2nd Half Emergence / Fieldwork

                What emerged in the second part of the essay process were different types of sources that are less academic in nature.  I brought in a book I had read a while ago called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell that I thought tied in well to my arguments about children and why they may or may not be seen as smart.  Malcolm pointed out in his book that when you have kids all in the same grade you assume that they are all the same age when really every kid is at a different age.  One six year old if they are almost seven is much older then another six year old that just turned six.  But in elementary education we assume that all ages in the six year old range can handle whatever we give them.  The truth is the older students get labeled as smart and the younger ones at times get labeled slow when really they are just young.  

                Other aspects of Montessori emerged that I found research on and that was multiage classrooms.  What I found is that these settings help get rid of labels that kids give each other because in a multiage classroom all kids are working on something different which makes it so there is not as much comparing.  I looked into more the aspect of teacher based learning verses the child centered learning philosophy.  The teacher based learning was based on the theory that kids are empty vessels to be filled and teacher know everything and must then give that to the students.  A child focused learning is where the child is seen as a co-worker in the learning process and that knowledge can be developed and drawn out of them through experience and learning that is appropriate for where they are at.

                I interviewed the director of a Montessori school and the things that came out of it were that Montessori helps students learn to solve problems based on their own initiative verses the memorizing and regurgitation of a traditional school environment.  Long term Sean, who I interviewed, who had gone through the Montessori system up to the eighth grade, said that he was farther along in math and English then his peers entering high school.  In addition he could solve puzzles and problems faster than most of his peers who were used to being fed all their information.  The interview confirmed much of what the research had been showing about multiage classrooms, labels and the initiative that is built up in Montessori kids that traditional kids may not have.