Wilmington Montessori Head of School Sarah Williams is hesitant to say it, but what can serve as both a benefit and detriment to Montessori learning for the uninitiated is this: “[The method] is very Instagrammable.”
Walk into any Montessori classroom and you’ll see colorful objects at every angle, items that look like they came from an Anthropologie catalog. Children across multiple age groups work in small, peaceful groups, often on stylish fringe rugs. A Montessori classroom is calm, with a specific energy and joy. It requires no filter. And therein lies the rub.
Williams points out that most parents with traditional educational backgrounds who haven’t been exposed to Montessori might be left with a false impression. “Your takeaway might be, ‘This is pretty, and the aesthetics are so specific and so idyllic, but where is the actual work? I want my kindergartner to learn the same stuff as the kindergartner down the street, and this is not the same.’ We do a lot of parent education to build that trust so that they know there is real content behind the beautiful [things].”
Those things—touchable items that inspire hands-on discovery—are a core component of the Montessori method. Pioneered by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori in the early 1900s, Montessori focuses on developing self-directed learning through tangibility and discovery as opposed to traditional, educator-led instruction that uses materials like textbooks and exams. Key pillars include physical materials, emphasis on choice and personal interest, play, peer learning, individualized education, and guidance.
Delaware is home to two public Montessori schools: First State Montessori Academy (FSMA) in Wilmington for students in K through Grade 8 and Sussex Montessori in Seaford for K to Grade 6, and as well as private Montessori institutions including Wilmington Montessori School (WMS), which opened almost 60 years ago and enrolls toddlers through eighth grade, and The Hockessin Montessori School (K through Grade 8). Both the Children’s House and Montessori Learning Center in Wilmington, as well as others, offer pre-K programs, but there are no Montessori high schools in Delaware.
While Montessori may appear nontraditional, neuroscience validates the method, asserts Lisa Lalama, outgoing head of school at WMS. “The research backs up what we know, which is that the Montessori method works with the way children’s brains actually develop,” she says. “The science tells us, ‘You’re doing the right thing.’”
Does that mean traditional education is wrong? Courtney Fox, head of school at FSMA, won’t go that far, but the former Teacher of the Year for the Brandywine School District couldn’t shake the notion that something was missing from the traditional school setting.
“There was a need for more focus on kids in terms of who they are as people, and what their needs are socially and academically,” Fox says. “In the traditional model, there was a lot of push to deliver curriculum but no emphasis on individual learners.” Seeing her own children’s experience in a Montessori preschool classroom got Fox’s wheels turning; this should exist for all kids, she thought.
Private Montessori schools in the First State proved successful for some time, but until 2014, there was no public option. Delaware became the 44th state in the nation to add it when Fox opened FSMA that year. A decade later, the school enrolls about 700 students and has a waiting list of close to 400.
The research backs up what we know, which is that the Montessori method works with the way children’s brains actually develop.
—Lisa Lalama
On a late spring visit to Fox’s school, I understand Williams’ Instagram point: I wondered, where are the textbooks? The desks? The teacher at the front of the classroom? Why is everything so pretty?
In the first multiage classroom I enter, children from fourth through sixth grades work in small clusters, their hands and eyes lost in the brightly colored wooden objects teaching them division, fractions, and the decimal system. A teacher sits with one group, which is ready to progress to the next lesson, while other groups work without an instructor. In another classroom, a student shows me how she deciphers, breaks down, and reconstructs sentences using physical items. For example, a bright blue triangle signifies an adjective.
“Every classroom has two certified teachers,” Fox says. “These teachers go through extensive training because to walk into a classroom and be able to meet 24 to 26 individual needs is much different than being given a curriculum that you’re just standing and delivering.”
The multiage approach is also unique and based on the planes of development Maria Montessori studied when she was working with different age groups. Kids work at varying levels and learn better in different ways. For instance, some younger students might learn better from a peer than from a teacher. In a single grade level, kids take on the same roles in a classroom every year, Fox points out. “But in this case, you’ve got kids of all ages taking different roles, and they cycle through the experiences of being the youngest and oldest. They experience being leaders, joining and building a community. It changes the dynamic. At the core of Montessori is individualized education. That’s what we’re doing.”
In 2020, Sussex Montessori opened on a picturesque Seaford farm campus with a specific goal: Get closer to the original Montessori model.
“Montessori started for underserved children in Italy over 100 years ago, but it morphed into this private school experience because the materials are so expensive and teachers so highly trained,” says Head of School Lisa Coldiron. “But there’s a lot of research around Montessori’s effectiveness with underserved students, particularly [those] of color. Our board pointedly asked us to be 51% underserved. We have growing Haitian and Hispanic populations, and incredibly diverse teachers. It’s a beautiful place to be.”
The “let the child lead” philosophy gives children what Coldiron sees as a critical tool for adulthood: creative agency.
“The Google founders [Larry Page and Sergey Brin] are Montessori kids. Julia Child is a Montessori kid. [So is Amazon founder] Jeff Bezos,” she points out. “These people are creators because they were built to create. For them, and for our kids, the teacher is the guide, but it’s the child’s classroom. We give them creative agency, and we help produce in them internal desire and joy for learning.
“It’s not an educator saying, ‘Six pages due by the end of the day.’ Each day, students have a work plan, and they have to follow it. Within that work plan, we’ve got to meet state standards, but we do it differently. For children to really grasp a concept, they need to use multiple modalities to map it on the brain. If they see it, hear it and touch it, they’ll remember it.”
In addition to academic lessons, the work plan involves lots of play and movement. There’s time for gardening. Programmatic standouts include chess and yoga. Tech is limited. “We’re not sitting them in front of Chromebooks and then wondering why adolescent anxiety is skyrocketing,” Coldiron says. “The factory model of traditional education is not working. Montessori is.”
But for how long? With no Montessori high schools for these nontraditional learners to transition to, what then?
According to these educators, it doesn’t matter. Montessori at an early age encourages individuality and independence, starting in the toddler room, Williams says. “They know who they are. They’re figuring out what their interests are. I know it’s funny to think of a 2-year-old developing independence and responsibility, but they do. They’re making their own snack, serving it, and picking up pride and self-confidence. All these pieces contribute to success when they graduate from our school.
“Parents get concerned when they leave our safe and wonderful community: How will they function? But [their children] leave with a sense of self. They ask for what they need. They see teachers as partners, not authority figures.”
As Montessori students grow older, the materials trend more traditional, so it’s not an entirely foreign experience when her students matriculate into non-Montessori high schools, Fox says. “We often hear about how successful our kids are. …I have principals asking to come speak to our eighth graders because they want our students. They tell us, ‘Every kid I get from your school knows how to approach work, knows who they are as a thinker, advocates for themselves, and contributes at such a high level—what are you guys doing over there?’”
In her wildest Montessori dreams, Coldiron would like to see more public options in Delaware, particularly in Kent County. Lalama hopes the state will put more money toward educators earning associate and bachelor’s degrees in early childhood education. “Another piece would be for the state to create pathways aligned with the American Montessori Society’s accrediting agency for teacher training,” she says.
As the director of the University of Delaware Montessori Teacher Residency and board member of Montessori Works, an organization aimed at increasing accessible and authentic Montessori education in Delaware, Linda Zankowsky tussles with these issues and more. She’s also founding chair of the board for Sussex Montessori, a Montessori Works project.
“We need to have more Montessori in Delaware, but the only way is to have teachers who have done their training and are prepared for the curriculum delivered in a Montessori classroom,” she says. “The academy is now established to provide for the expansion of Montessori and, largely, the public sector.”
With Montessori Works, Zankowsky is helping to shepherd new Montessori programs, such as an early childhood pilot with Wilmington’s Kingswood Community Center. “We’ve focused on early childhood because the research tells us that solid beginnings lay the foundation anywhere that a child goes to school,” she says. “We’re [also] deeply interested in engaging with the Kent County community to offer a public Montessori option.” Volunteer-run, Montessori Works seeks to roll out an expansive survey on education. “We don’t think we’ll see the word ‘Montessori,’ but we can see that people want child-centered education—that’s Montessori.”
Zankowsky celebrates how hard people are working in traditional education. “The problem is we have become top down in our approach. We’re legislating and regulating, then telling teachers what to do in their classrooms,” she says. “The tide is shifting because it’s not working. We have stressed children and teachers. Our schools are an assembly line. You go to kindergarten, you get this, you go to first grade, you get this, and by the time you’re 18, you’re a fully made car. But that is not how humans work, or how we develop.”
Developing human beings is the goal of Montessori, Lalama says. Their definition of success is not necessarily creating students who graduate at the top of their class or matriculate to Yale.
“Success for us is students with a love of learning that persists,” Lalama explains. This means students who stay curious, invested in learning, and ask the tough questions while knowing how to respectfully disagree when they’re conversing or debating, she says. “Those are all great skills to carry you through life. Montessori is a part of who they are and enables them to walk through life in a responsible, respectful manner—because they are good human beings.”
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