WITH GUIDANCE, CHILDREN DISCOVER FOR THEMSELVES

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Children learn best by discovering new things themselves, says Janie Meyer, director of the Cape Girardeau Montessori School.

"The basic goal of Montessori is to prepare and teach children to be the independent, self-sufficient adults they must become," Meyer said.

The school provides its pupils a structured environment and tools, Meyer said. "The school does have an academic approach," she said. "We expose children to academics in a very enjoyable way. If they absorb it, that's OK; if they don't, that's OK also."

Most of the learning centers use "manipulatives," Meyer said, explaining that blocks, boxes, cards and other items help youngsters learn by doing. "These are not toys," she emphasized. "They are tools of learning. The children may choose anything they have been shown how to do."

For example, one project is whipping soap flakes. Children mix soap flakes with water and beat it until it is the consistency of frosting, Meyer explained. The batch of soap is divided in half. "One might get red food coloring and the other yellow," Meyer said.

Then the children wash a table with the soap. "Pretty soon the soap will overlap. And what do these children discover? Red and yellow make orange. They discovered it on their own, and that's what creates excitement about learning.

"It also teaches them they can do things by themselves, which teaches self-worth and self-esteem. They feel they can do just about anything. That's one of the things that really keeps me going."

The children must follow rules. "Whatever they do is up to them," she said. "But I insist that they complete what they start, and complete means from the time they take it off the shelf until they put it back again."

The children are not allowed to disturb another child's project. "They learn to take turns and to respect others' property," she said.

The Montessori method was developed by Maria Montessori, a physician working with disadvantaged children in Italy. She found that children learn best in a structured atmosphere where they are allowed to choose the activity on which they work. Meyer said children possess an unusual sensitivity to absorb and learn from their environment.

Before opening the Montessori School in Cape Girardeau, Meyer was an elementary school teacher in Southern Illinois for several years. "During that time, one of the schools I worked in decided to screen the students for learning disabilities," said Meyer. She said she was asked to deliver screening forms to a person in Mayfield, Ky. who was to evaluate the data.

"His building housed a Montessori School," Meyer said. "I knew almost nothing about Montessori, but what I observed was really unique. I saw a lot of gentleness. The children were productive, but happy and enthusiastic about what they were doing. At that time I was teaching fourth grade, and a lot of my students had already lost that enthusiasm for learning."

Just six centers nationwide offered Montessori training at the time, and candidates were accepted by interview only, she said.

"I went to Nachez, Miss., and when I finished I could have gone to any Montessori School in the nation. But my dad suggested we start a school here. I think he didn't want to lose his grandson."

The school opened at 418 Independence in 1973.

"At that time very few people had heard of it; or they thought it was for mentally retarded children or for gifted children. It's just for children. We see them as children and respect them as children, which means they are different from adults."

Meyer said she hears from some of her students and their parents.

"The thing I hear most often is that they have a good concept of self and they finish what they start," she said.