Rawai Montessori Christmas celebrations.

by Mr. John David Mood
Upper Elementary Teacher

As a Montessori based school we believe that our school takes a different perspective when it comes to celebrating Christmas for children. These celebrations are based on certain core principles.

First and foremost is that we encourage all children to perform to the best of their ability without introducing any element of competition among the students. In the Christmas performance we emphasis a quiet simple approach, where students can enjoy performing in a spirit of cooperation, and can demonstrate their uniqueness to the audience in a non intimidating environment.

We also have a Santa’s grotto where gifts are presented to the students by Father Christmas. The gifts are provided by the parents but are not selected for their own children, but distributed to the children in a random manner. Each gift only being identified by gender or gender neutral. The cost of each present is limited so that there will be no jealousy engendered by one child receiving a lesser gift than another student.

In general we use the seasonal celebration to encourage peace and harmony within the school. For example each student can join in Secret Santa where a student picks out of the hat a student which they then must be nice to, and provide a small present at the end of the week.

We integrate the Christmas celebration with the Montessori philosophy with the aim long term of development of the whole child.

Montessori Builds Innovators From Harvard Business Review

From :http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/mcafee/2011/07/montessori-builds-innovators.html


There are strident disagreements these days over every aspect of American educational policy, except for one. Everyone thinks it would be great if we could better teach students how to innovate.

So shouldn't we be paying a great deal of attention to the educational method that produced, among others, Larry Page, Sergei Brin, Jeff Bezos, Jimmy Wales, Peter Drucker, Julia Child, David Blaine, and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs? They were all students in Montessori schools. According to a Wall Street Journal article by Peter Sims, there's a "Montessori Mafia" among the creative elite. So maybe there's something to the method Italian physician Maria Montessori came up with around the turn of the 20th century.

The cornerstones of this method, according to Wales's brainchild Wikipedia, are:
• mixed-age classrooms, with classrooms for children aged 2½-or-3 to 6 by far the most common,
• student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options,
• uninterrupted blocks of work time,
• a Constructivist or "discovery" model, in which students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction, and
• specialized educational materials developed by Montessori and her collaborators.

That list rings true to me. I was a Montessori student in northwestern Indiana from a very early age through third grade, which was as high as the school went at that time. The teachers were an earnest group of the biggest hippies that could be found in small-town Hoosierland in the 1970s, and they gave us a lot of room to explore stuff that we found interesting.

For me this included the beads Maria and her colleagues came up with to teach us about numbers. No matter how young you are, after you see five beads on a wire next to 25 arranged in a square and 125 in a cube, you have a grasp of 5^2 and 5^3 that doesn't leave you. And after you hold the five-cube in one hand and the ten-cube in another, the power of taking something to the third power becomes very real. One is eight times as heavy as the other!

The parents of Larry, Sergei, Jimmy, Jeff, and all the others gave their kids good genes and nurtured them in many other ways beyond sending them to Montessori (I know that's true in my case). But research indicates that Montessori methods work even for disadvantaged kids who are randomly selected to attend (although this might not be the best idea for dental school). And as far as I can tell from my quick glance at the studies, Montessori kids don't do worse than their more classically educated peers on standardized tests. So why do we spend so much time on rote learning and teaching to the test?

When I got too old for my Montessori school and went to public school in fourth grade, I felt like I'd been sent to the Gulag. I have to sit in this desk? All day? We're going to divide the day into hour-long chunks and do only one thing during each chunk? Am I on Candid Camera? Am I Job?

I'm really glad to learn that Montessori methods are entering public schools. And I look forward to more research on the benefits and drawbacks of this educational approach. Until it convinces me otherwise, I'm going to continue to believe in Montessori and recommend it to parents.

The main thing I learned there is that the world is a really interesting place, and one that should be explored. Can there be any better foundation for an innovator in training?

What Are The Real Benefits of Sending a Child to Montessori?

Monday, 27 October 2008 16:30 | Written by Tim Seldin

Parents often ask: What are the real benefits of sending a child to a Montessori school? They seek assurance that it will prepare them to survive in the ‘real world,’ by which they really question: Will Montessori prepare their children to succeed in a conventional school?

My favorite answer to this question is a simple "No!"

No, Montessori is not designed to prepare children to think, act, and learn the way most children do in most traditional classrooms!

Will Montessori children succeed in a traditional classroom? The odds are that they will do just fine.

But, is Montessori designed to prepare children for the sort of classroom experience that they are likely to find if they transfer from Montessori to a traditional school program before they go off the college? The answer is, of course, no. If Montessori were de-signed to prepare children for the next rung on the conventional schooling ladder, then Montessori would be like other traditional schools, and that is precisely what Montessori schools were designed to challenge and replace!

Now, is Montessori designed to prepare children for the ‘real world’?

First we have to ask ourselves what do we mean when we think about the real world? What most people mean by this phrase is a world of people who are driven high achievers. In the real world, many so-called successful people live lives that are centered around competition instead of partnership, where relationships are structured around hierarchies of power and influence, and where people are thought of as being part of a group or outsiders. In the real world that we live in, many people, who we think of as ‘successful,’ tend to be self-centered, materialistic, and not terribly happy and balanced. Many conventional schools teach children, perhaps nonverbally, perhaps overtly, that the world is made up of ‘somebodies’ and ‘nobodies’. Sadly, these ideas tend to be woven into what many people think of as success in the ‘real world.’

Montessori schools are generally focused on a more balanced and more spiritual approach to life. Montessori is not anti-materialistic. It does not teach children that they should not aspire to have a beautiful home or a successful career. What we do say is that there are other things that have a deeper value. If we own a home and somehow it is lost, our lives have meaning that is much greater than the things we own.

So, to return to the original question: “Are we oriented, as is a typical prep school, to prepare children for university and for a career?” My response would be that we prepare children to think, create, imagine, design, collaborate well with others, and to live a balanced life.

So then, what do children tend to get out of Montessori?

Firstly, what children get out of their years in Montessori is an incredible sense of self-worth. They become fiercely independent. They get a sense of their own ability to learn new things, master new skills, solve problems, and to do things well.

Secondly, children in Montessori schools learn non-violence and conflict resolution. They become spiritually alive—in the highest sense of what that means. This is not simply a fear-based approach to religion but, rather, an approach to living based on love and faith.

Montessori was always intended to create conditions in which children, even children whose lives had been impoverished, can develop their full, unique potentials. The original group of children with whom Dr. Montessori worked were fifty street urchins, whose families lived in conditions of extreme poverty, with all the negative factors that go along with it: crime, drugs and violence. As we know, those children blossomed.

In Montessori education, no matter what the home conditions might be, we try to create conditions at school that give children a sense of joy, a sense of celebration, and a sense that they are part of something bigger than themselves, without taking away their sense of personal empowerment and personal responsibility. We aim to inspire in them a sense of awe and wonder. This is not done in a way that makes children feel small and powerless, but rather to say “you belong on this Earth!” Montessori creates an understanding that each life has value and each life has purpose. Our children learn that we need to honor ourselves, honor our parents, honor all life, and honor other human beings. Like all great spiritual traditions, Montessori helps children to discover their own dignity in the midst of our imperfections and personal limitations.

Montessori children learn that their ideas have merit and that their decisions are important. They learn that people make mistakes, but that we can learn from them. It teaches that we need to take responsibility for our actions and, where appropriate, to try to rebalance the scales.

What we focus on in Montessori schools around the world is helping children to grow to be more spiritual, more empowered, and more balanced in all aspects of their lives.

Montessori teaches children how to live in a community and how to re-solve conflicts peacefully. We teach them to support one another emotionally. Our children learn how to lead and also how to be part of a team.

These are very powerful lessons, which go far beyond the simple memorization of facts and formulas, and far beyond the mechanics of the basic curriculum. We are engaged in teaching children to think deeply, to figure things out for themselves, and to be their own best teacher. We teach them how to bring abstract ideas, along with things that they have never seen, to life. We help them to see the real connections between things.

These are just some of the things that children gain from Montessori.

All of this comes along with Montessori children’s famous sense of humor and a tendency to not be all that impressed with authority. They learn to question everything and everyone. They, sometimes, tend to ask embarrassing questions . There is an old saying among Montessori parents that “It takes brave parents
to raise a Montessori child.” These children think and speak for themselves. They don’t really see themselves as children.

There are all kinds of Montessori schools: big and small, public and private. Some offer a more ‘adapted’ version of Montessori than others. But there is one thing that all true Montes-sori schools have in common: they tend to graduate children who are very much like the ones I’ve just described. Even though, in some schools, Montessori would work better if their programs more completely followed the full Montessori model, and even though Montessori schools would be more successful if they had more enthusiastic support from parents, most Montessori schools produce incredibly bright young people, who think for themselves. Our schools tend to turn out children who have terrific self-confidence and who can be trusted to ask all the right, and, sometimes, the most embarrassing questions.

And that’s why we are Montessori educators, regardless of where we trained.

PS: There are people hanging around our schools who have never taken Montessori training (parents, assistants, non-Montessori certified heads of schools), but who actually know the secret handshake, too. Montessori schools need Montes-sori committed people inside them. It has to live in our hearts and manifest itself (imperfectly perhaps, but sincerely) in our everyday actions.

Some Montessori Myths.

There are people who think that the Montessori schools will not teach enough, and there are also people who fear that they will teach too much. “These delicate brains that you are training,” said a French gentleman to Dr. Montessori, “these fine ears, attuned to every faintest sound: how will they ever learn to support the uproar of our Paris streets?”

“My dear sir,” replied Dr. Montessori, “they will learn to support it by walking through the streets of Paris twice a day, on their way to school and on their way back from school.” Children are better able to take care of their faculties than we imagine, and we need not fear to be over-refining them by making them alive and sensitive to all that they hear and see. The child who is awake to movement and color and texture and sky and wind and stars will not be starved of nature even in a city slum.
-- Sheila Radice
The New Children, Talks with Dr. Maria Montessori
pages 117-118
(A Montessori quick bite from The Center for Guided Montessori Studies)
There are so many myths about Montessori. On a trip to Vietnam I once encountered a public school principal concerned that Montessori wouldn't work there because, she said, "Montessori is all about the individual, and here we believe in cooperation." I have heard the opposite, too, of course. A father from Texas told me with perfect seriousness that the big flaw with Montessori was that "the kids don't have to learn anything, they can just ask another kid for the answer." Besides, he told me frankly, he didn't want his son at a school where "they just sit and talk all day." In contrast, a few months ago I met a mother who happened to visit a normalized classroom at a period of intense concentration. She decided that she didn't want her child in such an "eerily quiet" environment.

Every child is a natural Renaissance master, exploring all of creation without the boundaries of disciplines. They leap from interest to interest with a passionate inquisitiveness. As Montessorians, we nurture their inquiries into the beauty of our world's mysteries. This makes them more, rather than less prepared to navigate the messy complexities of the real world. We are often reminded that Dr. Montessori developed her method by observing children's natural behavior; it should be no surprise that it helps the child harmonize so well with the real world.

At CGMS we work with schools from many nations, each with its own culture and conditions. Dr. Montessori's science of childhood revealed a universal approach that works equally well for children in the slums of Rome, an African village, a New Jersey suburb, or the capital of France. There are wonderful Montessori schools on every settled continent, and like the countries they inhabit, each classroom has its own culture. If there is anything that ties these superior schools together it is this - they respect and understand the needs of their children.

In a Montessori classroom, children will learn to cooperate. They will also learn to work alone. They will socialize. They will focus on their individual work in utter silence. They will do these things because they are human beings, and because the prepared environment gives them the opportunity to act as such.

Contrast this with a teacher-centered pedagogy. When children collaborate in Elementary, Middle or High School it is called “cheating”. But in the modern workplace a key predictor of achievement is being able to work well in teams. This is recognized by academics, for example, two researchers from the University of Minnesota said that “learning to work together in a group may be one of the most important interpersonal skills a person can develop” . The importance of collaboration is also recognized by the public at large, as in a 2003 study by the University of Connecticut which concluded that most workers agreed that “being a ‘team player’ is of paramount importance in the workplace”. Montessori schools allow children to develop these essential collaborative skills from the earliest ages. By denying the essential nature of children, traditional schools do a poorer job preparing children for success in the real world.

Perhaps at times the world is noisier and less ordered than a Montessori classroom. What of it?

Mainstream theories of pedagogy assume that the teacher’s job is to shape the student. But children are not delicate constructions assembled by teachers. Children are consummate engineers. Remarkably, even in impoverished environments, in time most children manage to assemble themselves into functional adults. With the enriched environment provided by Montessori, what might they become? It should be no wonder that a strong foundation may help children develop into remarkable adults.

So, do Montessori schools teach enough? Do they teach too little? Do they, as feared by the French gentleman at the beginning of this missive, ill prepare children for the messiness of the real world?

These questions all misconstrue what the Montessori method does. It does not “teach”, in so far as teaching is thought of as filling empty heads with knowledge. Instead, it allows children to acquire knowledge in a natural way, while nurturing those critical skills necessary for both individual concentration and team collaboration.

Further reading:

If you are interested in the importance of team work in the modern workplace and in research done on educational techniques for developing these skills, we highly recommend exploring www.co-operation.org, the website of Dr. David W. Johnson and his brother Dr. Roger T. Johnson. They offer newsletters, classes, books and plenty of free reading on this essential and fascinating topic.


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โรงเรียนขนาดเล็ก

เมื่อไม่นานมานี้ ณ ศูนย์มานุษยวิทยาสิรินธร สภาการศึกษาทางเลือก ร่วมกับสำนักงานกองทุนสนับสนุนการวิจัย(สกว.) มูลนิธิอาสาสมัครเพื่อสังคม เครือข่ายเยาวชนสืบสานภูมิปัญญา จัดเวที “ฝ่าวิกฤติการยุบโรงเรียนขนาดเล็ก” โดย รศ.ศรีศักร วัลลิโภดม นักวิชาการด้านประวัติศาสตร์และสังคม ปาฐกถา “โรงเรียนชุมชนการศึกษาทางเลือก ทางรอดของสังคมไทย” ว่า การไล่ยุบโรงเรียนขนาดเล็กมีต้นตอจากการรวบอำนาจแบบทรราชย์หรือการผูกขาด อำนาจจนน่ากลัวของรัฐมาจัดการการศึกษาให้ทุกคนในประเทศ โดยวางกติกาและการใช้เงินทั้งหมด เมื่อไม่คุ้มทุนก็สั่งยุบ นี่คือความขัดแย้งและไม่เป็นธรรมในสังคมที่กดขี่ประชาชนและเด็กด้อยโอกาส สวนทางกับนโยบายปฏิรูปการศึกษาที่ประกาศว่าให้โอกาสและสร้างคุณภาพ

“รัฐไม่สามารถตอบสนองสังคมได้ การศึกษาผูกขาดไม่ครบเครื่อง กระทรวงศึกษาธิการ(ศธ.)มองแบบลอยๆไม่ได้มองการศึกษาเป็นสังคม ซึ่งชุมชนเป็นสถาบันรูปธรรมที่สุดของสังคมที่ไม่ควรมองข้าม”

รศ.ศรีศักร กล่าวต่อว่า โรงเรียนขนาด เล็กอยู่ในชุมชนทั้งนั้น ซึ่งไม่สมควรยุบ เพราะการศึกษาขั้นพื้นฐานต้องสัมพันธ์กับชุมชน เป็นความสัมพันธ์ของระบบวัฒนธรรมการอยู่ร่วมกันที่ชุมชนเท่านั้นจะเป็นผู้ สอน การศึกษาข้างนอกที่เน้นหลักสูตรวิชาการแล้วสอนให้เป็นปัจเจกเอาแต่แข่งขัน ผลิตคนเพื่อเป็นทรัพยากรออกไปทำมาหากิน แต่ไม่สอนจิตวิญญาณความเป็นมนุษย์และจิตสำนึกร่วม รัฐมองชุมชนเป็นเพียงเขตการศึกษาเสมือนคอนโดมิเนียมบ้านจัดสรร เป็นวิธีคิดวิธีการที่ทำให้ชุมชนล่มสลาย

“ไม่เข้าใจว่าโรงเรียนเล็กๆที่จะไปยุบ ใช้อะไรประเมินโอกาสและคุณภาพของเด็ก การไปอ้างเรื่องมาตรฐานที่ ศธ. ตั้งแล้วมายุบแบบนี้ไม่ได้ หรือจะบอกว่าพื้นที่เล็ก ผมว่าพื้นที่ยิ่งเล็กคุณภาพยิ่งดี การศึกษาที่ถูกต้องคือโรงเรียนขนาดเล็กควรอยู่ในชุมชน”

รศ.ศรีศักร เสนอว่ารัฐควรคืนหรือลดอำนาจแล้วกระจายลงสู่ท้องถิ่น ศธ.ต้องเลิกบทบาทในการเป็นผู้จัดการศึกษาแต่มาเป็นผู้จัดให้มีการศึกษา ไม่ใช่กุมทั้งหมด ซึ่งการจะทำเช่นนี้ได้ขึ้นอยู่กับองค์กรปกครองส่วนท้องถิ่น ที่โดยตัวเองก็ยังมีปัญหาเกิดขบวนการคอรัปชั่นบ่อยครั้ง แต่การสร้างเครือข่ายภาคประชาสังคมจะเป็นกลไกสำคัญที่จะต่อรองกับอำนาจต่างๆ ที่ไม่ชอบได้

ทั้งนี้ยังมีการเสวนา “ทางออกโรงเรียนขนาดเล็ก ข้อเสนอแนะเชิงนโยบายและความสำเร็จการพัฒนา” โดย รศ.ประภาภัทร นิยม ผู้บริหารโรงเรียนรุ่งอรุณ กล่าว ว่ากระแสการยุบโรงเรียนขนาดเล็กกำลังนำไปสู่หลุมพรางของรัฐ การอ้างเหตุผลความไม่คุ้มทุน เพื่อปัดความผิดพลาดเรื่องการบริหารจัดการแล้วมาแก้ปัญหาแบบผิดฝาผิดตัว เพราะหากคิดย้อนไปการให้งบอุดหนุนรายหัว จำนวนเด็กเท่าเดิมก็ไม่เห็นไม่คุ้มทุน นโยบายแบบสั่งการจากบนลงล่างต่างหากที่เป็นต้นเหตุให้คุณภาพการศึกษาตกต่ำ

“รัฐต่างหากที่ผิดพลาด ดังนั้นเราไม่จำเป็นต้องร้องขอ แต่ทำในสิ่งที่โรงเรียนและชุมชนทำไปเรื่อยๆ สิ่งที่เราทำคือสิ่งที่รัฐไม่มีทางทำได้ การไปร้องขอให้เขาลดอำนาจไม่มีทางเป็นไปได้”

นายชูพินิจ เกษณี จากคณะศึกษาศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยศรีนครินทร์วิโรฒ กล่าวว่า ศธ.กำลังจัดการศึกษาแบบตัดรองเท้าที่สวยมากแต่สวมไม่ได้ สุดท้ายตัดปัญหาด้วยการตัดเท้าทิ้ง ซึ่งสะท้อนว่า 1.ไม่เคารพสิทธิเด็ก โดยเฉพาะในช่วงอนุบาล-ประถมศึกษา เด็กควรอยู่กับชุมชนมากที่สุดเพื่อให้เกิดความผูกพัน 2.สวัสดิภาพเด็ก ที่ต้องเดินทางไปเรียนในที่ไม่คุ้นเคยและห่างไกล 3.ศธ.ไม่เชื่อถือหลักการมีส่วนร่วมของชุมชน 4.การไม่ให้อำนาจการกำกับดูแลของคณะกรรมการสถานศึกษา และ 5.การอ้างคุณภาพไม่มีทางเป็นไปได้ในทางตรรกะ เพราะโรงเรียนใหญ่หลายแห่งก็ไม่มีคุณภาพแต่ไม่ถูกยุบ

“นโยบายนี้ผิดตั้งแต่การตั้งโจทย์ แทนที่จะคิดว่าโรงเรียนเล็กคนเรียนน้อยจะจัดการให้มีคุณภาพ หรืออาจเพิ่มเติมการศึกษาทางเลือก ดึงชุมชนมาช่วยให้เกิดพลัง แต่กลับไม่มีแนวทางเช่นนี้ออกมาเลย”

ด้าน นายบัญชร แก้วส่อง ผอ.สกว.ฝ่ายวิจัยเพื่อท้องถิ่น กล่าว ว่าการที่ชุมชนจัดการศึกษาเองและมีรูปแบบให้เห็นแล้วเป็นเรื่องที่ดี แต่เชื่อว่าทั้ง 7,000 แห่งคงทำไม่ได้ทั้งหมด และยังถูกครอบงำด้วยความคิดว่าการศึกษาที่ดีคือส่งลูกไปเรียนในที่ดีๆ ดังนั้นกระบวนการที่เป็นทางออกของปัญหาจึงไม่ใช่แค่ประชาพิจารณ์ แต่ต้องเริ่มตั้งแต่การทำความเข้าใจเชิงลึกว่าชุมชนจะเลือกทางรอดแบบไหน อยากเห็นการศึกษาไปในทางใด ระหว่างการเรียนแบบวิชาการหรือการศึกษาแบบกระบวนการมีส่วนร่วมของชุมชนที่จะ ได้ทั้งเชิงวิชาการและสังคมวัฒนธรรม ขณะที่ผู้ปกครองได้พัฒนาไปด้วย การยุบไม่ยุบไม่ใช่เรื่องสำคัญ แต่ขอให้เป็นการตัดสินใจร่วมของคนในชุมชน

ขณะที่ นายเสน่ห์ เสาวพันธ์ ผอ.โรงเรียนปากบุ่ง อ.โพธิ์ชัย จ.ร้อยเอ็ด โรงเรียนลำดับแรกที่ทางสำนักงานเขตพื้นที่การศึกษาจ.ร้อยเอ็ด เตรียมประกาศยุบ กล่าวว่ายอมรับหาก ศธ.เห็นว่าการที่โรงเรียนมีเด็กเพียง 8 คนที่มีฐานะยากจน ผลประเมินคุณภาพการเรียนต่ำ มีครูที่จบไม่ตรงสาขาจำเป็นต้องยุบ แต่ถามกลับว่าเด็กทั้งหมดที่ไม่มีทางไป ไม่มีค่าใช้จ่ายเดินทางไปเรียนที่ตัวเมือง หากยุบไปเด็กพวกนี้จะเป็นอย่างไร

“เป็นครูประเมินไม่ผ่านอย่างมากก็ถูกไล่ออก แต่เด็กต้องต่อสู้กับการศึกษาที่เน้นการแข่งขันโดยไม่มองโอกาสและสภาพแวด ล้อม เวลาผู้ใหญ่ในบ้านเมืองตัดสินใจอะไรแล้วไม่หันหลังกลับมามองมุมอื่นบ้าง มันน่ากลัวจริงๆ”

ผู้สื่อข่าวรายงานว่า เครือข่ายโรงเรียนขนาดเล็กทั่วประเทศยังได้หารือร่วมกันว่าจะออกแถลงการณ์ คัดค้านการยุบโรงเรียนขนาดเล็กและเรียกร้องให้มีการทำประชาพิจารณ์กับผู้มี ส่วนได้ส่วนเสียก่อน เพื่อนำไปยื่นต่อรัฐมนตรีว่าการกระทรวงศึกษาธิการและสำนักงานคณะกรรมการการ ศึกษาขั้นพื้นฐานโดยจะรวมตัวกันที่หน้าคุรุสภาในวันที่ 16 มิ.ย. นี้ เวลา 10.00 น.


( เรื่อง อมราวดี อ่องลา สถาบันอิศรา รายงาน )

FAQ about Montessori Programs

Hi Peter,
>>
>> Thank you for your interest in our school. These is more information
>> in attached file: you can't hurry love! Homework and Montessori Way.
>>
>> and your questios about:
>>
>> Why Do Most Montessori Schools Ask Young Children to Attend Five
>> Days a Week?
>>
Answer: Two- and three-day programs are often attractive to parents who do
>> not need full-time care; however, five-day programs create the consistency that is so important to young children and which is essential in developing strong Montessori programs. Since the primary goal of Montessori involves creating a culture of consistency, order, and empowerment, most Montessori schools will expect children to attend five days a week.
>>
>> Why Do Most Montessori Schools Want Children to Enter at Age
>> Three?
>>
>>Answer: Dr. Montessori identified four "planes of development," with each
>> stage having its own developmental characteristics and developmental challenges. The Early Childhood Montessori environment for children age three to six is designed to work with the "absorbent mind," "sensitive periods," and the tendencies of children at this stage of their development.
>>
>> Learning that takes place during these years comes spontaneously without effort, leading children to enter the elementary classes with a clear, concrete sense of many abstract concepts. Montessori helps children to become self-motivated, self-disciplined, and to retain the sense of curiosity that so many children lose along the way in traditional classrooms. They tend to act with care and respect toward their environment and each other. They are able to work at their own pace and ability. The three-year Montessori experience tends to nurture a joy of learning that prepares them for further challenges.
>>
>> This process seems to work best when children enter a Montessori program at age two or three and stay at least through the kindergarten year. Children entering at age four or five do not consistently come to the end of the three-year cycle having developed the same skills, work habits, or values.
>>
>> Older children entering Montessori may do quite well in this very different setting, but this will depend to a large degree on their personality, previous educational experiences, and the way they have been raised at home.

>> Montessori programs can usually accept a few older children into an established class, so long as the family understands and accepts that some critical opportunities may have been missed, and these children may not reach the same levels of achievement seen in the other children of that age. On the other hand, because of the individualized pace of learning in Montessori classrooms, this will not normally be a concern.
>>
>> If you require any additional information please visit
>> http://www.montessori-thailand.com. or mail to me.
>>
>> Thanks and Regards,
>>
>> Shane

Tsunamis and the School Policy By John Mood

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rawai-Montessori-School-RPIS/129123817121432

Dec10, 2012

Before the tsunami in 2004 nobody was aware of the possibility of such an event on the island of Phuket. Indeed it was considered a paradise with no major climatic or geophysical dangers. Of course now we know differently. Since the event ...occurred we have had tsunami drills on a very regular basis and will continue into the future. I’m afraid no one can guarantee that events of any kind will not occur in the future, not only tsunamis and I believe that one should avoid believing that a disaster is about to occur around every corner. Plan for the best but prepare for the worst is the best policy. Meanwhile we should enjoy the beauty that Phukets coast line has to offer. As well as being on the shoreline the office area of the school is well above the height reached by the last tsunami and is where our meeting point is located in the event of a tsunami warning.For further evidence of our concern I would invite you to read my article I wrote in March 2011. ( below)


Every time we hear news of another disaster, natural or otherwise, amongst many emotions, it is natural for us consider our own safety and especially that of our family. In the aftermath of the very sad events in Japan. Khun Shane has asked me to write an article about Tsunamis and the dangers they present to our school, and what our plans are in response to another event occurring in Phuket.
Before Continuing it may be valuable to introduce myself. My name is John Mood and I’m sure you’ve seen me in the school. Since I was a child I have always been interested in our world: the only subject I liked at school was Geography, always looking at atlases and books about different countries. To cut a long story short I got a degree from London University in geography and geology, and have spent my life mainly teaching in various parts of the world and arrived in Phuket on my small sailing boat just before the last tsunami in which my boat was almost destroyed. I mention this as it is relevant to the discussion, as I am fully aware of the power of nature.
Nobody has been able to predict when Tsunamis are going to happen and to be honest the science of geology is in many cases little more than opinion or theories, as is the case with the theory of evolution, or what happened to the dinosaurs. There are somethings however, of which we can be pretty sure. Tsunamis can arise from a number of situations. These can be roughly devided into two categories. The first and the cause of the most dramatic tsunamis are due to impact, such as landslides, meteorites and volcanoes. The highest tsunami in recorded history occurred in Alaska in the 1950’s when a landslide collapsed into a small inlet and caused a 500 metre wave. In geological history it is believed bigger events happened as a result of large meteorites crashing into the sea. Also Krakatoa, a volcano, caused a historically famous tsunami in the 1890”s. These are very rare events and unlikely to happen around the vicinity of Phuket, but who knows?
The second category relates to movement of tectonic plates. Tsunamis are caused by pressures built up over hundreds of years as a result of interaction between them and the sudden release of this pressure in the form of an earthquake. Japan is known to be one of the most earthquake prone areas on Earth being located on the corner of four such tectonic plates. It has had an average of one 8.5 on the Richter scale every 5 years since records began. Interestingly it has never had anything larger until the last tsunami. Once that particular stress has been released it takes many decades for the stress to rebuild and cause another quake. An example of this is the famous San Francisco Quake. After nearly 100 years people now say it is due for another quake.
The Situation in the case of the recent Phuket tsunami is similar to the California quake in that the pressure on that fault line has been released and will probably not rebuild for many decades. The history of Phuket shows an extremely low incidence of tsunamis. This means that the possibility of another tsunamis on Phuket is not high.
Not all earthquakes cause tsunamis and for there to be a large, dangerous wave, then certain conditions are necessary and different types coastlines are affected differently.
If we were to look at what happened in the last tsunami to hit Phuket, then we will see that the highest waves were on shores with extended shallow beaches which funneled the wave in a concentrated fashion, such as Patong and Kao Sok. They recorded waves as much as 15 metres high, I believe. The wave penetrated well inland, causing massive loss of life and damage.
Conditions are different in the Chalong area and the waves recorded were much lower: I believe they did not exceed 3 metres. A major factor in this, without going into much boring detail, are the islands you see when looking out to sea from the school grounds. They had the effect of reducing the impact. I firmly believe they would do the same in any further incidence.
I am not for one minute saying that there is no danger to the school and that the school should not take precautions or not have an evacuation plan. The truth is that anyone who chooses to live by the sea and enjoy its benefits, takes an element of risk. I am merely trying to put that risk into perspective based on my understanding and experience. I must also add that in recent years, if you look up the records, there does seem to have been an increase in the frequency of earthquakes and other natural disasters and as nobody really knows what is happening within the earth, it is only prudent to be safer rather than be sorry.
Tsunamis precautions.
Since the last tsunami Thailand and other countries have cooperated in building a Tsunami warning system which is designed to give 30 minutes warning from the particular fault line known to cause earthquakes. All schools are on the list to be warned. Khun Shane has also informed me that she has a friend working in the systems Bangkok office who has Khun Shane’s personal number. This should give us time to react.
In the case of the last tsunamis the wave knocked down the sea wall, but did not travel further than the canteen area. We feel that the office of the school is high enough too be safe, and is one of the highest areas in the locality, and this will be our assembly point. In comparison to the experience in the last tsunami if the wave were to be sufficiently large to reach the office then all roads from the school along the coastline would also be destroyed, along with the traffic they carry, as would most residential areas on the island. The road to Nai Harn, however, would take us further from the sea and to slightly higher ground. To try to get to very high ground such as the Big Buddha would mean travelling along low lying land and would therefore be dangerous especially as the last Tsunami proved that the road was blocked by traffic jams, with people trying to get to safety and to hospital. We also have the phone numbers of all parents to maintain contact.
I hope you find this article of interest and I welcome any discussion on any issues that need further clarification

Mar 21, 2011
Rawai Progressive International School
Phuket, Thailand