1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Speech Therapy: Don't Put it Off  

Montessori's Theory of the "Absorbent Mind"  As Compared With Brain Research in the 90's

Montessori Parents Visit a Public First Grade Classroom

Montessori Education is a 3-Year, Mixed Age Program!

Pride in Our Accomplishments and Gratefulness to a Woman, Ahead of Her Time

Montessori Centennial Celebration Held in Bejing, China on January 7, 2007

Montessori in China, 2007

What if Maria Montessori Had Never Lived?

Letter sent to First  Lady Laura Bush from Sharlet McClurkin

The White House's response to Sharlet McClurkin's letter to First Lady Laura Bush

Imagine the feeling I had when my beautiful two-year-old was not saying one word, only vowel sounds! Even though she had attended a Montessori toddler program before two years of age, the natural stimulation of friends and other people's language did not help her enough. Adults thought she was shy, dumb, strange, or too tied to mother's apron strings. One friend said that I was speaking too much for her. She even began making up her own sign pantomime language in order to communicate. For example, when she wanted to put on some play lipstick, she wiggled her fingers as though they were sticking together! Through the encouragement of my mother, we began speech therapy at the age of two. The therapist used toys, clay and other materials to invite my daughter to begin making sounds. At home, she and I played with sandpaper letters and phonetic sounds. She could point to most of them before she could even speak. Speech therapy was expensive and an additional item to add to my busy life, but it was one of the most important things I ever did.

My daughter was diagnosed with apraxia, or an inability to repeat the sounds accurately which she heard. Something was not wired quite right between the brain and the hearing/speaking apparatus. Although it is true that she had tubes put into her ears at one year of age, this was not the entire problem.

Almost exactly on her third birthday, she began to speak in sentences. Many words, however, were unintelligible, even to me. When I could not understand her, she willingly drew the item, such as “sponge”, by making a rectangle with dots. The children at school exclaimed, “She can talk!” and tried hard to understand her. Perhaps her year of inability to communicate through language, as is the norm at two, contributed to her reluctance to socialize. But we waited, prayed, and continued the speech therapy.

At 5 ½ she communicates fully with confidence. Her therapist commented, “She has a lot to say!” (Imagine the frustration if she couldn't say it!) She is working this month on “d”, “t”, and “sh.” In order to overcome the habits she has acquired by the ripe of age of five, we must spend ten minutes each day playing speech games. This is the only way to help her mechanically force herself to speak the sounds she cannot hear. In the next months will come “th”, “yuh,” and a few other sounds. These are the only problem sounds left. Last week when she and her grandmother were heading to the shopping mall, she asked “Grandma, can you tell me if you hear me say a sound wrong, and tell me how to say it? Next month I'm going to work on “luh” (yuh).”

When I remember the subtle fear we had that she would never speak, I am so grateful for the choice of speech therapy that we made. Her current speech therapist told me last week that 1 ½ is not too early to begin, but we waited until two. She also said that my daughter is fortunate that she had a Montessori mother and grandmother who knew what to do for her. When I have a child who is having speech difficulties, in my Montessori classroom, I recommend an evaluation as soon as possible. Quite frequently, however, the child's pediatrician will not give a referral, (a pediatrician's usual view is to wait), in the hopes that the child will overcome the problem herself. But the social and emotional impact upon the child is too great to wait. Without language the child cannot be fully human. She cannot experience the great adventure of human communication. Frustration and anger may result. The longer the parent waits, the more difficult is the retraining and changing from old speech habits. The parent must insist on a referral for the sake of their child! Try removing some phrases in your speech, or some part of your accent, and you will discover just how hard it is to change your speech after the early formative period.

TOP

Writing her book, THE ABSORBENT MIND, in the 1950's prior to current brain research, Dr. Maria Montessori obviously and amazingly was nearly fifty years ahead of her time. She said,

There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his psychic powers. (AM 22)

Brain research today is one of the most exciting fields of scientific study, as exemplified in the February 3, 1997, article in the TIME Magazine, “How A Child's Brain Develops.” After reading this article, early childhood educators can now say, “I told you so,” because we have known all along that the first few years of life shape the adult who is becoming. J. Madeline Nash reports: “A baby's brain cells…shape a lifetime of experience. The first three years are critical.” (TIME, p. 48) Speaking to the May, 1995, Montessori Institute of America conference in Des Moines, WA , Dr. Jane Healy, author of Your Child's Growing Mind , said, “I have found nothing significantly inconsistent in the writings of Dr. Montessori about the child as compared with my research on the brain.” Not only did Montessori envision a new type of education for young children, she had the insight to understand the profound significance of the period of early development: “The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth.” (AM p. 4)

Below I will outline some comparisons between her view of the child's brain and the results of research as gleaned from the TIME Magazine, and Your Child's Growing Mind by Dr. Jane Healy, 1987.

We can see the impressive similarities among all three sources, with, however, a spiritual profundity evident in the writings of Montessori.

We should help the child…because he is endowed with great creative energies, which are of their nature so fragile as to need a loving and intelligent defense. (AM28)

The beauty and dynamism of her words inspire us as, perhaps, no others except Scripture.

Finally, she draws strong conclusions and implications for parents and educators today:

The discovery that the child has a mind able to absorb on its own account produces a revolution in education…This is the new path on which education has been put; to help the mind in its process of development, and aid its energies and strengthen its many powers. (AM28)

TOP

In early May I called the public school which my 3 ½ and 5 year old will attend and asked to visit a first grade classroom. I decided to visit at the end of this year, rather than next, (since my son will attend Montessori for his kindergarten year), to see the best learning of their school year. The secretary informed me that there are only weekly tours for new parents. Instead, I insisted on an opportunity to visit a first grade classroom for a short time. She said that usually visitors are not allowed in the classrooms, but she would ask the principal to return my call. He did, and we scheduled a visit for Monday morning for myself, my husband, and my mother.

The school we are assigned is ten minutes away, even though there is a brand new public elementary school less than five minutes from our house. The grounds were well-kept and the building, about five years old, was very well kept. The principal took us into his office for a time of questions.

We had a friendly exchange of ideas and revealed to him that our sons are in a Montessori school now and that we are looking for a school to fit their needs. Some of the ideas he expressed to us were:

• He doesn't know a great deal about Montessori education, but there are Montessori children who attend the school.

• Each classroom has about 24 children with one teacher and, sometimes, a volunteer parent aide.

• Even though children may be reading when they come into first grade, they may not comprehend the written information.

• First grade children mainly use single digit computations in first grade, although there is some individualization and challenge for advanced children. (Our five-year old is multiplying four digit numbers now.)

• Children are tested for “giftedness” during the second grade, but only those in the 98% in all areas may enter the program, which is one and a half hours per week for older elementary children. This school district has many children in the 95% who are not in gifted programs.

• Every fifteen minutes the teachers change activities because of the children's short attention span. (I expressed my concern about my son's need to complete his work well. The principal said that the children are allowed to finish their work but at a later time.)

As we walked down the hall to the classroom, we could see a wonderful gymnasium, a cafeteria, and a computer room.

In the classroom that day were 24 children sitting in groups of sixes at tables. The children were all well-dressed and appeared very bright and attentive. One teacher and three parent aides were helping the children sort quarters, nickels and dimes that they had brought from home into certain quantities. The teacher used the question method to avoid classroom problems: “What will happen if we leave out the coins during our reading time?” she asked. A compliant child replied, “We'll make noise.” She said he was correct, and the children put away their cups of coins. The three aides checked the children's written work, and were told to give the children another star if they had written a cent's sign correctly.

Within five minutes of our arrival, the teacher had used the following methods of getting the children's attention:

• “Are you with me?” this was asked of specific children three times.

• Loud rhythmic claps of the hands that the children were to repeat.

• Counting to three.

As we looked around the room, hundreds of books were available but piled on a large table. Numerous word charts were hung on the walls with no empty, “quiet” space. There were no classic art prints or interesting items to view. With so many tables, there was no room for activity corners. One space at the back was to be used for a small reading group.

The class then broke up into four groups. Two of the groups were to copy phonograms from the blackboard (post, most, boast, coast). The third group went into the hall to work on a sea collage. The reading group, the fourth group, consisting of seven children and the teacher, sat together on the floor, each with their own book. The book was a riddle book comprised of words with double meaning or puns. Only four children answered the teacher's questions about the meaning of the riddles. When the children read in unison, one girl mouthed the words but did not seem to be reading.

After only a short time in the classroom, we were discouraged. Our hope was that the highly regarded public school system in our city would be an ideal next step in our sons' education. We had wanted our children to attend school with their neighborhood friends, but not at the expense of their learning development.

What kind of written response could I give, charitably, to the principal on his evaluation sheet? After a struggle, I wrote “very structured environment.”

We decided to stop again and to ask a few more questions of the principal. We expressed our displeasure with the stars (positive reinforcement) and the clapping of hands, etc. (negative reinforcement) and that we wish for our children to be motivated to learn from within. The principal replied that that is fine for some children. But most children, he felt, must be motivated by rewards and punishments. We asked if all of the first grades are so structured as the one we visited, and he said they are all about the same.

The magnitude of the emotional devastation upon children cannot even be comprehended. How will the child feel at the end of the day, and the year, after:

• Sitting passively, waiting for others to catch up, hour after hour?

• Depending on the numerous aides to correct his work at every step?

• Relying on the aides and teacher for positive reinforcement on the work you have done?

• Being unable to complete a work as well as you would like, due to lack of time?

Returning to my son's Montessori school that afternoon, I stepped into the friendly, happy classroom. Some children were laughing and talking. Others were concentrating on their beautiful work, spread out on the floor. Montessori children truly love to learn and are inwardly motivated to their full potential!

TOP

The best word to use for what happens to children who leave for public or a separate Montessori “kindergarten” is that their education is “truncated”. This means that the apex of their work is cut off, like the removal of the top of a triangle. They miss 1/3 of their possible learning and miss out on the most important year of Montessori.

Maria Montessori:

Our method has the advantage of being able to draw together children of very different backgrounds. In our first Children's Houses there were children of 2 ½, still too young for the simplest exercises of the senses, and children over five who, because of their attainments, could have passed after a few months into the third grade. In our schools each child advances and perfects himself according to his own individual ability. This method contains the further advantage in that it would make teaching in schools in the country and in small villages in the provinces, where the number of students and teachers is limited, quite easy. Our experiences have shown that a single teacher can supervise children ranging from the ages of three to seven. Since children in our schools learn easily how to write, if our method was more generally copied, illiteracy could be fought and reading promoted.

As far as the teacher is concerned, she can remain a whole day with children of such different stages of development without exhausting herself, just as a mother at home passes the entire day from morning to night with her children without growing tired. (Discovery of the Child, p. 320).

The child who completes the 3-year program is a different being. S/he becomes a beautiful equilateral, completed triangle. But the child who leaves is a “trapezoid”, so to speak, and never reaches the pinnacle of his/her full potential in the Montessori classroom.

Maria Montessori:

Anyone who visits a well-managed school is struck by the discipline of the children. Here are forty children from three to seven years of age, all intent of their own particular work. Some are doing the sense exercises, some arithmetic, some are touching letters, some are drawing, some are at the cloth frames, some are dusting, some are spread out on the floor. A faint noise can be heard of objects being lightly moved about and of children walking on tip-toe. Every now and then a poorly repressed shout of joy is heard. There is an eager shout: “Teacher! Teacher!” Or an exclamation: “Look at what I have done!”

But more frequently there is absolute concentration. A little child of three works peacefully alongside a boy of seven and is as contented with his own work as he is about the fact he is shorter and does not have to envy the older boy's height. They all grow up in the most profound peace. (Discovery of the Child, pp 302-303)

TOP

Pride in Our Accomplishments and Gratefulness to a Woman, Ahead of Her Time By Sharlet J. McClurkin February 21, 2003

Even though the theory of the “great leader” in history may be out of fashion among historians, I, nevertheless, can’t see any other way of explaining what has happened to education in the last century without looking again at Dr. Maria Montessori. In 2007 we will celebrate her 100th birthday of her first school in Rome, and it is time to think about what would have happened to education without her vision and genius.

Traditional education, i.e., desks or tables, work sheets, authoritarian teachers, and classrooms empty of manipulative materials, are still the rule, after nearly 100 years. Adults just can’t imagine any other way than using power and control to teach children. There are exceptions, however, as one travels around the world to view children learning. These oases of beauty can be seen in hundreds of countries. In a Montessori research project in Beijing, the parents of Montessori parents said to the principal, “My children love to come to school. They love their teacher!” In this school, two of the foundational principles of Montessori education had been ignored (children were divided by age and had only a one-hour work time), but it was still enough of a taste of “freedom of choice” and “learning by doing” that it was a success. In Korea, the competitive culture drives the Montessori director to implement long circle times, work choices made by teachers and traditional lessons in English. Despite the aberrations to the Montessori philosophy, the Korean children are learning well and are happy. In Hong Kong, the government requirements for each age group can restrict the mixed age classroom, or can limit the freedom of the child from moving among all areas of learning. To see a Chinese child washing a table, however, is a lovely thing to behold. A few years ago a vice-president of a major university in North China said to me, “We know that the Chinese comprehensive curriculum can teach our children the basics, but we believe that Montessori education can bring them creativity!”

nges in today’s culture, new Montessori schools are opening in many places in our country. Even with under-capitalization, restrictive school zoning codes, and lack of understanding in the public educational community, Montessori entrepreneurs, with vision for children in their communities, work ten to twelve hours per day, choose to spend their money on the classrooms rather than themselves, and keep the faith despite the occasional complaining parent or challenge of monthly payroll taxes. Our rugged individualism as Americans, our belief in the capitalist system and the individual entrepreneur, provided the fertile soil for the Montessori philosophy of education in the 20th century and will, I believe, continue to do so in the 21st century.

Where would education be today without Montessori’s vision of manipulatives? Look in school catalogs to find copies of her decimal materials, geometry, movable alphabet, and many more, and it is clear that education today has benefited greatly from her view that children learn best through their senses. Boxes of 1,000 cubes sit in public teachers’ closets, however, often not used, mainly because the teachers are not sure how to use them successfully. Isn’t it ironic, as well, that Montessori’s concepts of sensorial learning arose in the same century as computer technology? Without Montessori’s view of the need for concrete materials, would three and four year olds be sitting at their computers in classrooms?

Although Howard Gardner stated that he would send his own child to a Reggio Emilia school, he has built upon many of Montessori’s ideas in his theories of multiple intelligences. One “multiple intelligence” classroom I observed in my city could have been a Montessori elementary classroom in many respects, with the exception that math was still done with workbooks.

Perhaps the most outstanding and effective student of Montessori, Nancy McCormick Rambusch, said something very provocative to a group of teachers in Chicago shortly before her death: “We were just a small band of Catholic women with a dream of a better education for our children…I believe that Montessori education was a “charisma” (a special gift) for the 20th century.”

TOP

More than 100 Montessori teachers, owners of schools and "pioneers" in Montessori education, attended the 100th celebration in Beijing, China, of Dr. Maria Montessori first school's opening on January 6, 1907, in Rome, Italy. (Interesting, Mr. Lu of Beijing Montessori Education Technology Center stated that the time difference from Rome to Beijing brought this celebration close to the actual hour of the school's opening 100 years before!)

Dignitaries and speakers at the celebration were (as seen with flowers on the front row of the top picture) Wan Xuan Rong, Chen Hui Shan, Donald and Sharlet McClurkin, Lu Le Shan (90-year-old former Beijing Normal University professor who introduced Montessori education prior to the Cultural Revolution), Marie Odondaal, Headmaster of Eton School in Beijing, Wang Wei, managing director of Eton Schools in Beijing, and Ji Kui Hua.

Sharlet McClurkin presented the keynote address, "What If Dr. Maria Montessori Had Never Lived...Or Had Never Become An Educator?" She was presented an honorary credential by Beijing Montessori Education Technology Center for speaking and teaching many times in China in the 20th century, and for encouraging new interest in Montessori education after it was ended by the government during the Cultural Revolution.

TOP

Montessori in China, 2007 by Sharlet J. McClurkin

Beijing, the capital of China and the future site of the 2008 Olympics, was the location for the first full Montessori training course in China, provided by the Montessori Teacher Preparation of Washington, Kent, WA, and sponsored by the Montessori Institute of America. Having been away from Beijing for ten years, I was amazed at the wide thoroughfares, street lights, skyscrapers, and modern look of the city. Even more surprising were the English-speaking taxi drivers and packed supermarkets. Are all of these people "techies?" Where do they get their money to buy such a variety of fruits and vegetables and anything a person might want in a modern city? They certainly are not teachers.

The 5-week course was held in the ballet classroom, across the courtyard from eight first-stage Montessori classrooms, on the grounds of the Agricultural and Scientific Academy Kindergarten of China. It was sponsored by the Beijing Montessori Education Technology Center, directed by Madame Anhua Lv and Shuquan Lu. Mr. Lu is the publisher of a Montessori magazine in China. Madame Lv and Mr. Lu provide three levels of non-accredited Montessori training to over 1,000 teachers each year: Course I, Introductory; Course II, Intermediate; and Course III, Advanced. By taking Course I, an individual may become certified by BMETC as an assistant Montessori Teacher. Through taking the additional Course II, teachers receive certification as a lead Montessori teacher. We provided Course III as a full course, approved and sponsored by the Montessori Institute of America and leading to a full certificate for the level, 2 ½ to 6 years, from the Montessori Institute of America.

Forty-five teachers/professors, or preschool directors arrived in Beijing from all over China, from west to east, from north to south, to stay in dorms on the university campus or with friends or family in the city. One retired teacher from south China rode trains for thirty-five hours to get to Beijing. Many of the teachers had borrowed money to attend the class, or quit their jobs in order to attend. One student was required by her kindergarten to pay a surety deposit to the school that would be given to her when she returned to her teaching position. Most of the teachers had received a short, non-accredited training course that provided them a basic understanding of Montessori education. When speaking to them through an interpreter, I could see the excitement in their eyes and the gratefulness to us for coming to China with the full MIA course.

To our surprise nearly all forty-five teachers came early to the optional "spiritual storytelling" lessons from 8 to 8:30 a.m. each morning. When I asked the class later, "What was your favorite part of the training?" many of the said, "The spiritual stories." We proceeded through the MIA curriculum from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30/5 p.m. each day, Monday through Saturday, with "bowl" testing, original projects, philosophy discussions, and music and movement, through which the teachers showed their quickness to learn and creativity. Many of them told our interpreters, "We are happy to finally have someone fully explain the Montessori materials to us."

Without the assistance of our interpreter and MIA graduate, John Guangli Zhang, of Richmond, B.C. and Wenru Sun, MIA graduate and trainer, from Sanya, Hainan Island, we would not have been able to accomplish setting up all of the shelves of materials, testing for the students, and preparations for the next day. We had packed four large suitcases and two carry-ons full of materials, without which we could not have conducted the course. As we were checking into the airport to fly to China, the man behind us asked, "Are you moving to China?" Necessity was the "mother of invention" as we set up beautiful shelves of sequenced materials from a basic set of wooden materials, just delivered from a factory. Several nights we visited Wal-Mart, across the street from Microsoft, or other "supermarkets" to find art and practical life materials.

The students especially loved the simple and clear math presentations of my husband, Donald, and asked for more, but we had to pack our four large bags and two carry-ons and return to Seattle after two of the most inspiring, but tiring, weeks of our lives. Jane Suchen Wang, MIA trainer from Taiwan, completed the course with large water activities, math, Chinese language, the cultural materials, and the more difficult Montessori philosophy.

The challenge now is for these students to find established Montessori classrooms or to set up classrooms for an approved internship. Mr. Lu plans to set up five to ten MIA internship schools this year within twenty kindergartens that are currently operating. With advanced technology today, such as digital cameras, DVD's, and email, the students hope to track their internship individually, or in pairs, and to receive sufficient supervision that they may receive their MIA certificate in a year. This class will provide the first indigenous MIA graduates in China.

On the first day of class I told the students of my dream that began in 1981 to provide a full Montessori training course in China. Since that year we have worked, and waited, to begin the course in China. We have provided training in Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, but the low salaries of teachers hindered our travel to China. Although we kept "knocking" many times in China, the door did not open until this year, 2007. Why did I have to wait so long? From speaking with our Chinese students, however, I found that they think the door is now open for Montessori education in China in 2007 for the following reasons:

• Freedom of speech is greater than ever before;
• Montessori schools are blossoming across China, taught by teachers with only a minimum of training, sometimes no more than a week;
• Mixed age classes are now allowed by the Chinese government;
• The wages of teachers have risen to make it possible for them to take an economical course;
• The affluent parents of the "one-child" policy want to invest in their child's education.

Many of our students are now seeking a way that they can practice their English, get a student visa through our program, take the full summer course, and intern in the U.S. They have hope to provide to Chinese children a full Montessori early education. My husband, Donald, and I have been changed and inspired by these teachers, and we will never forget them. We still see their faces. We will be back!

TOP

What if Maria Montessori Had Never Lived? by Sharlet J. McClurkin

(Presented to the Centennial Celebration in Beijing, China, on January 7, 2007.)

What if Dr. Montessori's ideas had never been given to the world? What if she had continued in her medical career, rather than becoming an educator? What if there had been no Montessori influence upon education today? Who would have been the advocate for the sensate learning needs, or of the need of respect, for the child? One hundred years after her first school opened in Rome, Italy, on January 6, 1907, it is time to examine her place in the lives of young children, and adults, around the world.

Public education leaders may not realize it, but Montessori's materials and even some of her ideas pop up here and there, in materials catalogs, in "math their way," in "open classrooms," in group learning. I am old enough to remember sitting at a desk all day, desks in four rows, from front to back. My last name began with "s" so that meant I was usually toward the back. I didn't find out until I was thirteen that the reason I couldn't see the blackboard was that I needed glasses. (While waiting in line for my eyes to be checked at school, I memorized the eye chart so that I would not make a mistake.) "Learning" was excruciatingly boring without any "manipulatives" in the 1940's!

I remember speaking with Nancy Rambusch, the founder of the American Montessori Society, a few months before her death. In her lecture in Chicago, she stated that AMS was founded by a small group of Catholic mothers who wanted something better for their own children than traditional education. Then she said that Montessori was a "charisma" of the 20th century. I later asked her what that meant, and she said that it means "a gift", a grace beyond necessity, given to humans. Being first an historian, then a Montessori teacher, I often think of this and the anachronism of Montessori's sensate learning in the age of the computer. Would children have forgotten to run and play, even more so than they have today, if it were not for Montessori? Would children, from toddlers to high school students, spend their entire days at the computer, growing long, bony fingers and huge, bulging eyes?

As my husband and I land in a new country to speak about Montessori education, I often think, "We are coming to free the children…to bring them independence." Even though the domination of the adult is usually benevolent, nevertheless it is not freeing. Maria Montessori's pervasive and foundational philosophy of respect for each individual child is based upon her mentor of 2,000 years before, Jesus Christ, who said, "Let the little children come to me, do not stop them (let them be free), for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."

What if...no one was thinking about Montessori's unique idea of the polarity between the child and the adult? Adults often say to a young boy, "Don't cry! Be a man!" when the boy is not a man. He is a child, and thinks and feels like a child. This is a great burden, laid upon the child, by unthinking adults. But Montessori said, "Adults and children are at opposite 'poles' of humanity." We cannot use our logic to understand children because we no longer think as they do. We have forgotten how children think, so we must wait for children to reveal themselves to us. Imagine, the 21th century adult cannot use his mind to discover the truth about children! He must wait and observe the child to gain knowledge. This is a humbling experience for the human being who, using his intellect, can send a man to the moon!

What if...there were no young children who truly enjoy learning for its own sake, and they all began wanting rewards?

What if...children began "playing" and learning like adults, for a purpose, not a process?

What if...even young children never moved and became "glued" to desks and paper and pencils?

What if...adults never knew about the child's sensate need to learn, and his natural absorbency to knowledge?

What if...no one knew that there are times in the child's life when she learns something the most easily and best?

What if...no one discovered that a child's environment is his world and that its orderly structure fits his mind?

What if...adults always chose for the child and she became a stunted, misshapen robot?

What if...we adults could never see the beauty of the young child, concentrating on his work?

What if...the child ignored the beauty of nature and lived only in his fantasy world?

What if...there was no quiet environment for children to think and reflect?

What if...no children ever developed to normalization or obedience?

What if...adults could never see the child's thirst for spiritual things?

In 2007 let us take time to reflect upon the gift that Maria Montessori was to the child, and to the adult.

TOP

Letter sent to First Lady Laura Bush from Sharlet McClurkin

Dear First Lady Laura Bush,

First, may I congratulate you on your strong determination to assist all children of our country in early literacy!  For thirty years I have worked with young children in Montessori education and have given my life to benefit young children in their formative, early years.

In reading the news article of February 10, 2001, in The New York Times, entitled, "Bush's Plan to Push Reading in Head Start Stirs Debate," I was disappointed to find that Mr. Bush's aide places Montessori philosophy of early literacy in the same category as that of traditional early childhood educators:  "Wait until they're ready!"  Actually, we in Montessori education have been criticized for years by child developmentalists for our emphasis upon early reading and letter sounds.

From your background as a teacher, I trust that you have read of Dr. Maria Montessori's view of the "absorbent mind" of the child and of her work with poor children in Rome in the first part of this century?  Through the introduction of tactile letters and phonetic sounds, these children began to read and write!

For nearly one hundred years now, Montessori preschool children, all over the world, have been successful in early literacy.  From the moment a child enters a Montessori classroom, she is hearing phonetic sounds, feeling sandpaper letters, sorting objects based on their initial sounds, and observing others making words with loose letters on lined rugs.  Many children are reading by age 4 or 5.

Early reading in a Montessori program does not happen through last-minute directive teaching but by a hands-on process of integrated learning.  Children at three begin in practical life to focus, to concentrate and to find the beginning, middle and end of activities such as pouring water, sewing, peeling oranges and many other kinds of "work."  The children come as naturally to reading as they do to speaking!

We respectfully request that you, or a knowledgeable aide, visit one of the Montessori Head Start programs in which the teachers have been trained through Sr. Lorna Colin of the Catholic Charities, 191 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, New York 11201 in collaboration with Montessori Teacher Preparation of WA.  I believe that you will be amazed to see the concentration of the children and their success in early literacy!  We urge that you allow this