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Posted by Eleanor on April 5, 2007, 2:18 am, in reply to "Regina Doman writes on Montessori in the Home" "I can say that, having been a Montessori child and applying some concepts in my home, the child is not so independent that he's no longer docile, nor are you "off the hook" as a parent because the child still needs guidance, and even though he can sweep on his own, in practice, he won't do housework (without regular prompting)." The above statements may be true of her and her children, but they're not true of my three-year-old daughter (who, come to think of it, was never what you would call "docile" to begin with). We have to keep a careful watch on her "independence," to make sure that she doesn't decide to, say, reorganize the closets, wash the walls, and cook a four-course meal while Mommy is having a rest. I guess we'll be glad of her energy and initiative when she's older, but for now, we sometimes feel like all this Montessori business has backfired on us. From what I hear, these sorts of "children trying to take over the house" scenarios just don't seem to happen in the Montessori classroom. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the home environment is so different. For one thing, it can never be fully "prepared." Because of this, it's hard for some children (e.g., mine) to see where their work leaves off, and the grown-ups' work begins. On a more serious note, in recent months, we've had to spend a considerable amount of time explaining to our daughter -- very firmly and directly, with the assistance of traditional Catholic storybooks and catechetical materials -- about the importance of obedience, the fact that God chose us to be her parents and be in charge of her, the fact that she's still a little girl and can't do whatever she wants, etc. She seemed honestly surprised to hear most of this. It's not that we'd been wimps with discipline up to that point; we were careful to set limits and enforce them, but somehow she didn't get the underlying message that she wasn't the boss. It's almost as if she thought we were some sort of amiable and harmless pests, who were no real threat to her mission for world domination. ;-) Again, I think this would be less of a problem in the classroom, since the teacher/child relationship is very clearly spelled out, and there's also the example of other children to learn from (most of whom are probably more naturally docile than ours). I would feel very confident in sending my children to an accredited Montessori school, especially if we were so blessed as to have a Catholic one in our area. Given my own experience, though, I'm not so confident in applying the principles at home, as a primary method of child-rearing... at least, not without some pretty major additions and revisions.
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I had to laugh when Regina Doman wrote (in response to a comment), 
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