Final Thoughts

       Elementary education is something we always should be looking to improve because it is our kids future and our countries future in the world.  If our education system does not improve we stand to fall behind in the world in innovation and thinking, but on the other hand if we reassess our elementary education and take it from the archaic out of date system that it is now and adapt it to today’s environment then we stand a chance to stay ahead.

       We are in a day and age of diversity and group dynamics where we can be almost instantly in contact with anyone anywhere in the world.  Gone are the days when we look forward to doing exactly what our parents, grandparents and their parents did all their life.  Everyone sitting at a desk in elementary school has been learning how to take instructions and do them which is exactly what is needed in a industrial society.  Go to work, pull this lever, and then do it again.  Our world now calls for group dynamics of working with different people to build an idea that another person has.  Self initiative and problem solving are at an all time premium.  Making classrooms multi-age groups and getting rid of the desk and chalk board environment and going towards an open classroom where kids move around and interact as much as possible, problem solving with each other, talking to each other, and then using the resources that are available like a teacher or another older or more knowledgeable student.

       Having the freedom to select the lesson they want as an elementary child helps develop self initiative.  This combined with the ability to take a subject as far as one wants without a cap on what can be learned, fuels that fire in a child to learn as much as possible.  Our current education system tells kids when to learn something and exactly what to learn which turns kids into people that wait to be told and then when they accomplish something and have the desire to do more, the extra work is not available.  Having curriculum that is based on where a student is at, and not on what grade they are in, will help students to be self motivated and reach for their potential.

       My topic started as Montessori vs traditional methods of elementary education and really opened my eyes to allot of the great concepts that the Montessori system has and showed me that we have our current system in allot of ways because that is how it’s always been and it can be really hard to change.

Dr. Steve Hughes is a leading neuropsychologist who lectures about education and brain development.  Just as a simple statement, he sends his children to Montessori school.  Below is a link to several lectures that he has given on the Montessori Method.

http://www.goodatdoingthings.com/file/Montessori_Lectures.html