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! ;–)

Diary - July 30th - Discovered a female classmate

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:41:00 +0000

This morning we went to play at the park again. It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that L wasn’t able to reach these steering wheels machines, or at least wasn’t able to turn them, thus losing interests in them fast. Today, not only was he able to turn them, he discovered a new way to play with it, by hanging off of them like they’re monkey bars. With his feet clear off the ground, he looked at me triumphantly! As if telling me: “Look! I conquered gravity!”

Later on, L spotted the boot washing water tap and wanted to play . I told him I need to take off his socks and shoes first and then he’s off! I think because I had learned to be more hands off and just let him play by himself, he’s a little calmer and doesn’t rush through things as much as before. This time, he slowly observed the water, I only butt in to tell him to turn off one tap before turning on another. When he tried to tell me something, I walked over and he pointed to the stone surface where the water was flowing and said to me “Water! Fall down!” I was expecting him to be inspecting the hose or how the brush and the water interact, this once again reminded me that we never really know what toddlers are observing and thinking! If I had talked to him about the hose or the brush, I would’ve just disturbed him observing nature – water, flows, down!

In the middle of this, we got another old lady coming over to offer her advice, saying how he got everything wet and this is how you wash your hands! (by turning the water down.)

L only goes to 1 playgroup a week and it’s a Montessori one. Today, toward the end of the class, L took 2 bamboo oval balls over to play on his favorite wooden train rack. He had started doing that a long time ago but didn’t have much success due to the fact that they’re not round. Today, the balls stopped midway on the tracks as usual but then he put the train through and it pushed the balls along! It was a breakthrough! He immediately saw the connection and repeated the process many times, and then he tested something new – putting the balls at the tail end of the train! It didn’t work. Hypothesis broken, back to balls at the front.

One bad thing about the Montessori playgroup is that there’s still a little bit of singing and “learning” at the end of each class. The singing broke L’s concentration on the new train / balls discovery. But a funny first time happened here when he moved toward the singing group. He suddenly realized there exists a classmate! He stood behind a little girl and started touching her hair with both hands. Didn’t pay any attention to the other 2 classmates still. The girl wasn’t visibly annoyed but moved away after a little while nevertheless, turning around to look at L. L was really amazed at this point and moved in to touch her mouth and cheek at this point! The girl was really annoyed now and looked a little taken aback by little baby L’s actions. Unfortunately, I was laughing too hard and missed how the incident ended. :P

Montessori on Nick Wang

Montessori Vs. Reggio Emilia Approach in Hong Kong

Diary - July 30th - Discovered a female classmate