Minds by Montessori

Pablo Picasso prints hang on the wall. Tchaikovsky plays in the background during nap time.

Spread out on colorful floor mats, a small group of 4- and 5-year-olds practice sponging water from one bowl to another, clipping clothes pins to sequined material and using tongs to pick up rubber balls.

There are no admonitions to sit still or participate in group activities. But at a moment's notice, the majority of students in this small Cape Girardeau preschool can reel off the names of all the U.S. presidents in chronological order.

For over 30 years, students have left the Cape Girardeau Montessori School with the ability to read, write and identify scalene triangles.

The concept of Montessori learning was basically unheard of in Southeast Missouri when director Janie Meyer opened her preschool here in 1973. There was confusion over whether the school was designed for special needs or gifted children.

"Some people even thought I was running a monastery. I kept picturing my kids in little monks' robes," Meyer said.

Montessori is neither limited to special needs nor to gifted children. It's for everybody, Meyer explains.

Students don't play with wooden blocks; they play with cubes, ellipses and square-based pyramids. They work on practical activities, such as setting a table, folding laundry and chopping vegetables.

By the time they reach kindergarten, most of the students can write their names and read simple sentences.

"They're so absorbent," Meyer said. "Most people don't realize what this age group is capable of."

During an activity this week, 5-year-old Vashantice Twiggs used watercolors to paint a picture of a house. She ticked off the components to her painting -- green grass, a yellow sun, a red car -- and then studied her picture again.

"Good grief, I've forgotten the windows," she exclaimed before picking up her brush again.

Vashantice's attention to details is a byproduct of the Montessori Method, which holds that the process of making independent choices gives children their own sense of identity.

Vashantice, along with the other 4- and 5-year-olds in her class, knows the difference between vowels and consonants. She and her classmates know the difference between a polar and an isosceles triangle.

They know those things, under Montessori's philosophy, because they choose to know them. Montessori students receive an individualized, hands-on education. They generally choose their own activities and rarely learn from texts or workbooks.

Thirty years after the school's opening, Meyer now has second- and third-generation family members as students.

P.R. Kesterson of Cape Girardeau was one of the school's first students in the early 1970s. His experience there prompted him to enroll his own son and daughter, who attended four years before moving on to public school.

"Other daycares are just daycares, where children don't learn anything," Kesterson said. "I was amazed at what my children learned there, and I believe that's why they've done so well in school."

"When my daughter is asking to please pass the salt in Spanish at age 6, that's impressive," he said.

The Montessori Method, once considered a passing educational fad, has endured with great success for nearly a century in Europe and the United States.

While there's no research to prove that local Montessori students excel in public school because of their experience there, Meyer said she gets calls from teachers every year asking if they're going to have any of her students in class.

"It's a true preschool. We try very hard to prepare children for school," Meyer said. "Even though they may already know some things, I don't see any boredom when they get to kindergarten. I see self-esteem, which creates a lifelong learner."

The local school is licensed by the state to accommodate 50 children between the ages of 2 and 6, but Meyer has limited the enrollment to 35 to allow for more individual attention. Meyer said the cost is competitive with other area childcare facilities.

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, ext. 128

Maria Montessori, an Italian doctor born in 1870, founded the first school designed around her educational philosophy in 1906.

Montessori's ideas came from studying the impact positive individualized learning had on orphans and poor children. Between 1912 and 1917, she wrote five books based on her ideas about early childhood education, including The Montessori Method and Pedagogy and Anthropology.

She spent much of her time traveling and training Montessori teachers before her death in 1952. There are more than 4,000 Montessori Schools in the U.S. and Canada, plus thousands more around the world.

The basic tenets of a Montessori learning environment include:

Children work individually or in small, self-selected groups

Children progress at their own rate, moving on when they are ready

Texts and workbooks are rarely used

Children move about freely, spontaneous activity is encouraged

Children select their own work

-- Southeast Missourian