Meghan Wagner

Bring a Learner to Lunch

LTM 611
Influence of a Montessori Education
The objective of Bring a Learner to Lunch is to interview a learner and connect them to
theoretical approaches of the class. I chose my learner because he has a unique learning style,
which I feel directly relates to his unique educational history. I chose my questions in order to
investigate the effectiveness of Montessori education, especially with regard to the transition
from Montessori learning to a traditional learning environment. I have known the individual for
years and have seen him struggle through his educational career, especially when forced to
confront educational settings that did not match his style of learning. I was curious to see if he
thought his experience was unique, or if he felt his difficulty in transition was common to
Montessori students. I also wanted to know if he thought that his style of learning was influenced
by his Montessori instruction. Being the son of educators and a close friend of mine, I knew he
would be very forthcoming with responses and would share my interest in the implications of
Montessori education on him academically, emotionally and psychologically.
His parents are very involved in the realm of education; his dad once served as a member
of the Milwaukee County school board and his mother is currently the head of an educational
non-profit. They started their son in an infant toddler program at Highland community school
(Montessori) at eighteen months, where they were some of the founding parents. He stayed until
third grade where he transferred to MacDowell Montessori and then switched again in fourth
grade to Fernwood Montessori School where he finished out his middle school education. From
there he broke from Montessori education and attended Rufus King International High School,

which boasts a rigorous International Baccalaureate program and posed a stark contrast to his
Montessori history.
The Montessori Method of education is a child-centered educational approach based on
scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. It is based on the concept that
children want to learn and are capable of initiating education on their own if they are placed in a
thoughtfully prepared learning environment (Whitescarver 2010). Montessori classrooms are
separated into groups of children that are up to two grades apart with the intention that a lot of
the learning on the part of the younger students comes from watching and a lot of the learning on
the part of the older students comes from teaching (Goldberg 2015). This approach to learning is
aimed at the development of the whole child including physical, social, emotional and cognitive
skills. The Montessori system of education is based upon finding a childs interests and abilities
and nurturing them so they are motivated to learn. Montessori felt a childs normal curiosity from
age three should be encouraged in an unbridled matter. The goal is to have a student work at his
or her own pace on projects that interest them. She believed that having students conform to
certain educational values or standards hindered their full learning potential. This appeared
evident in The teacher is more of a facilitator children got on with their activities the task was
to observe and to intervene from the periphery The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to
be able to say, The children are now working as if I did not exist, stated Maria Montessori
(Whitescarver 2010).
There was a diverse atmosphere at Fernwood with little to no concept of othering such as
gender, religion or race. The environment encouraged students to help and support one another
and they formed a close knit classroom. There was a strong sense of community with relatively
no cliques. The students were interdependent upon one another and my learner said that he only

put in effort when he believed that his peers thought it was worthwhile. It was a non-competitive
environment academically and everyone supported one another. He said that working with and
teaching other kids helped him to grow. My learner stated that they mostly had fun while
learning. Learning was based on skill and everyone could move at his or her own individual
pace. The students were able to do virtually whatever they wanted as long as they could explain
why it was academically beneficial. My learner said that he developed a passion and talent for art
and writing because he was allowed to spend so much time drawing and writing stories. There
was a time in third grade where Isaiah wrote a joke book with friends for a charity. They
managed to raise one hundred dollars for abused women and their children, which they were
allowed to hand deliver on a special field trip (Goldberg 2015).
Montessori prepared me well for life, but terribly in terms of education, stated my
learner (Goldberg 2015). He told me that despite his challenges he believes Montessori education
was emotionally good for him. It made him more empathetic and understanding and helped him
interact effectively with his peers. While this approach to education was ideal for him, it was not
for his sister. She found that the lack of structure made her anxious, and wanted a more
prominent adult figure in charge of planning her day. My learner says that while he did well in
school and was always a naturally good test taker, his sister has thus far been vastly more
successful in educational settings, earning perfect grades and excelling on tests via her work
ethic and not her ability to bullshit. He added, though that she isnt nearly as creative or funny
as I am. (Goldberg 2015). Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles for students of Montessori
schools is the transition to a traditional method of schooling. My learner stated that he had
difficulty adapting to a regular education afterwards. In Montessori they were open minded and
open to pursuing what he wanted to learn, where with the traditional environment of Rufus King

he had no control or choice over his education. This proved quite the challenge for him, as he felt
no desire to complete homework he had no interest in. He said I never had to do homework in
Montessori. Im not the homework type. It took me a year or two for me to realize I could ignore
the teachers and do my work while they were talking, for the most part, but that meant my
freshman year was rough (Goldberg 2015). He also missed the atmosphere of Montessori that
you can't experience in traditional school because you don't depend on classmates for help. This
lead to difficulty finding friends early on because he was not prepared to navigate the new social
arrangement. He hated his classes and felt like he couldn't live up to his potential in that setting.
He struggled with deadlines and putting an effort into curriculum he didn't choose for himself,
and became depressed when he no longer had a support system in his classes to fall back on. The
exception to this trend was his art classes, of which he took many and managed to find a great
deal of success because his teacher noticed his potential and allowed him to pick his own
assignments. He said my teacher saw that I had already developed some skill and did not need
his assignments to blossom creatively. Basically he was a Montessori teacher, possibly without
realizing it. He said I had a free A and could use any of his materials to do whatever I wanted as
long as I helped out other students. I probably spent as much time in the art room as I did on all
my other classes collectively senior year, probably more to be honest (Goldberg 2015).
While Howard Gardeners theory was originally conducted in the realm of psychology, it
has been embraced by a range of educational theorists and, significantly, applied by teachers and
policymakers to the problems of schooling. The theory became highly popular with K-12
educators as a means to reach students who struggled with traditional approaches (K 2008). The
learner I interviewed is one of these students. Gardner says that these differences "challenge an
educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way and

that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning. Indeed, as currently
constituted, our educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of instruction and
assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward logical-quantitative modes as well" (K
2008). Therefore students would be more successful in learning if the information provided to
them in an array of facets.
I had my learner take a multiple intelligence test based on Howard Gardner's model to
compare to both his answers during our interview. He scored very high in the linguistic, bodily
-kinesthetic and interpersonal intelligence types. This only reaffirmed what he had told me
during our interview. Learning was instructed through visual and tactile means in every
Montessori lesson, which is why a Montessori education allowed him to blossom (Whitescarver
2010). When asked how he learned best he was very aware that he is a hands on learner. In math
class he could see a problem on the board he wouldn't get it, but if we went up and tried it he
could learn. He had to try it out for himself and be guided into order to grasp the concept.
Learning was instructed through visual and tactile means in every Montessori lesson.
My learner told me that at first he felt pressured to attend college. He felt like it was the
only option and he had no better plan. He made the decision to attend the University of Madison
Wisconsin, but hated it for a combination of reasons. He found the atmosphere at Madison
intolerable because of their lack of acceptance and diversity. After taking a few classes he
realized that he was going to unsuccessful because the method of instruction did not fit his
learning style. He told me that he was severely depressed at the time and the experience was
somewhat overwhelming. Eventually he got the point where he didnt want to spend all that
money on some useless degree and decided to drop out near the end of his second semester.
Despite the stigma that construction work isnt for smart people, my learner opted for an

apprenticeship in carpentry. The apprenticeship program offers a unique type of schooling. Every
four months he has one week of school, all which are practical to his direct line of work. Most of
the work and the school sessions are hands on and with no formal knowledge prior he is able to
try things out for himself after someone demonstrates.
When I asked him what his greatest strength and weakness was it was interesting to see
how his answers were connected to his educational background and his learning styles. He told
me his greatest strength was his personability. He was adept at getting along with people and
getting them to open up. Lending support being supportive & getting support from others. Im
curious to know if this was because of Montessori education or he developed these skills because
of it. His greatest weakness he revealed was that he was scatterbrained. He struggled with
planning things out and often just. This attributed to his challenged in a traditional education
setting encumbered by deadlines and self-management skills such as pacing.
From conducting this interview and comparing my results to the various psychological
theorists I have concluded that the environment in which people learn has a direct correlation to
their educational success and style of learning. The learner I interviewed struggled with the
structure and lecture style of a traditional classroom. He flourished in a Montessori setting and
was hampered during his high school education and his first year of college. His tactile
intelligence ultimately led him to pursue an apprenticeship in carpentry, which he says has been
so much better than college and high school (Goldberg 2015). This interview opened my eyes to
Montessori education and how this form of education can develop particular skills in students,
but can cause them to struggle in other areas.

References
Whitescarver, K. (2010). Montessori in America: The Most Current Revival. Montessori
International
K, S. M. (2008). Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences. Retrieved from the encyclopedia of
education website: http://infed.org/mobi/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-andeducation/
Goldberg, I. D. (2015, October 5). [Personal interview].