6 The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday, March 15, 1977
Montessori school
Special materials, directresses
enhance preschool learning
By LAURIE BAKER
DTH Contributor
The children sit so absorbed in their
playthings that they scarcely notice the
teacher, who moves quietly around the
room.
A little girl with blonde curls scrubs a
lilliputian breakfast table, while a 3-year-old
boy sits blindfolded as he feels the textures of
cloth and sandpaper. Across the room,
children are making up words with movable
letters.
The scene is typical of the atypical
classrooms at the Chapel Hill Montessori
School for children aged 2 and-a-half
through 6. Nestled in woods off Weaver
Dairy Road, the one-story wood building
looks more like a sprawling ranchhouse than
a school.
The preschool is based on theories from
the early 1900's of Maria Montessori, an
Italian physician and mathematical prodigy.
EVERY CHILD is a born explorer, she
said. She believed that a child could perform
better if he relied on his own intellect rather
than other people.
The teacher and parent should interfere as
little as possible, she said. She said that they
should observe, guide and aid the child
without dominating the scene. They should
stimulate the child's interest, she said, so the
child can make discoveries on his own.
She believed the teacher must present the
child with enough information to spark his
interest. Thus she designed special materials
that are used in all Montessori classrooms.
The materials, in many colors, shapes and
forms, teach children to match, grade and
differentiate by means of the children's
senses. Wooden puzzles involve putting pegs
into appropriate holes. Color tablets form an
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Staff photos by Allen Jemigan
'The child is in charge, not the
grownups."
orderly pattern only if arranged from
darkest to lightest. Building blocks, sets of
bells, beaded rods, geometric figures and
movable numbers are only a few of the
Montessori materials.
The Chapel Hill school applies Maria
Montessori's theories by emphasizing the
individual. Children are free to move around
the classroom, talk with other children and
choose work according to their interests.
THE TEACHER'S role is to stimulate the
child and then leave him free to develop. The
teachers are called directresses because they
do not teach but direct the child.
The Chapel Hill school contains three
classrooms, each designed for 25 children.
The children are not separated by age: 3-year-olds
are in the same class with 6-year-olds.
"The older children often feel
responsible for the younger ones," says the
school's owner and directress Mary Henry.
"They all help each other out."
Three classes are held from 8:30 to 1 1:30
a.m. Monday through Friday. A special
class from 12:30 to 2 p.m. is geared for
children aged 4 and a half through 6. This
class is an extension of the regular classes
and is devoted to group projects.
Each class is guided by one directress and
her assistant. The directresses have attended,
in addition to college, national Montessori
training schools for one year.
Seventy-five children attend- the
preschool, and 18 more children are on a
waiting list. "But we don't plan to expand,"
says school administrator Francis Henry.
PARENTS PAY $590 per child for the
academic year, but the cost of Montessori
equipment is high. Materials for each
classroom cost approximately $6,000. They
are handmade and imported from Holland.
The school began in 1 97 1 , when a group of
parents formed a corporation and rented,
two rooms in Aldersgate Methodist Church.
Enrollment for that year was 40 children.
Francis and Mary Henry took over the
business the next year.
They converted a warehouse off Weaver
Dairy Road into a school building. When
three classrooms were completed,
enrollment almost doubled.
A typical classroom at the Chapel Hill
school is divided into four sections: the
sensorial center with Montessori materials, a
practical-life area with miniature equipment,
a language area with spelling and reading
aids and a math section with beaded rods
and scales.
IN ONE corner of the room, miniature
brooms, tables, pitchers and water basins
allow the children to explore practical life.
"Everything is scaled to the child's size to
make him feel at home," directress Jane
Lazaron says. "The child is in charge, not the
grown-ups."
Another section stresses language skills.
Picture cards can be matched up with word
cards. Pencils, paper and booklets aid in
writing.
The math section is equipped with balance
scales and beaded rods that help children see
quantities. Velour numbers are pasted on
wood blocks so that the children can feel the
shapes of numbers. "The children learn
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' Teachers do not dominate the scene. They
can make discoveries on his own.
quantity first, then' the number," Lazaron
says.
"In most preschools, children memorize
what's written on a blackboard: one plus one
equals two. Here the children see what math
is all about. Math is based on the concrete."
THE CHILDREN are free to do what
they want," Lazaron says. "This helps give
them security. They are highly respected and
very independent."
The students, however, must follow
certain rules. They cannot scream or'run.
When they are finished with an object, they
must replace it on the shelf where it belongs.
"When a child misbehaves," Lazaron says,
"we talk to him until he verbalizes what's
wrong. Usually there's an underlying reason
why he has misbehaved."
Directress Carol Keintz agrees: "If one
child hurts another, we give our attention to
the child who is hurt. Eventually the other
child will come over and apologize because
he's not getting any attention."
03
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How hiring you
can cost somebody
$42,168
Whatever America's unemployment
rate, 89,000,000 of us now hold jobs.
That won't mean much when you look
for a job, yourself. You'll have tough
competition. You're among 18,000,000
more Americans looking for work over
the next ten years. That's how many
new jobs America must create, includ
ing yours.
It's going to cost a lot of money.
Before you get a dime of salary, who
ever hires you will have to buy tools,
office space, factory equipment and
buildings the things it takes to let you
do your job. The average cost to com
panies is now $42,168 for each job.
We don't mean you can't be hired
until your employer finds exactly
$42,168. You might walk into an existing
job. But don't count on it. Not with
18,000,000 competitors. Some compa
nies can hire you for less than $42,168.
But others heavy industry, for
instance need much more. At Armco,
our cost is now $55,600 a job.
That money must come from
whatever a company has left over after
expenses. In other words, from profits.
A company might borrow against fu
ture profits to make you a job. But
still, profits pay for jobs because that's
the only source companies have.
If you asked your friends how
much the average U.S. company clears
in profits on each dollar of sales,
chances are many of them would guess
25C or more. The truth is 5C or less. .
That's not much to put to work to
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JOB. I
FBSS-Armeo's
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We've got a free booklet to help you
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prepared for Armco by a consulting
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Send for your free copy of How to
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ation, Educational Relations Dept.,
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S
AIM (DO
Plain talk
about PROFITS
Over our company's 77-year history,
Armco has averaged 5C profit on each
dollar of sales. We pay out part of our
earnings immediately in dividends to
Armco's 100,000 shareholders. So out
of each nickel, we have perhaps 3C
left to invest in new jobs.
Building $55,600 jobs-3C at a
time is tough. At this rate, we must
sell another $1,850,000 worth of
products and services to clear enough
money for a single new job. That's
why better profits are important. They
make more jobs. Even Government
jobs. The Government's money comes
from taxes on all of us who work.
Next time some know-it-all sneers
at "money-grubbing business',' ask him
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at his own job chances, and yours.
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Armco wants vour plain
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Does our message make sense? We'd
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or disprove our point. Drop us a line.
Well send you back a more detailed
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stimulate the child's interest, so the child
A CHILD'S right to work undisturbed is
central to Montessori education. The
children are not forced to share materials.
Each child must await his turn.
One mother, who refused to identify
herself, criticizes this policy: "Sometimes my
child seems too independent. He expects to
get his way all the time because he is not
forced to do much at school."
Another parent, who is an intern at the
school, disagrees. "Independence is good for
a child," Cathy Beemer says. "He learns to be
responsible because he is treated with
respect."
"Self-correcting Montessori materials
provide good learning experiences," says
UNC Prof. Barbara Day, who teaches early
childhood education. "The child uses his
senses to learn, and this is necessary."
However, Day admits there are
limitations to the Montessori method.
"Most of the materials can be used in only
one way. Take the pink tower, for example.
You must stack pieces in graduated size until
they form a pink tower. The toy won't work
in any other way. It can stifle a child's
creativity. Maybe he wants to construct a
boat or train."
LAZARON disagrees. "It's not true that
they can be used only in one way. We show a
child how the toy is supposed to "work, but
the child is not forced to use it in that way.
He can combine the pink tower with another
toy and make a bridge or whatever he
wants."
Lazaron says that the children who
complete the Montessori pre-school make
steady progress in the first grade. "Since the
child has already learned basic concepts in
math and language from the Montessori
school," she says, "he can concentrate on his
social relationships in the first grade."
Emily Hodgson, who teaches first grade at
Ephesus Road Elementary School, says that
all children in first grade concentrate on
social skills. "1 don't think this effort toward
social acceptance is unique to Montessori
children,", she says.
"Yet they do have an easier time with
math. Since Montessori children have spent
years working with concrete math beads
and rods they can more easily grasp ideas
and conceptualize. They have an easier time
going from the manipulative to the
abstract."
Lecture Tonight
The Family: Past, Present and Future
The Women's Studies Program of UNC invites you to at
tend the first lecture of a series on "The Family: past.
Present and Future" at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night at 100
Hamilton Hall. Dr.Tamara Haraven, historian and editor of
the Journal of Family History will speak.
ii
EVERY
TUESDAY NIGHT
IS
COLLEGE WIGHT
Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd.
900 West Hodges St. Raleigh
Guys $1 .00 Girls Free
Free Draft 8:00-9:30
Any beverage 500 all night
m
exti year-
you (OouQdl lb on
scholairslhiDpo
An Air Force ROTC 2-year scholarship. Which not
only pays your tuition, but also gives you $100 a
month allowance. And picks up the tab for your books
and lab fees, as well.
And after college, you'll receive a commission in
the Air Force ... go on to further, specialized
training . . . and get started as an Air Force officer.
There'll be travel, responsibility, and a lot of other
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But it all starts right here ... in college . . . in
the Air Force ROTC. Things will look up . . .so look
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Satisfactory completion of a six week field training experience will
award three hours credit when you enroll in UNC the following Fall.
Contact: Capt. Anderson, Lenoir Hall South.
Put it all together in Air Force ROTC.
PEKING GARDEN R ESTAURANT
Now! For the First Time in Chapel Hill
Enjoy Chinese Food in Privacy and at Ancient Oriental Tempo
Over 100 dishes
Gourmet food from all
four corners of China
Pel ang, Szechuen,
Canton, Shanghai
Prix ate party rooms
available .
Dine amid the art of
China ,
at
1404 East Franklin St.
Just before Estes Dr.
' (Bus routes F & G)
942-1613-
Ample Parking
A . M 1 1 Vwl
Open 7 days a week
Lunch 11 am to 2 pm
Dinner 5 pm to 10 pm
Join us in the celebration of
the New Year 4675 The year
of the Serpent. Enjoy Special
Dishes for the New Year.
We are open during all
holidays
Luncheon Specials
Available Monday
through Friday from
11 to 2