Choosing the preschool discipline: play or work for U.N. agenda 30 for sustainable development?

Confronting the new K to 12 program that demands a continuum of learning from kindergarten to senior high school to match the U.N. Agenda 30 for Sustainable Lifelong Development, the Department of Education (DepEd) is still in the process of searching for the ideal preschool curriculum as its basis and its corresponding teacher training program. Quality kindergarten teaches you all you need to know and prepares you for life. Parents usually keep looking for preschools with scholastic materials for the three R’s while overlooking the importance of conditioning the 3 to 5-years-old to work independently. Practical Life activities in Care of oneself, Care of home and garden, not mere admonition are needed to develop the child’s love for work and order. The Montessori system spontaneously builds the young child’s character simultaneously with skills in reading, writing, arithmetic and science.

The mixed-age class vs the traditional one-age class

At home, a mother with six children finds them easy to manage. But when there are twins or if other children are brought in of the same age, things become harder, since it is very tiring to cope with children who all want the same things.  The mother with six children is better off than the mother with one.

To segregate by age is one of the most inhuman things one can do. It breaks the bonds of social life and deprives it of nourishment. A child of three will take an interest in what a five-year-old is doing, since it is not far removed from his own powers. All the older ones become heroes and teachers, and little ones are their admirers. They are not discouraged by an older child knowing more than they do, for they sense that when they are bigger their turn will come.

A quality preschool for children below five is called a junior kindergarten or nursery. For five-years-old and above, it is called a senior kindergarten or pre-Grade I class. The three-year-old works best with Practical Life and Sensorial Apparata of Math, Language and Science of a good Montessori preschool.  Whereas he is usually saling pusa or visitor in a regular preschool.

Routine in a conventional pre-school

For preschool with same age group, after the greetings, the following routine schedule works out for three hours.

8:00 - Health inspection of teeth and fingernails. Children put away a bag with daily change of clothes and snack bag in cubbyholes.

8:30-9:30 – Activity period - Workbook time for the five-year-olds, cut and paste puzzles, dough play. Daily artworks with paint (Paint spattering with leaves, Potato stamping, Finger painting), dollhouse play, easel board.

Senior kindergarten activity period instead, focuses more on workbook like Language (writing alphabets and words, reading phonetic sounds and word).  Math (reciting and writing numbers 1 to 100), Social Studies (family and community), and Science (plants, animals, magnets, weather, etc.)

9:30-10:00 – Wash-up, Toilet break, Snacks of juice and cookies.

10:00-10:30 – Playtime in the schoolyard, Monkey bar, Slide swing.

10:30-11:00 – Music, Storytime, Departure.

Attempts to instill independence, sharing, or helping one another is lacking. The teacher dictates all activities until the children learn the routine.

How social behavior in a Montessori kindergarten takes place

A true Montessori preschool class would have a mixed age group of three to four and a half-years-old for the Junior Casa and five to six-year-olds for the Senior Casa (casa–house in Italian) The Montessori kindergarten is called Casa Dei Bambini, bridging home to school.

For the mixed-age group of the Montessori preschool class the routine schedule of 2 ½ to 3 hours is similar as the above except for the individual one-hour work period. Each child follows the “cycle of work” freely choosing from any of the five kinds of Montessori materials: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Math and Cultural Arts. Most of the materials are carried in a tray which is automatically returned in place after work. This encourages care and respect for each material. As the school year starts, the Montessori teacher is busy demonstrating different materials to each child who immediately learns how to work by himself. 

Freedom of choice is exercised since all activities provided are good. Materials have a “control of error” making the child readily aware of his mistakes that he corrects by himself, not needing the teacher’s interference. This allows   the teacher to have time for the timid or handicapped child as well as the advanced classmate who requires more difficult exercises.

The one-of-a-kind Montessori material is placed in a tray or box. If the material used by one child is also wanted by another child, the latter will “wait for his turn.” Meantime, he may choose something else. Important social qualities are derived from this. The child comes to see that he must respect the work of others. The idea of respecting others, and of waiting for one’s turn, becomes a habit. Character traits which we call virtues, spring up spontaneously. We cannot teach this kind of morality to children of three or four but experience can, given the “prepared environment” of work.

A true brotherhood among children

A five-year-old feels that he is a protector of the younger ones. The younger one thinks highly of his young guardian. It is hard to believe how deep this atmosphere of protection and admiration becomes in practice. The class gets to be a group cemented by affection. Not only are these children free from envy, but anything that is done well arouses their enthusiastic praise.

People sometimes fear that if a child of five gives lessons, this will hold him back in his own progress. In the first place, he does not teach all the time and his freedom is respected. Second, teaching helps him understand what he knows even better than before. He has to analyze and rearrange his little store of knowledge before he can pass it on. His sacrifice does not go unrewarded.

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