IMS Consultation at New Way Montessori School

In September and October, 2007, Lee Havis, IMS executive director, conducted two 10-day consultation visits at the New Way Montessori School in Meridian, ID. Sponsored by Idaho Montessori Trust (Lee Havis, Wendy Lieberman, trustees), the New Way School is serving as an important laboratory for studying the practical use and effect of the IMS Montessori technology with children. Thus far, these visits have addressed issues relating to the basic order of the environment, including such topics as: disobedience, transition procedures for outside time, naptime and lunch, abandonment to fantasy, dependency in the adult-child relationship, social disharmony, physical aggression, and lack of work with materials.

Lee points out that the New Way School is still in its initial development stage, dealing with misbehavior and disorder issues that are common to many new experimental programs for children. He noted that “The primary advantage of this particular experiment is the high level of commitment of the teaching staff to learn and use the IMS technology, and their very positive attitude and approach towards the children. Problems arise, however, from their limited practical experience with the technology and the challenging circumstances of misbehavior in beginning conditions.”

Lee’s consultation involves a combination of directly interacting with children, observing staff, and conducting follow-up discussion to analyze the various problems that arise each day. Progress and results of this research are being reported to the IMS discussion list, intmontsoc, to include some 400 educators throughout the world in this learning experience as well. Lee is also incorporating this research into his new text, Technology of Montessori Teaching.

So far, the consultation has made some important findings to deal with a number of issues, such as: Disobedience— obtain child’s attention before giving clear direction, using full-body contact if necessary; however, be brief and use patient waiting and repetition as well, in the nature of “planting seeds”; Transition procedures— fully complete each activity in any orderly manner before moving on to the next; Abandonment to fantasy— interact with children at an early point in any fantasy scenarios, using specific clear direction and questioning; Dependency— stay as neutral and uninvolved with child as possible; Social disharmony— allow free, active movement and interaction among children, as long as it is not too aggressive or wild, even if it seems odd or unusual; Physical aggression— stay physically closer to hub children, using more verbal interaction, as well as gentle, cooperative touching to model good behavior; Lack of work with materials— take out materials and place on table for children who show tendency to fantasy or who are otherwise unable or unwilling to choose work from the shelf on their own.

Lee plans further consultation at the New Way School to deal with other basic issues until these are fully resolved. He states, “The success of this model school is important to assure the integrity and practical value of the IMS technology. In addition, we are using this learning experience to test out new materials and overall program design,which we hope to use on a wider scale elsewhere, such as in the operation of the Character Teaching (CT) project proposed to overcome poverty in various regions of the world.”