Permanent link for article #0025:
09-29-2009
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Subject: Community Service Infects the Montessori Schools
In the article
Cultivating Agents of Change, educational consultant
Sara Cotner introduces Make A Difference Day, a national day
of community service, into the Montessori curriculum. As she states
in her article:
"In Montessori schools, we firmly believe that children learn
by doing. [...] In addition to being excellent mathematicians,
readers, writers, zoologists, geologists, etc., I also want my
children to be excellent social activists. I want them to
believe that they can turn their compassion into action. So what
better way to teach them social action than to let them actually
do it?" [Emphasis added.]
What better way indeed! Although, I would quibble with the word
teach" and replace it with "indoctrinate". Reading further in the
article we see that Ms. Cotner proposes the the entire class pick
a single project from all of the proposed ideas and then work as a
group to implement it. This sort of social group activity is the
opposite of the
Montessori
educational philosophy which is based upon the understanding that a
child is a self-directed learner, advancing their knowledge principally
during periods of intense concentration and solo activity.
Furthermore, Ms. Cotner has stated clearly that the social agenda she
wished to impart to the students is her personal goal, and not a
normal aspect of the Montessori course materials.
It is crucial that education, at all levels, be removed from
government control and influence. The educational
activists like Ms. Cotner are breading a new generation
of social activists, by brain washing children to
treat as normal, a social ideology which they are not yet equipped
to properly evaluate. This is nothing less than political
indoctrination.
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