I think that every Montessori prepared environment has the potential to be a non-coercive environment and an environment where self-directed education is possible. But for this to occur, there must be time and faith in the child and in the method. While Peter Gray makes excellent points and writes about the differences in the two kinds of education, he misses the developmental aspect of human beings which changes at every stage of development. Education is an aid to development according to the nature of the person in that stage of development. I have only seen real and practical prepared environments in Montessori schools where developmental needs of children can be met without coercion. Where children can learn to become independent and interdependent without coercion and where children can become contributing members of the society they are in or will be in. I have not seen any other progressive or self-directed school where this is possible.

Hi everyone, I got into Montessori education in 2008 after 6 years of working as an engineer. I realised I wanted to contribute to the society in a way that used my strengths and happened to read Montessori’s wikipedia page while researching a career in education. It was the turning point and I have not looked back since. In the initial years, everything was new and interesting and I got to observe children and their development with and without obstacles. By 2012, I was deeply convinced that Montessori education was the key to solve most of the problems of conflict in the world. I could see children were truly joyous in a Montessori environment and I could see love and feelings of cooperation develop easily. In contrast, traditional education usually developed feelings of one-upmanship and I think competition in traditional school drives me crazy. I hope to create environments where the right conditions to develop according to human tentencies and characteristics of the age are present. I think thats the contribution I can make for children in the environments and it’s the only way to inspire others to change their education methods. People need to experience or witness something to be able to trust it and so I hope to provide that opportunity for others to trust Montessori through real work in Montessori education.

@Christine Lowry Thank you for your reply. I think Montessori environments have the universal design and more already. It just needs to be there from the start to finish (0-18) and can’t suddenly be used at a later stage of development and expected to work the same way it would for a child who has had the privilege of having it from the start. Yet it is more effective as compared to other methods. Montessori uses language which is not acceptable to the world at present and so her research does not get heard or realised. I refer to the below article to explain more https://archives.montessori-ami.org/do/3d92c472-a82d-46a3-949c-c1eea24be5e3#mode/2up/search/Defective

Hi Christine, thank you too for engaging with me. I am from India but I live in Singapore. I have not done a study of the statistics here or in India but I do see a lot of children with different needs coming to our school. When we accept them into our Montessori environments (3-6) and when the parents are counselled to have patience and understanding, we see the magic of Normalization occuring after a few years. However, most parents struggle to give their children or the environment time to do its thing and intervene with external therapy. Even though we may see progress in some of the child’s work because of the therapy or informal interventions, we don’t see the magic of Normalization. I’ve been observing this since 2011 and so my faith in Montessori environments as Montessori intended is very strong. I think not only parents but Montessori school administrators and practitioners also struggle with faith in her method, the child and the environment and so we start getting the feeling that Montessori does not meet the needs of all children. I do not believe that to be true. I think we must persevere hard in the faith in self-construction and just provide the right conditions for life and wait.

I think there should be a space where there is specific deep drive into Montessori theory and practice. I think so because when I read everything else, I start getting the feeling that the wheel is getting reinvented in education and so a lot of time is getting wasted.