Maybe Montessori has the right idea

May 11, 2008

I thank Michael Cross-Barnet for capturing the kind of emotions my family and I felt during the orientation for the Montessori Public Charter School ("A place to grow," editorial notebook, May 3).

But there is one line in the article with which I disagree - the one that suggests that the Montessori school's approach may not be the way to save public education in Baltimore.

I believe that the Montessori method, or at least a child-centered approach that combines freedom with discipline and would release Baltimore's teachers from having to deliver a test preparation course in lieu of an education, is just the formula for saving Baltimore's public schools.

While most public schools will never be charter schools, the new school-based funding gives principals more freedom to adopt the methods they see fit and use the budget for teacher training, planning and materials to support that method.

If many of Baltimore's principals do that, something of the Montessori method may be the recipe for saving Baltimore's public schools.

Allyson Mattanah

Baltimore

The writer is a parent of two prospective students at the planned Montessori Public Charter School.

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Maybe Montessori has the right idea

Related topic galleries: Charter Schools

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