A look-see at Montessori de San Juan’s resolve in training students through progressive education.
Whether in a scholarly or organic sense, individuals have this innate need to discover. As newborn children, we are interested creatures who need to touch, smell, listen, and taste everything around us. As we develop towards maturity, this inborn hunger to learn is channeled by education institutions that fill our minds with a capacity loaded with data, including complex equations, formula, critical verifiable dates, and logical, scientific realities. Sadly, this information is regularly simply put away and not completely caught on. Various studies have it that times of learning through repetition remembrance and monotonous guideline is one of the principle reasons why individuals lose their start of interest. By concentrating excessively on what we learn, and not why and how we learn it, even our creative thinking can wind up noticeably repressed.
This is a critical, particularly in today’s quick-paced, lateral-thinking, and creative-driven world. Albeit customary strategies for training have delivered some of history’s most splendid personalities, it gives the idea that the previous two decades have seen a radical move regarding outfitting students with compelling aptitudes for true achievement. Learning frameworks that stress strict institutionalization might be perfect under uniform conditions. However, as we probably are aware, life is rarely in our control.
Sandy Arellano of the Montessori de San Juan School is an energetic instructor and a backer of this dynamic kind of learning. “I believe what is happening now is that schools and parents are too fixated on the effect, which is good academic performance,” she explained. “I can tell you through years of experience, however, that doing well in school is the natural result of a happy, motivated, and well-adjusted student. So why not focus diligently on the cause, rather than the effect?” Arellano additionally stressed.
Arellano admits that part of Montessori de San Juan’s core objectives is to address the disadvantages of conventional schooling that frequently result in dormant, poor-performing kids. Including over-booked students, a lot of note-taking and insufficient thoughtfulness regarding the real lessons, over-packing data in a brief timeframe, an irrational measure of homework (which regularly goes unsupervised amid the real procedure of completion), and a one-size fits all mindset for learners. “Are our students less busy or less equipped? Quite the opposite. Our children have such a love for learning, and a genuine excitement to go to school and practice what they are taught, that they consistently end up scoring higher than their peers in standardized tests,” she pointed out.
Moreover, Arellano believes that schools should likewise make a determined effort to to provide students with an environment that makes them feel empowered rather than constrained. “Each student is an individual, and different from all others. Children have their own special way of learning and understanding things. Attempting to fit all of them into a rigid and standardized structure may not maximize their full potential,” she noted.
Likewise, a little class size is principal to knowing the need of every student. In Montessori de San Juan, there are around 150 students from grades 1 to 12, with roughly 12-15 students for every class. With that class size, it is anything but difficult to gauge whether a student is a visual, tactile or an auditory learner. This is the way teachers survey their way to deal with the students. “Another issue nowadays is how too much time is spent presenting the material, leaving very little time for practice – thus leading to piles of homework. In our school, everything is worksheets, modules, and hands-on activities related to the subject matter,” Arellano added. In the classroom setting, students are grouped into wider age ranges, in particular 3-6, 7-9, and 10-12. This helps them shape connections as they bond with children of various ages.
As the students get get older, the teaching method moves toward becoming semi-dynamic, semi-conventional setup, including course readings in with the general mish-mash. With age comes a touch of homework, which is kept at a minimum since teachers survey their students through their performance in the classroom. “Our classroom activities involve 90 percent application and only 10 percent discussion, so a lot of the kids are able to see the practicality and the use of the subject matter they are learning. We try to show them the direct applications to what they are learning,” Arellano concluded.
Because of various success stories with respect to dynamically instructed youngsters, Montessori de San Juan is picking up a significant reputation as an elite school. However, the school remains grounded in its mission to develop students with a love for learning, who learn so well, that they will have the capacity to realize whatever should be learned later on.
To learn more about Montessori de San Juan, visit montessoridesanjuan.com.ph, or contact 725-6306 or 239-1102.