Montessori Education: To what extent is structure a good thing for children?

As a parent, Montessori Education was probably one of the first and earliest international ECE model that I was exposed to. The first time I went inside a Montessori school was 20 years ago when I was living in California. I remembered feeling rather unhappy that the school decided to place my 2.5 year child in a toddler class when she already knew her A-B-C's and her numbers. This just goes to show how shallow my understanding was on child development at that time. Fortunately for me (and luckily for my child/ren), my views of a child and childhood in general have changed drastically since then.

If there was one thing I remembered of my child's Montessori preschool in the US, I remembered it being very inviting to both my child and myself. The class decor and the layout of the spaces convinced me that the school would offer a great learning environment for my child. I needed no other persuasion. My child subsequently attended a different Montessori later on. The second Montessori was operating out of a home. There was only one mixed age class for no more than 15 children with two teachers. Again, despite the preschool being a home, I was very happy placing my child there.  The teachers appeared very informed and qualified about what they were doing. Coming from an Asian educational background, I didn't find the structure of a Montessori school stifling. Neither did the academic approach to learning numbers and language make me reconsider against putting my child there. All in all, my child was there for slightly under 2 years. She took on to preschool like a fish to water and was well adjusted.

It was only after I had my second child and third child and becoming a student of Educational Psychology, I realised that there are more options to early childhood education beyond Montessori. My second child never attended a Montessori school before. He has always been a very divergent thinker and learner. He was never good at conforming to rigid rules of doing things. He would never take art lessons because he said that art should never be taught. He refused to take Art as an exam subject because he felt strongly that art should never be tested. Even as a toddler, he would never line his stickers in a row, preferring randomness in presentation. He hated decoding phonics but was amazing at sight reading. But he did learn to read and draw.

I often wondered what it would have been for him if I had placed him in a Montessori school. I imagined that he would be very frustrated if he were asked to repeatedly stack a pink tower in just one way. But I guess I would never know for sure. A parent can only base his judgement on what he/she knows and perceives of her child.

Sketched by my son who refused all art lessons