Classes Cater to Children’s Passions, Paces

As two little girls drew obtuse triangles, two others flipped through vocabulary cards a few feet away. The other 16 third-graders in their Irvine classroom were engaged in different projects, some coloring family portraits, others writing in their journals.

Santiago Hills Elementary teacher Sharon McCubbin uses the Montessori method, whose trademark is that students learn in a sort of self-paced instructional free-for-all, with structure provided by the daily, weekly and monthly task lists they create with their teachers.

That a teacher uses the Montessori method is not in itself unusual. That McCubbin and three colleagues use it at a public school is.

Santiago Hills is one of only about 20 public schools statewide where at least one class is taught with the Montessori method. Some educators argue that the public school system, with its standards-driven curriculum, excessively dilutes the Montessori approach. However, the teachers and families involved in Irvine’s program say that, for their children, there is no better bargain for a good education.

The Irvine Unified School District launched the Montessori elementary program in 1990 with a federal grant intended to help students learning English become proficient more quickly.

Since then, the program has been broadened to include any student in the district, with priority given to those whose siblings have been in the program or those with prior Montessori experience. To ensure minimum standards, applicants must submit language and math work samples, along with progress reports on the child’s reading level.

“The child doesn’t have to be highly intelligent, but they do have to be highly independent,” McCubbin said.

Since it is part of the public school system, there is no tuition, but parents are asked to donate $1,000 annually if they can afford it. Most of the Santiago Hills parents do, generating about $100,000 annually for a teacher’s aide in each of the four Montessori programs and to maintain the bounty of hands-on materials the Montessori method requires. Private programs typically charge at least $4,000 each year.

“When you compare the donation to what you pay at a private school, it’s definitely one of the better bargains I’ve ever seen,” said Megan Wagner, whose three children went through Santiago Hills’ Montessori program. “You’d pay more than that for piano lessons.”

About 100 children are enrolled in the Santiago Hills program, the district’s only elementary Montessori program. They follow the state and district curriculum -- albeit at a different pace than their peers -- take state-mandated tests and mix with the other 500 children at the kindergarten-through-sixth grade campus during recess, lunch and enrichment classes.

While no studies have tracked students who graduate from the Montessori program at Santiago Hills, the youngsters seem to have thrived, according to anecdotal evidence. Every child from the first class is in the first year of college, McCubbin said, and many leadership positions at Irvine high schools are held by former Montessori students.

Unlike other classes, where rows of student desks face the teacher, Montessori classes cluster student desks in small groups. Placed in corners, the teachers’ desks almost seem like afterthoughts.

Around the perimeter of McCubbin’s room are dozens of low bookcases laden with hands-on materials, including biographies of historical figures, strings of counting beads and Chinese calligraphy pens and ink.

Some focus on what the children have chosen for their “passion project” -- the key theme that will drive their learning for the rest of the year. One girl has chosen dogs, another has selected cooking.

Wagner likes the way the method caters to a student’s interests, such as the fascination of one of her children with dinosaurs. “It’s like getting a kid to eat peas by putting honey on them,” she said.

Even while slogging through vocabulary cards for upcoming state tests, Priscilla Vu said, being able to choose when she wants to study the dry material makes it more fun.

“I know there’s things I have to take care of, but it’s not so fun to be made to do things on a schedule,” said Priscilla, who turns 9 on Thursday. “In this class, we can do what we need to do to make ourselves better at our own pace.”

Maria Montessori, Italy’s first female physician, developed the method in 1907. Teachers rely on hands-on learning rather than drills or memorization. For example, the Irvine children learn how to write and spell by writing letters to classroom visitors and understand the parts of an animal cell by modeling it with clay.

The Montessori method has long been popular in private schools and was introduced to U.S. public schools in the mid-1970s. About 250 public schools offer at least one class using the Montessori method to about 40,000 students nationwide, according to the Minnesota-based Center for Public Montessori Programs. About 75 Montessori charter programs are now operating nationwide, including a five-campus chain opened last year in the Sacramento area.

Some Montessori advocates say the method doesn’t translate well to a standards-driven public school, but others add that taxpaying parents should have the right to choose their children’s instruction.

“If parents aren’t concerned that implanting Montessori in the public sector may dilute the approach, it shouldn’t concern us,” said Dennis Schapiro, director of the Minnesota center.

McCubbin’s class is unusual for a Montessori in that it has students in only one grade. The other three classes at the school have multiple grade levels, and students commonly remain with a teacher two or more years.

Paula Ota has seen two children, current student Kiara and older daughter Melissa, blossom in McCubbin’s class. To have a program with such an emphasis on hands-on, self-paced learning is invaluable, she said.

“When teachers are using a method they’re passionate about, whether it’s Montessori or whatever, their enthusiasm is contagious,” Ota said.