Difference between Kindergarten and Montessori System

Okay here is the most commonly asked question “what is the difference between Kindergarten and Montessori System?” You guys can find lots of answers for that here on the internet but what I’ve observed is, the answers have those very difficult terms which not everybody can understand especially those parents who aren’t aware at all of the Montessori system. Let’s start with Kindergarten first as most of us knows it already. It is the very system we have in our schools here. The one we call the traditional system. Where we learn a particular topic of a subject together, have deadlines to submit our assignments, prepare for examinations etc etc. In this system, our teachers are our leaders and we follow them.

While Montessorians disagree with the idea that all children learn in the exact same way at the exact same time of their life. Every child has their own interests and mood. A child learns through experience. The Directress is there to guide not to teach or give orders.

A Montessori classroom have lots of materials which they use to clear concepts. Like instead of showing the symbols “1″, “2″ while introducing numbers, they use Number Rods, and the Directress says “1″ while showing the smallest rod that represents one, then goes on with “2″ while showing the rod which is bigger than the first rod with 2 sections. In this way the child will learn counting till ten and then they are shown the symbols. By the time they see the symbols , they already know what they are, when they see 1 , they know what is one because the counted “1″ already using the concrete materials. In this way Montessori has materials for everything. As your child turns 6, you will know that your child is smart enough to go the next stage of his life. I won’t bore you with lots of details and instead gave you the shortest explanation I can.

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Part 5/5: White House Grammar School - Lessons Learned

Previous: Part 4/5: White House Grammar School - "Been there, done that"

Just few months before I left job, I was transferred to the main campus as the owner’s assistant. And in that case I came to know more about the ‘inside’ of the school. WHGS has power. Power in the sense that they attract parents towards their schools like a magnet well hats off to me for taking a great number of admissions while I was the admission officer over there.

After all sales talking is something. Okay coming to the academic side of the main campus, It was all messed up. There were lots of complains from parents in one single day and coincidentally the complains were pretty much genuine. God knows what the sectional heads were up to at that time.

Mismanagement of teachers was very common too because the more teachers were managed well the lesser complains would come. I was the one who had to deal with the parents and the heads used to just tell me what to tell them. There were many times when the parents complain on the phone and they weren’t entertained at all. The parents who personally go to the school and complain, are given preferences over those who did on phone or diaries. Parents were always given assurance that their problem will be solved but frankly speaking nothing was done related to that.

Now the school has seven branches, all the sectional heads removed and all their branches have very good response with good number of students. But the standard of education is nothing extraordinary as compared to other small schools that have opened in every street of Karachi.

The school has become a total commercial and isn’t able to maintain the quality education at all. How would they maintain a quality study when they won’t increase the pay scale for their teachers who are the main pillars of their success?

Enjoy :0)

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Part 4/5: White House Grammar School - "Been there, done that"

Previous: Part 3/5: White House Grammar School - On the Highway

I faced problems with dealing with the teachers as well as most of them were young and inexperienced so a lot of teaching from my side was required but that’s still better than having fussy senior experienced teachers. The teachers were hard working except for few.

It’s every school’s best quality to be able to hide their teachers’ shortcomings as much as possible but there were really some mistakes which can’t be just hidden from parents. But that’s really fine to hide the teachers’ mistakes with the intention of correcting it. Most of the teachers did correct the mistakes and some were just stubborn to do that.

WHGS was just lucky to have hardworking teachers with the pay scale they were offering. I must say that WHGS is not really good in rewarding their teachers’ efforts and good performance. The management do not pay them as much as they should be and of course the pay should match the responsibilities given to them. But the teachers adjusted to such pay since some of them lack in certain areas , like they’re undergrad or not much qualified or don’t speak English.

So here it is WHGS have many senior staff but mostly are in their main campus only but the teachers in the other campuses are not much experienced. At that time we did our best to give quality education to the kids in our junior branch but the main campus situation was very much different.

Next: Part 5/5: White House Grammar School - Lessons Learned

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Part 3/5: White House Grammar School - On the Highway

Previous: Part 2/5: White House Grammar School - The Ground Zero

That’s where my ‘real experience’ happened. WHGS had their second branch just nearby the main campus and I was made the Senior Mistress over there. Junior campus had classes from Montessori to class 2.

I was the Senior Mistress but was also handling a class of Montessori as well as was the coordinator of Pre-Primary. It was tough multi-tasking and eventually the task of being a class teacher was taken from me since I didn’t want to compromise with my quality of work and I found myself having difficulty coping up with quality work while multi-tasking. The management requested that I should remain the coordinator of Pre-primary since they couldn’t just give that responsibility to anyone yet. I give my 101% to my job and enjoyed the “seat” I got.

I was so proud of myself for my achievement. Everyone noticed me since I did some compeering for them too. We( me & Headmistress) divided the responsibilities among ourselves and I was trained by her at the same time. At first, The Headmistress was Ms. Rabeea Ali, I got to learn a lot from her too but she had some short comings as well, probably due to lack of experience. She was really good in some areas, like checking the spelling mistakes, taking care of presentation, she spoke English very well with a good accent, soft spoken and polite and had very good dealings with parents as well as parents.

My responsibilities then was checking of planners, conducting meetings, going for rounds and giving reports to the Headmistress, check students’ copies and diaries and mostly assist her. One fine day she had to leave job due to her marriage and she was replaced by Mrs. Saadia Ambreen. She is a very experienced lady and very much fit for the position. In the beginning she almost did her duty perfectly and of course I got to learn a lot from her since she was very good at training me. Like the previous Headmistress, both of us also had a very good chemistry and we got along very well. She helped me wherever I had to face problem and taught me how to solve them.

What I’ve shared until now are the positive side of my experience. I faced lots of challenges during my stay there and the biggest challenge was to work with the senior teachers of WHGS as their head because it’s just difficult for them to accept the fact that a very much younger lady than them are giving them instructions.

One incident that I cannot forget about WHGS is when I was accused by a senior teacher images (3) of something which I never did and reported me to the owner Mrs. Nuzhat Yazdani. Shockingly no one ever called me to hear my side of the story and instead rumors spread all around WHGS in both the campuses and I heard many things that was said by the owner herself against me.

This really left a bitter corner in my heart for that school. The management shouldn’t have tolerated this and instead should have asked for my side in front of that senior. But no one ever heard my side or at least gave me a chance to say it’s all false! I was already on the verge of quitting school but I didn’t want to do that. Why should I leave when I’m not guilty. So i decided to stay and face those cunning ladies.

I was still their head so, they really had no choice nor did I and we had to face each other daily but I did confront that senior teacher who accused me and I was satisfied after I saw the embarrassed look on her face. And yes I forgot to mentioned that after she reported me to the owner, she was as sweet as honey to me. But that didn’t change anything and I finally let go the matter after I told her I knew what she did behind me.

Skipping road forks!

Next: Part 4/5: White House Grammar School - "Been there, done that"

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