Learning on Nick Wang

Montessori Vs. Reggio Emilia Approach in Hong Kong

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:46:00 +0000

Montessori is a popular education system developed by Maria Montessori in 1897. It seems to be gaining popularity here in Hong Kong, many parents know about it but very few know about the Reggio Emilia approach. Recently, the Montessori playgroup L goes to started to have troubles with him, and it made me think more about the difference between Montessori and Reggio. I thought I’d share a bit of my own experience in the two in this post.

My son has been going to a small Montessori playgroup since he was 1 and ½. I used to like it there with their specially designed toys that train toddlers’ motor skills. Now that he is 2 however, I begin to think that some of the materials and their ways of teaching are not so appropriate.

First of all, because L is old enough and “ready”, we agreed to move him up to the big kids group, (L was really starting to get bored with the little kids group anyway,) but problem with the big kids one is that parents are supposed to leave the kids by themselves. L isn’t ready for this and he cries. The teachers would hug him and tell him to stop crying because “he’s a big boy and everything is OK”. Well, obviously everything is not OK. What’s even worse is that when they see that my boy won’t stop crying, they’ll use me as a condition / threat, “if you stop crying, I’ll ask Daddy to come in, but if you cry again, I’ll have to send Daddy away!” Through RIE, I’ve learned that we shouldn’t stop toddlers from crying. Crying is how they express their feelings, and we shouldn’t prevent them from doing that! And from Reggio Emilia’s Diary of Laura, I’ve learned that separation is an extremely sensitive matter for toddlers that must not be taken lightly! We adults don’t think twice about it, but for a 2 year old, separating from his parents to stay at a relatively unfamiliar environment, e.g. school, is a big fucking deal!! (Sorry!) It’s not something to be forced onto them!!

Next, they’re teaching the Toddlers to eat and drink by themselves by providing food and water with small size plates and utensils. This part I like, but I just heard about an ever better example from Sarah, which is to provide a day’s worth of snacks in a place accessible to them, not only can we provide good, healthy fruits and snacks, but it can also teach them to save their food for later. I feel this is a good way to introduce deferred gratifications.

Finally, my biggest gripe is about the structure of putting kids into age groups and designing tasks for each group. For example, the toys at my son’s Montessori place are designed in Korea and are meant to teach math & logic through games. I guess they’re good but I don’t really like them. They also have a set time to different activities, like at the end of each class, they’ll have singing time. It disturbed L’s concentration as he was testing his hypothesis on some new discoveries!

If you look at the key points of Montessori education, you see that last point – Specialized educational materials developed by Montessori and her collaborators… back in 1897!! Once again, I’m sure she did a marvelous job studying the children, but at the end of the day, it’s still giving kids a “choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options”, based on an adult structured curriculum, which means it’s still getting kids ready for the adults’ view of the world.

In contrast, Reggio Emilia Approach allows children to construct their own understanding of the world. Their own hypothesis. Their own interpretation. There’s no “One Right Answer” at the end of an activity. The children speak and see a hundred, and in Reggio Emilia, we adults do not take away ninety-nine! We learn to observe, appreciate and make apparent each child’s unique learning stories to their parents (and other adults)! The more Reggio “documentations” or “learning stories” you read, the more you’ll see how much your childhood sucked! :P You’ll realize children are far more capable than we give them credits for, and if you provide them with a good, open environment and respectful guidance, they’ll amaze you with things you didn’t think were possible! Honestly, once you learn to see your child in Reggio’s eyes, you cannot turn back to any other way, stuffing knowledge into their minds.

In short, Montessori’s categorized and prescribed approach is pretty good, definitely much better than the regular, traditional education system out there. Toddlers can learn from older kids and everyone “live” in a highly disciplined classroom, doing semi-free activities that have hidden agendas to teach them things we adults prescribed. Meanwhile, Reggio Emilia’s completely child initiated approach, where adults care deeply about the children’s relationships with their peers, their parents, teachers, and their environments, we may provide “seeds of knowledge” based on our limited knowledge, but what the kids make of them, how their path of learning goes, we do not limit at all! It’s a subtle difference but it means the world!

Or, to use The Matrix as an example again, you will raise a Morpheus with Montessori, but you may raise a Neo with Reggio Emilia! ;–)

2 more joined our playgroup - July 21st

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 15:05:00 +0000

My wife posted our playgroup info on one of the local Chinese baby forums and got like 5 moms interested in joining us! So we’re happy to report that today we welcomed 2 new families joining the fun!

Sarah brought many different kinds of balls for L to explore

First came YY with his mom Alice a bit earlier than 10 am, YY was immediately friendly and sat right in front of me, looking at the toy trains and cars. I asked him if he liked cars and trains but he didn’t respond. L quietly observed YY and then both of then went on to play with the trains and cars separately. I think this is probably very normal, toddlers at this age recognize people and places, this is the first time YY has been here so both the place and the people were strange to him. I’m glad we provided some good toys that he could feel safe and happy with.

Playing with balls, trains, cars, crayons and containers

When the doorbell rang the next time, it was C and Sarah. L was simply ecstatic to see his good friend and jumped in joy. Reminds me the (only) best thing about school for me was being with my friends :) C was also happy to find the new toy trains on the floor. Sarah then opened her “magic backpack” and pulled out many different kinds of balls, fabric and cars! L just stood there and watched Sarah blew up the big beach ball! His looks of anticipation was intense!

Checking himself out in front of 2 mirrors

The other mom and child arrived late because my wife gave them the wrong address :P (Sorry!) Overall, the play date went very well, the kids all played naturally together, the parents had time to share their habits at home and we shared the philosophies of the Reggio Emilia and RIE’s way of early childhood education. As “incidents” occurred, for example when YY wanted C’s car and Alice tried to ask him to share, or when YY fell and started crying and Alice asked him to stop, we were able to show Alice how to let the child deal with his own emotions.

The newcomers are learning about uninterrupted play

Watching Alice and YY, I could see myself and L in them. I had the right ideas but had questions about how to deal with certain behaviors. It’s reassuring to see that my relationship with L has improved, and I’m looking forward to seeing other parents experience the same changes as they learn more about Reggio Emilia. I’m still new to this but I really need to get better at observing and capturing the children’s learning moments and put them into these diaries. I hope that by showing stories like that of “Diary of Laura”, I can persuade help more parents to connect with their children and help them break out of the legacy educational system!

Drive the cars through the “tunnel”

Playing in mud can make your kids smarter!

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:25:00 +0000

I grew up in Hong Kong in the 70’s & 80’s, back then, almost all playgrounds were covered in concrete! My most “precious” memory of it was I tripped while running up some metal bars, fell, and my new mechanical pencil, which I kept in my pants pocket ‘coz I loved that thing soon much, poked into my thigh and hurt like hell!! (I was seriously worried about dying from lead poisoning afterwards, I was may be 6 years old!) Anyways, nowadays they use soft rubber mats instead, which to me means kids are wussy these days! Either way, I think kids would like to play more on a lawn or on tree bark (used in playgrounds in Seattle area) than on concrete or rubber mats, but how about mud and dirt? For sure the parents won’t be liking the aftermath - mud soiled clothes! So when I was living in Japan, I was really surprised to learn that kindergartens in super clean Japan actually have a “Doronkoasobi”, literally “mud play” activity for little kids to play in the mud!

Reggio Emilia Approach is all about letting the children experience and construct their own image of the world. Playing in wet mud on a hot summer day is a pleasant sensory explosion! The feeling of cool, wet mud between your fingers, between your toes, on your face, your body, and the smell of earth… kids love it, but parents may be against it due to the hassle of cleaning afterwards. Well, for those of you who are against your kids playing in dirt, consider that there’s scientific proof that playing in mud can actually make them smarter!!

Mycobacterium vaccae is a natural soil bacterium which people likely ingest or breath in when they spend time in nature. Previous research on M. Vaccae showed that it stimulated growth of some neurons in the brain that resulted in increased levels of serotonin and decreased anxiety. Serotonin plays a role in improving learning. - source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100524143416.htm

Arnold “Shuwa-chan” playing in mud to relief stress while the Predator tries the skin him

I doubt the person who mandated Doronkoasobi in kindergartens across Japan knew about these scientific facts, but I can imagine he made that intuitive choice based on his own childhood experience - probably grew up in poor post-war Japan and remembered whenever he played in the mud, he felt calm and relaxed afterwards. His body had told him long ago what scientists had recently proven! Concrete and rubber are logical decisions made by adults too lazy to deal w/ kids. I applaud the intuition of Japan to keep sand and mud in the playgrounds!