Effects of early Montessori education on later high school performance

Effects of Early Montessori Education on Later High School Performance
Name
Institution

Abstract
Montessori education was introduced by Maria Montessori in 1907. The system of education has been in place for the more than one century period and has been tested across different cultures and proved to work. The education which focuses on bringing out the personality of the learner does not only foster the intellectual development but more so social and physical developments. It works by scientific observations, which are then analyzed and used by the teacher to create a specific curriculum for each child. The method of education has different effects on the performance of the students in secondary schools. The students who passed through Montessori education in their childhood schooling are found to perform better in mathematics and sciences, disciplines which are believed to require more thinking than interaction. However, compared to other students who passed through schools not employing Montessori education in, languages. A few challenges though still face the education system. However, some governments in different states are working to incorporate the education in the junior schools as well as high schools. The education which was intended for children with disability being found working better is now made intended to be used for all children in high schools.

Effects of Early Montessori Education on Later High School Performance
Montessori education is a type of special education that is described as child-centred education, which was developed by Dr.

Maria Montessori, who is an Italian doctor. According to American Montessori Society (2016), Montessori is a system of education “developed a century ago by a woman ahead of her time.” (American Montessori Society, 2016). That implies that currently, the world is facing challenges with the education of children with special needs and unlike a century ago when children with disabilities were not considered fit for getting educated, Montessori Method of education becomes a great concern for the society. The benefits that the children get as they undertake the program and the effects that such program has in their later studies are core to being understood. However, for more than 100 years, the method has been tested and proved to work in different countries and cultures.
Montessori Education
This method works by scientific observations on the child as he or she grows to adulthood. The method views the child as one that is willing to learn if subjected to some conditions which include support from stakeholders as well as one who can initiate the need to acquire knowledge. Therefore, this method of education narrows down to an individual child, getting to understand and value his or her spirit and thereby helping in developing the cognitive, social, physical and emotional states of the child (American Montessori Society, 2016). In essence, the method seeks to use the powers of personality, trying to find out from the children who they are, and using the information to make them better to achieve their goals and skills (Montessori, 2015).
The method makes use of grouping of the children comprising all ages to foster the learning as a result of interacting with peers, having a work time that is uninterrupted as well as choosing an activity that they wish to do but with a guidance from the teacher. The method also uses other social guidance to help the children develop socially (American Montessori Society, 2016).
The major components of the process which also assists in the transition of the child from one level are aided by the learning from older children. In general, the process outlines the key players in educating the child: the teacher, the environment, and the child. “In early childhood, Montessori students learn through sensory-motor activities, working with materials that develop their cognitive powers through direct experience: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and movement.” (American Montessori Society, 2016). However, in the subsequent years, the children is introduced to a sophisticated curriculum which comprises different disciplines, which aids the child in transiting from that which is concrete to that which is abstract. The child, therefore, begins to apply the knowledge learned in the experiences that are met on a daily basis. The information that the student is now able to learn and retain, that is figures and facts, enables the child to prepare adequately for the challenges that come with adolescence, when the mind is grown and becomes a faculty for understanding issues that are considered abstract as well as universal concepts like freedom, justice and equity (American Montessori Society, 2016).
Montessori education was created to assist children as well as adolescents in high schools. Establishing how the first methods contributed to the state of the children at high school can qualify the process as one of the best educational tools that are geared to changing the world for the better. But, again, different factors may play on the way as the child grow and perhaps he or she may not realize or produce the best results from the method.
Effects of the method in High School
Although the Montessori education method is exceedingly helpful at childhood, little information is available concerning the benefits of the practice in middle school and higher. However, much can be gathered on conduct and the performance of these students in high school. Adolescents who have had their childhood study in Montessori schools can be a bit difficult to understand may be because of the many factors that play as they grow. For example, this may result from their interactions with their peers, who might not be going through a similar system of education. Other cases may also include the evidence that the children who attend Montessori schools all come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and there having different expectations and attainment in their education. The parents also play a great role in motivating their students to learn. Therefore, these situations make it difficult to gauge the students’ ability as coming solely from the virtue of their being in Montessori schools (Rindskopf, 2003).
Effects on Academics
Studies conducted to measure the performance of students in high depending on whether they passed through Montessori system in their childhood or other system revealed that learners from the Montessori schools performed much better in mathematics and science than the rest of the students from other systems. However, in languages, these students had no significant disparity in their performance (Rindskopf, 2003). In another study conducted by Minerva (Salazar, 2013), the high school students who have been investigated and who undertook their childhood education through the Montessori system did better in mathematics than those who did not pass through Montessori education system. However, the same study also reveals that in languages the performance did not have significant disparity, being that the measurement was done under conditions that would favor every student who was under investigation (Salazar, 2013). The issue seemed to be confirmed since another study by Rindskopf and the rest also showed that the students performed better in sciences and mathematics than their fellows who had not gone through the Montessori system ( Rindskopf, Nishida, Gartner, Lipsky, & Grimm, 2007).
Establishing reasons for the better performance in mathematics by the students who underwent Montessori education during their childhood revealed that the students had taken through a structured program where they were solving the mathematical problem from a more focused angle, based on the real life situations. For instance, a model of the arrangement of boxes enabled them to understand deeply how mathematical formulas were arrived at and how they worked to bring the desired answer. The other model that was used in Montessori learning was the charts, which the students would complete to bring the correct answers. They were therefore led from the known to unknown such that the development from concrete to that which is ideal (American Montessori Society, 2016).
Languages are an everyday interaction that the students anywhere they are. The studies did not show biases towards the different ethnic groups but tailored the questions for finding the mastery of the language by the students as would equally fit all the students. The results were able to reveal the fact that languages are not dependent on what is taught in class, but rather on some outside factors that were beyond the reach of the teachers. Perhaps communications depended on more on how the students interacted with their environment or how frequently they would be using reading materials. It can also be attributed to the fact that languages do not require far-reaching thinking as does mathematics and sciences.
One strength that was identified in these studies was the consistency with which these students could continue to make their progress in the fields of sciences and mathematics. Based on the approach they had been subjected to in their undertaking of the Montessori education, of critically analyzing mathematical and scientific problems, they have retained and still using the knowledge gained in solving problems in high school.
The approach given by the education system that one needs not to concentrate solely on the intellectual matters fit perfectly with the need of the adolescents in high schools. From their childhood, the students were told to find sleep as much as they can. In high school, the teenagers are prone to sleep. However, from scientific research, it has been found out generally that good sleep enhances the development of the brain. Unlike those in the other schools that do not undertake Montessori education, who spend most of the time in the books and sleep less, those in the Montessori system have a real mastery of content, and are developed in all the spheres of life.
The purpose of education should not be limited to seeking methods for a predominantly arid transmission of knowledge; it, therefore, must aim at giving imperative aid to human development. It is best that the life of man and his values should be given a priority (Montessori, 1994).
Today, students in high schools still do better as a result of the foundation that was created in them in the Montessori junior schools where the culture of being independent was instilled in them. As a result, the students are constantly eager to get hew ways of solving particular issues in their intellectual quest. During learning, these Montessori children know what they want to read and how to search for the exact information they are looking for. It is an art that had been cropped in them in their childhood, and as a result have grown with the same.
A few challenges, however, come with the Montessori education. The children who were used as the non-traditional classroom may find it a challenge and may begin to find other ways to adapt to the new learning environment. The change in the learning environment might have impacted significantly on the mastery of the content of the students and perhaps might have contributed in the cases in which the students could be at par with their fellows who had been raised in the non-Montessori schools.
Conclusion
Today, Montessori methods are still doing great and continue to have great impacts on the students in high schools. In fact, some states are beginning to incorporate Montessori programs in the secondary schools to enable the students to continue with the learning through the Montessori system (Montessori, 1994). The students are likely to become wholesome in life if they can pass through the system their entire school life.

References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Rindskopf , K. D., Nishida, T. K., Gartner, A., Lipsky, D. K., & Grimm, K. J. (2007). High School Outcomes for Students in a Public Montessori Program. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 22(2), 205-215.
American Montessori Society. (2016, October). Montessori Education. Retrieved from American Montessori Society: https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education
Montessori, M. (1994). From Childhood to adolescence. ABC-CLIO.
Montessori, M. (2015, Spring). The Education of an Individual. The NAMTA Journal, 40(2). Retrieved November 2, 2016
Rindskopf, K. D. (2003). Outcomes for Students in Montessori Schools. New York: American Montessori International.
Salazar, M. M. (2013). THE IMPACT OF MONTESSORI TEACHING ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN A CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICT: A CAUSAL-COMPARATIVE INQUIRY. Corpus Christi, Texas: Texas A&M University.