Montessori graduates include celebrities such as George Clooney, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. (Getty Images)
Every year there are gloomy stories of more and more West Virginia public schools closing due to sinking enrollment, particularly in rural counties. Some causes include out-migration, an aging population and a sinking birth rate. But another reason is purely political: a Republican-dominated state legislature fixated on cultural issues and “school choice.”
The Legislature’s school funding formula appears to be extremely democratic, based on equal funding per student per school choice. However, student needs vary, as do school performance outcomes. The democratic ideal is to graduate students who have 1) achieved a uniform standard of education and 2) developed their individual potential.
Our legislature’s funding formula undermines both of these goals, particularly in rural public schools — ironically, in a largely rural state and in districts that many of our lawmakers represent. It’s time for West Virginians to elect more enlightened representatives.
Under the current formula, rural public schools are being decimated because funding is based on enrollment. At the same time, the formula shrinks public school enrollment by funding more Hope Scholarship vouchers for alternative schooling – at home, online and in private or religious schools.
The resulting financial crisis is pushing rural districts into a corner School closures and consolidationwhich brings modern problems: the waste and cost of abandoning rural school buildings, increasing the capacity of consolidated schools, the loss of experienced teachers and the centralization of administration/communications that is less responsive to peripheral areas.
Rural students who are transferred and moved around, especially younger ones, are likely to feel loss, disorientation, stress and social distancing. The logistics for parents and students become more hard: getting up earlier, getting to bus stops, bad weather and roads, longer bus rides, breakdowns and accidents, missed after-school and weekend activities like sports.
The situation is reminiscent of my school days, which began and ended with a two-mile dusty or muddy walk and a ten-mile bus ride on treacherous mountain roads, except when I had to hitchhike after soccer practice. City girls didn’t show much interest in me. I thought about dropping out even though I had top grades.
Instead of closing public schools with low enrollment, a better option is to switch to Montessori education, which starts with children ages 2 to 3, teaches the equivalent of three grades in one classroom, is sometimes bilingual, produces better academic outcomes, and develops qualities such as curiosity, self-motivation, cooperation, and creativity.
In a Montessori classroom there is usually a teacher trained in the method, an assistant, up to 30 students of different ages who move and speak freely but also focus on their choice of learning subject, and a prepared environment with learning materials and child-sized furniture. It is designed to address the main stages of child development (e.g. language learning), promote self-learning and peer interaction, and is led by the teacher and assistant who can offer either individual attention or presentations to groups of different sizes.
Switching to Montessori education requires an initial investment in specialized equipment and teacher training, but can be done gradually over several years. Once Montessori classrooms are established, operating costs are lower than customary classrooms. A recent national study found This: “Higher child-to-adult ratios in Montessori programs more than offset training and material costs, saving districts an estimated $13,127 less per child over three years.”
Free public Montessori schools operate the same as boutique Montessori private schools, which can charge up to $35,000 per year for preschool or elementary schools in New York City. Montessori graduates include entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Celebrities like George Clooney, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé; and royals like Princes William and Harry.
While I was completing my doctoral studies, my wife got a job as an assistant (later teacher) at a Montessori private school, where one benefit was free education for our two adolescent sons. Both learned reading, writing and basic math in preschool, continued in Montessori elementary school, and then excelled in regular public schools.
One became a physician recognized for his diagnostic skills; he might have treated you. The other became a software developer and worked for companies such as Sonos and SimpliSafe and as a consultant in the US and Ireland. You may have used products he helped create.
