News

SC promotes public Montessori programs

May 4, 2008

The nation's only statewide coordinator for Montessori public education says expanding the century-old teaching method in South Carolina could improve learning in a state with the country's worst high school graduation rate.

Montessori coordinator Ginny Riga believes the one-on-one attention from teachers, as well as students' freedom to choose their lesson and whether to work independently or with another classmate, keeps the kids from becoming bored or frustrated. The method, named after Italian educator Maria Montessori, allows students to master skills at their own pace, rather than being taught en masse, proponents say.

"It makes it easier to learn than if I was at school in a desk and the teacher was just writing on the chalkboard," said 10-year-old Elliot Rosenfeld, a fifth-grader at Brockman Elementary. "School is fun."

More than a decade after the state's first public Montessori class opened, 33 programs are scattered across South Carolina. Riga's job is to expand that number, partly by dispelling the stereotypes.

Though the Montessori method has been around since 1907, many parents know little about it or mistakenly view it as religious schooling for gifted and higher-income students. That's largely because Montessori has been used mainly in private school education. There are about 40 private programs in the state.

Riga, 58, said the teaching method has nothing to do with religion and can boost all students' performance. At Logan Elementary in downtown Columbia, primary teacher Sheryl Ancone bragged that all but one of her 5-year-old students can read. The 5-year-olds were already learning multiplication by putting together strings of beads.

Riga acknowledges Montessori isn't for everyone. Some students need more structure or learn better through lectures, but she contends that's a small percentage.

"There's so much emphasis on the love of learning and respect of learning, instead of push, push, push for skill and drill," Riga said.

The former principal of Brockman Elementary, the first public Montessori school in the Columbia area, was named coordinator in February, becoming the second leader to join the state's new Office of School Choice. The office was created by Superintendent Jim Rex as he attempts to fulfill his campaign promise to improve education, partly by giving parents more options in public schools.

Rex said having some of nation's toughest accountability standards can only do so much, and improvement has become stagnant. Dramatic increases in student progress, and ridding the state of its worst-in-the-nation graduation rate, will also require attracting and retaining high-quality teachers and eliminating funding inequities, he said.

Rex, elected in 2006, pledged that South Carolina would become the most choice-driven public school system in the nation within his first term. So far, South Carolina offers a state-run Virtual School - where students can take online classes - and full-time virtual charter schools. Future statewide coordinators could push bilingual education, arts-infused curriculums and high-tech science and math-based schools, Rex said.

He also noted that more than 200 schools will offer single-gender programs as an option next school year, five times the number before South Carolina hired the only statewide coordinator for that choice last July. "We're really limited only by money and our imagination," he said.

The Democrat said he realizes Montessori programs won't expand as quickly as the single-gender option, largely because startup costs for materials and teacher training are about $25,000 per classroom. With no extra money in next year's state budget for the programs, schools will have to get creative in funding, he said. However, waiting lists at current Montessori schools are an indication parents want more of that choice, he said.

On a recent tour of elementary Montessori classes in Columbia, soothing background music played as students selected a hands-on activity and picked a spot on the floor to spread out.

Manners and a respect of all cultures are a major part of Montessori teaching. Three-year-olds learn world geography and can name the continents. Students serve classmates snacks, and disagreements are solved in group discussions.

"Would you like a piece of apple?" 6-year-old Tarrance Bellamy, clad in an apron, asked as he walked to each student in his classroom at Logan Elementary in Columbia. Asked why he gave away every piece he cut and saved nothing for himself, he responded simply, "I'm supposed to share."

Proponents also like that the same teacher instructs a class of three consecutive age levels.

"One of my frustrations in traditional classes is that everyone's doing the same thing. Even if they're not ready, they have to move on," said Logan Elementary teacher Chandra Edmonds-Zeigler, who teaches 6- to 8-year-olds.

There are more than 360 public Montessori programs nationwide, compared to about 3,850 private schools, according to Minnesota-based Jola Publications, which puts outs directories of Montessori programs.

The State
By SEANNA ADCOX
Associated Press Writer