Why pay for primary?

Back to school for 2012: two excited monsters

So here we are biting into another year, and already I've had that earnest discussion with a group of ballet Mums.  "I love the idea of Montessori, but why pay for primary school? Our primary schools are really very good ..."

And you know what? They're right.  I have the choice of half a dozen decent-to-great primary schools all closer than the expensive school my daughters attend instead.  So - why pay for primary school in a country that has excellent, free education?

Firstly, I have chosen a Montessori education for my daughters.  If government schools offered a real Montessori alternative (with Montessori materials, qualified Montessori teachers and faithful application of Montessori methodology), the girls would be there in a flash.

As long as they had the three-year age range, so that a child was encouraged to stretch themselves to their capabilities, regardless of how old they were.  As long as it respected the three-hour work cycle so critical to developing concentration, and the right of children not to be interrupted when they are hard at work.  As long as it gave the children free choice of activity, because maths undertaken when one is writing a story in one's head is NOT a learning experience. As long as the children received the message that EVERY child can be a leader in some field of endeavour, and that the ability to arrange flowers beautifully, or clean a window perfectly, or run very fast is just as important as neat handwriting and lovely sums.

That's a long list of expectations, and if it wasn't for our wonderful school, I wouldn't know to expect half of them.  Having been introduced to the Montessori philosophy at playgroup, when the Bookmonster was a toddler and the Puzzlemonster a baby, it's easy to forget what an incredible learning curve it has been.  It's very easy to forget that the "outside world" doesn't even realise that half of the things that happen in a Montessori classroom (and home!) have a sound basis in the most detailed set of child developmental theories.  Most people can see the benefits of the mixed age classroom, for example, but allowing children to choose what to do in classroom? Allowing them to work on the floor?  Mad hippy ideas, surely.

Well, no.  Montessori is based on more than 100 years of scientific study, founded on the work of Dr Maria Montessori but not limited to her work, with Montessorians around the world interpreting and refining the approach for the modern era.  Here in Australia, the Montessori Foundation has tendered the first curriculum to be approved under as an alternative Australian National Curriculum, and our NAPLAN results reflect the fact that while all Montessori students work at their own pace, many outstrip the national benchmarks and do better than their age peers at local state and other private schools.

I choose to pay for a Montessori education not because I don't think our local primary schools are good, but because I think the Montessori method is better. No doubt about it.  No shirking the truth.  It is superior, and worth paying for, because my children deserve to love learning, not just tolerate it, or think of it as a chore.

All children deserve it, in fact, and if only the Australian government(s) could reform school funding in such a way that Montessori was an affordable option for all, we would all be a lot better off.