Drawing the Line

The Downside of Compromise

By P. Donohue Shortridge

Donohue Shortridge, a Montessorian since 1980, speaks and writes on topics related to children and their families in the American culture. This article includes both a basic statement from her and her responses to questions posed by Public School Montessorian editor Dennis Schapiro.

What will the future of Montessori look like? Who decides? How will quality Montessori programs sustain viability? These are serious and pressing matters.

The answer lies within each one of us. What will we each do individually to enliven the authentic Montessori model?

I argue that the future is in the fundamentals.

In my judgment, there is the private Montessori sector and then there is the public one. Once a Montessorian decides to take that first step away from the fundamental tenets of the Montessori philosophy, compromise follows. It’s inevitable. No matter the good intentions such as:

• we want Montessori for all children;
• parents can’t afford private Montessori;
• we need to expand Montessori beyond the little schools, and
• the parents are screaming for daycare and more academics.

Charter Montessori schools, public Montessori schools, Montessori with daycare and Montessori-based schools are all broken in one way or another because they have said yes to compromise. The good intentions are not enough to make it a fit. It does not fit and that’s the point. Montessori schools stand alone and should do so proudly.

The revolution needed in Montessori is the one calling for the adherence to Montessori philosophy.
For example, it is incumbent upon each Montessori teacher to decide for him or herself if the school that seeks to hire him or her faithfully observes the fundamentals. Take your skills, experience and Montessori gifts elsewhere if that school doesn’t.

It is the teacher’s responsibility to first prepare the environment before greeting the children. That responsibility extends to choosing the setting where that is even possible in the first place.

Further, it is the responsibility of each Montessori school owner and school board to create a true Montessori program instead of acting out of fear that the parents won’t come if we don’t offer daycare, special classes during the day or some other compromise.

Even more insidious is the funding trap. He who funds, decides. That’s the immutable truth. Our good intentions notwithstanding, accepting outside funding, especially governmental funding, makes the Montessori school beholden to those strictures, whatever they may be, no matter how capricious and irrational.

In truth, when we sell our soul for the price of that good intention the result is that Montessori philosophy subordinates to the latest Dept. of Education fad and fantasy. When we go down that road, we get what we have—a struggle against the morbid narrowing of educational freedom and excellence.

Where does that leave the Montessori teacher? Having to choose, that’s where.

On the one hand, many Montessorians complain about their school, about the compromises, the testing, about the parents and then just shrug their shoulders as though there is no power in the individual—when indeed, the individual is the vital source of Montessori excellence. But that means each of us has to shoulder the responsibility to make perhaps difficult personal choices.:

Will we or will we not hold out for authentic Montessori programs?

Walking away from the compromised program is a choice.

So, it may seem counter-intuitive to shrink rather than grow, but I think that is the revolution in the next decades. I argue for compact excellence over bloated mediocrity. It doesn’t mean that Montessori “will only be available to the elites”—quite the contrary. If we hold fast to the fundamentals, we will be standing strong as the public school and other models continue to crumble. It is more critical than ever that we stand apart. Indeed, how will Montessori be discovered as a viable educational model if it devolves into a pale imitation of itself?

It is time to stop trying to fit our round-hole Montessori paradigm into the square peg of traditional or public or substandard schools.

We should proudly declare that we are a unique educational experience instead of acting like the school or daycare down the street.

It’s time to bury the compromised Montessori programs before we cannot remember what authentic Montessori looks like.

That is the future, but only if we claim it.

What would you recommend to teachers doing their honest best in public or private schools that don’t perfectly fit a model?

Indeed individual judgment needs to be employed when deciding which Montessori program or school to associate with. If we lend our talent to a compromised program we have our own selves to blame, individually and the Montessori community as a whole. So, for example, when you go to the school and see that there are no five-year-olds, that’s a compromised program. Why would you work there?

Every trained Montessorian knows what the fundamentals are. They’re taught in teacher training—or at least should be. I bet if we took a roomful of Montessorians and asked them to list the fundamentals —there it would be. But that’s not the point. Knowing what the fundamentals are is not the problem, the problem is we are not acting on what we know.

So let’s ask, “Why do you stay employed at a school that has a short work cycle?” Or that has workbooks, or cribs in the Nido, or 10-hour days for toddlers and on and on. Those are the questions we want every Montessorian to start asking him or herself.

Any advice on where to draw the line?

Each of us—on a case by case basis—needs to draw the line.

Individual judgment is a good thing, let’s use it.

It is up to each Montessorian in each specific situation to determine what to do. The role we outsiders can play is to offer counsel, guidance and mentorship to the person facing the dilemma.

This is not simply a public vs. private situation. A lot of private schools make adjustments, some based on defensible thinking. How do you look, for instance at Whitby School in Greenwich, CT, the oldest Montessori school in the U.S. Its director wrote in a Montessori Life article that it is moving toward one or two-year age spans to focus more effectively on defined academic skills?

What would a teacher who wants to work there or who is working there now do? That is the question. That teacher should ask all the pertinent questions of the Whitby staff, do the research, read the article, go back to the Montessori books, perhaps talk to others who are working there, maybe bring in someone from outside that is a trusted mentor to get a read on the situation. In other words, do all the due diligence and then make a reasoned decision.

The crucial element here is that it is a conscious and reasoned decision rather than blindly accepting a position at a school without understanding that school’s philosophy. If this person works there for a while and says, “you know, I do not agree with this decision on the part of Whitby, I will take my talents elsewhere,” Whitby faces the reality that they may lose some people.

On the other hand, this could be worked out. That teacher and others could do a longitudinal study and present it at conferences and make their case that others might consider doing it as well.

After all, Maria Montessori did not flesh out the elementary curriculum as clearly as she did for early childhood. In this case, I see it as a philosophically based issue and worthy of respectful consideration. That is putting the philosophy into practice in my view.

If I were asked if I agree with Whitby’s decision, I would reply that I do not consider myself eligible to speak to this specific scenario because it concerns Montessori elementary and I am not trained at that level. However, I would love to learn what other elementary trained Montessorians think about the Whitby experiment, and of course am following the Whitby experiment with great interest from a distance.

What would you say to teachers in public—or private—schools where stigma or real sanctions kick in if students cannot demonstrate a specific skill by a specific date? What if they set up single-grade classroom for that purpose? Should they resign?

As I am not trained in Montessori elementary, I would not be a good advisor to that teacher in the situation. However, unlike the first scenario in which the issue is a realignment of the definition of age ranges, which in my judgment falls within the realm of Montessori philosophically based curriculum issues, this one does not. This situation is one in which one departure away from Montessori philosophy, allowing standardized testing into the curriculum, leads to another one, single-aged classes set up for test drill. This is no longer a Montessori prepared environment, but now something else. A teacher may decide to stay, which is the choice of that teacher, but understand that single-aged classrooms set up for standardized test drilling is not Montessori and so school leaders should now call the program by another name. I wouldn’t want to venture much further into that discussion personally unless I had more facts and more training to speak to it more specifically. But the teacher on the scene needs to do that. She may say “I need to stay for these children.” Again that’s her choice. She can say I am one of those who brings my Montessori background into a non-Montessori environment. My guess is that there are many such teachers.

In making these consequential ethical decisions, to whom can teachers turn?

If seasoned and retired Montessori teachers would serve in some kind of ad-hoc mentorship capacity to new teachers, those new teachers could have assistance in making big decisions. Take all that talent and wisdom, especially if you are no longer in the classroom, and offer it to new teachers.

Some of the problems get resolved without making the decision to quit.

Indeed, it’s always better to make a good choice in the first place and the Montessori community has a significant role here, too. I am always ready for the wails of consternation on the part of interns when they come back to the training center for their first seminar of their internship year. The dichotomy between the ideal Montessori environment envisioned in training and the reality on the ground knocks some of the interns for a loop. Perhaps teacher training centers could incorporate a session as to what to look for when looking for a school to work for.

I always ended my last Philosophy class of the summer with a little talk about this, but interns are so busy and so enthusiastic that they hear it, but need to hear it again during the seminar session. So, perhaps it could be addressed at each seminar and then at the last seminar as they finish their internship year, a longer session devoted to a review of Montessori fundamentals, and perhaps there could be some kind of guide that these new teachers could develop for themselves as to what to look for and what questions to ask as they determine where they want to offer their skills and talents.

So you are talking about a network to help with difficult decisions...

I would say rely on your teacher training, your reading of Montessori, your knowledge of child development, your observations of children, as well as of highly functioning Montessori prepared environments, your own experience, consultations with mentors and others you trust, and most importantly, your own judgment to determine what is and is not negotiable for you.

I’ve always thought if you live a principled life as opposed to a pragmatic one, when you don’t know what to do, refer back to the principles that guide you to help you make an informed, conscious decision in a specific case.

Donohue Shortridge holds AMS credentials in both Infant/Toddler and Early Childhood. She has worked as a Montessori guide and teacher mentor as well as teacher trainer (Montessori philosophy) at the Montessori Education Center of the Rockies where she is now an adjunct presenter. She conducts school in-service sessions and parent talks as well as presenting at local, regional and national Montessori conferences. Along with her colleague, Janet Engel, she presented the topic “Revisiting Montessori Philosophy” as part of the 2006-2007 AMS Traveling Symposium. She is the creator of the DVD, Aidan’s Muddy Adventure, authors a semi-annual newsletter for parents and Montessorians and writes frequently for Montessori publications. She can be reached at ...@pdonohueshortridge.com.