Alex Blaikie Montessori - Natural Learning for Little People

"During this early period, education must be understood as a help to the unfolding of the child's inborn psychic powers. This means that we cannot use the orthodox methods of teaching, which depends on talk." - The Absorbent Mind :: Clio Press Limited, 1994 :: p. 4

Traditional		Montessori
1.	Teacher sets curriculum	1.	Child chooses materials
2.	Teacher sets pace	2.	Child sets own pace
3.	Teacher guides child	3.	Child free to discover on own
4.	Emphasis is on the abstract	4.	Emphasis is on the concrete
5.	Much role-play and fantasy	5.	Reality orientated
6.	Random placement - not necessary to return to specific place	6.	Specific places for materials - sense of order
7.	Teacher provides stimuli to learning	7.	Child provides own stimuli to learning
8.	Teacher-centred environment	8.	Child-centred learning environment
9.	Use of reward and punishment in motivation	9.	Self-education through self-correcting materials
10.	All children are treated alike	10.	Recognition of sensitive periods
11.	Play materials for non-specific skills	11.	Multi-sensory materials to develop specific skills
12.	Rigid rules not to move furniture and to sit in designated places	12.	Liberty to move about self and furniture
13.	Silence is on many occasions enforced	13.	Liberty to speak (without disturbing others) as he pleases
14.	Teacher does all and child is forced to follow	14.	Teacher's part is to guide child to act and think for himself
15.	Children are punished even if fault lies at the teacher's incapabilities	15.	Disorderly conduct in class is regarded as teacher's fault, she seeks it out and corrects it