Malcolm is a well
known and respected member of our Montessori community. But unlike many of us he is at the end of his
Montessori journey. His youngest daughter
Leah has recently graduated from our local Montessori school and will next year
commence her first year at Canberra Girls' Grammar School. I thought I would ask Malcolm a few questions
and find what is at the heart of his dedication to Montessori education.
Can you tell us
about how you were first introduced to Montessori and what your thoughts were
at the time?
As a youngish
father, I was 35 when the Canberra Montessori Society was set up by Margaret
Fleming, I had no thoughts on education.
I was too wrapped up in my own life - work, hobbies, marriage, house,
etc. Even the birth of my eldest, Jeremy, came as a bit of a surprise - I had
no plans to be a father! It was my wife
Liz who saw through my preoccupation and decided it was time, and it was she
who introduced me to Montessori. Liz
joined the fledgling CMS, was secretary for a while, and set me to work
building pink towers and playgrounds. I
still haven't really read very much of Maria Montessori's writings so my
interest in the Montessori Method comes more from observation and participation
than from theory.
Your son Jeremy
was in the foundation class in 1981 as a three-year old and is now studying
Medicine . What impact do you think his
Montessori education had on him?
There are so many
influences on a child that it is hard to pin this down, especially as Jeremy
only did three years with Montessori as our School only had two cycle 1 classes
then. Everyone had to move on to another
school when they turned six. However, he
has an amazing ability to focus and to concentrate on the job in hand which I
could say his early Montessori schooling must have influenced. He has always enjoyed learning and always
wanted to be good at what he does, two other attributes I'm sure influenced by
his early involvement with Montessori.
He, himself, remembers his Montessori period fondly, especially some of
the geography work (he learned what an isthmus is) and numeracy work. He still sees Montessori equipment in his
mind when he is doing mental arithmetic.
Readers may be interested to know that his first love is flying and he
was flying 747s for Qantas by the time he was 25. He loves the intellectual and manual challenge
that mastering big and small aeroplanes presents - dexterity of the mind and
hands is required, and bringing the aircraft safely back to land and neatly
parked is not unlike a Montessori child mastering an equipment-based challenge
and returning it safely to its designated place on the shelf.
Have you implemented Montessori principles
in your home?
One of the first
elements that appealed to me in establishing our "children's house"
classroom in Canberra was how everything is designed with the children in mind
- the prepared environment, put together so that children can operate within it
so easily. I guess it is intuitive when
you think about it, but so many people do very little to make their home
child-friendly. It is not hard to do the
basics, making sure things are within reach, door handles down low where
needed, chairs and tables the right size, or at least steps and stools to bring
a child to the right level, mirrors they can see themselves in. So, yes, I have always tried to do that, as
well as doing as much as possible to encourage my children to do things for
themselves. Leah has been making her own
lunch to take to school since she was 10.
You have an obvious passion for MG motor
cars. How have you shared that passion
with your children?
Ah yes, my children have learned to "roll with
the punches" when it comes to my MGs.
There are three distinct phases of rolling. At first they know no different and are happy
to travel in what is clearly (to everyone else on the road who stare at us) an
unusual car. But when they get to about
11, they become sensitive to the stares and go through the "can you just
drop me here where no-one can see me" period. This can coincide with the third phase which
is "when is the next motorkhana, Dad, I need to practice my gear
changes?" I have one MG in
particular that has been used to teach each child to drive when they get to
12. At this age, they are permitted to
drive the car in MG Car Club events and I like to think that by learning how
the car works, and how to drive it proficiently, they are better prepared for
when they get their licence and drive on the road with the rest of us. This MG is now owned by Leah who can drive it
reasonably well and proudly proclaims the fact to her friends. She still prefers to be dropped off around
the corner though! As a final parting gift
to the parents and students of our School community who have observed my own
fleet of MGs coming and going over the years, I arranged for a display of 25
MGs to be put on at our annual Spring Fair this year. The cars ranged from a 1925 replica of the first
MG, through to a pair of 2005 model cars, the last produced in England, with a
good selection of models in between, some rarely seen on the roads in
Australia.
You are known for 'keeping the faith'. What
does this mean and at what times has it been difficult to keep the faith?
There are many
pressures on parents when it comes to deciding on education options for their
children - financial, religious, doctrine, etc, so it is not surprising that
the attrition rate from a small School such as ours is quite high. Currently we go from a cohort of about 50
children in the first year of our cycle 1 classrooms to a graduating group of
about 10 as students leave along their Montessori journey to attend other
schools. Also, as a small community, the
personal element can become quite influential too, especially if a parent sees
their child having interpersonal issues with other students or with classroom
staff. There are not many options within
the School to help with these issues.
And the parent community can also have either a positive or negative
effect. My current partner Gaye, Leah's
mother, and I have had our share of these during Leah's time at the School, but
personally I felt it was important for Leah to have stability during her
primary schooling (unlike myself who attended seven primary schools as my
father moved from city to city with his work), and I also wanted to see how a
complete Montessori primary education prepared Leah for high school. Gaye was happy to support me in this choice.
With Leah
transitioning to Girls' Grammar do you feel there are any particular challenges
or advantages transitioning from a Montessori school?
Canberra Girls
Grammar School is a typical (I'm sure they would argue about this choice of
word) well-resourced Australian private school.
It has been carefully managed over nearly 100 years and so has a
beautifully organised set of buildings offering everything in education that
any parent (and child) could wish for.
Everything from hands-on science labs, art studios, drama theatres and
fashion rooms to well-resourced libraries and classrooms to challenge the
intellect, picking up a gymnasium, swimming pool and manicured sports grounds
along the way. A Montessori graduate
with their love of learning, their honed research skills and their deep
understanding of literacy and numeracy will find just what they are looking for
somewhere inside the school's gates. The
biggest challenge will be transitioning to a more structured framework where
she will be expected to do some work that she might prefer not to be doing, but
I don't see this as a major issue. She
will still have plenty of time to dig deep into other things. She may also have to work a bit harder to
catch up to other girls from more traditional schools who already know their
maths by rote but who don't really understand why it is so (unlike a Montessori
child who can picture her maths in her head and instinctively understands why
it is so!).
What advice do
you have for parents considering a Montessori education for their children or
for those who are unsure if Montessori is for them?
I love the way
that at nearly 12 years old, Leah still skips into School. For me, this is the most important element in
her education so far, the love of learning.
How many other children do you know who still skip to school at this
age? Still have the light in their eyes
as Trevor Eissler says. They are more
like the children in his delightful Youtube clips that explain so clearly the
benefits of Montessori approach. I feel
so for the child trudging to and from school weighed down by a back pack full
of homework! But more than that, I'm
convinced that the deep understanding of how things work that Montessori's
equipment-based learning gives children is a distinct advantage in the longer
term. Just think of Jeremy in the
cockpit of his 747 second-guessing his on-board computer's navigation
calculations with his own mental arithmetic picturing his early Montessori
equipment. Add to that the "big
work cycle" for concentration, the "respect for the child"
philosophy for self-esteem, and the emphasis on "research" and
"independence" to encourage a child to get to the bottom of things on
their own or in small groups, and you have the basis for a set of skills to
carry any child through any high school or university into any profession or
occupation they may choose to follow.
For life.
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Thank you so much for allowing me to interview you Malcolm! Also a big thank you to the talented Ayu Srimoyo for the wonderful photographs.
