2 AM), making sure his diet is at a minimum 80% sugar (as in “candy”), and that toys (as in “one new toy a day keeps me happy”) are plentiful.
He entered a Montessori school in September in Toronto and hates it! HATES IT!!!
Hates It!!
It took him just two days to grasp the ultimate essence of K-12 schooling as I also experienced it: “It’s boring!” The basic problem seems to be that shockingly, adults for the first time are telling him what to do, rather than the other way around. Then there is the lèse majesté issue that the teacher does not put dealing with the other children on the back burner and spend her time constantly talking to and amusing him, and finally, that compared to playing with toy trucks (he has dozens, perhaps hundreds) the graduated Montessori tasks are, well, B-O-R-I-I-I-N-G-G !! His response is to just totally ignore what the teachers are saying , and do whatever he wants to in class. He’s fairly bright, and does this rather well; it turns out to be a fairly effective counter-educational protest tactic (though from our viewpoint, not in his own or the other pupils’ best interests); it has naturally made him the talk of the teachers’ lounge. Apparently he is said to be possibly winning the contest of wills, and there is a minor crise de classroom management going on, with him instigating the other children to stop working play. This is only a month into his first kindergarten year.
When we explained to him that historically, at least according to the Montessori literature, when Maria Montessori first opened her classes, the children unexpectedly loved all these tasks and took to them like fish to water, he was totally skeptical. He speculates this is probably some sort of [professional] lie and says it never really could have happened.
Anyone else have similar experiences with Montessori? Do the kids eventually adjust? The other kids seem to be more cooperative, though they do not look all that enthusiastic. Ummmmm.....do kids ever get expelled?
My comments are simply that your child has not experienced the kind of discipline most parents gently instill from infancy. Allowing a child to stay up until 2 a.m. and eat a diet of 80% sugar is just not good parenting in my opinion. I raised two sons and two daughters. We stretched their minds and experiences like crazy. They all had wonderful educations. But they always operated on a fairly normal schedule, ate well and had chores to do. I guess I am old-fashioned.
