MONTESSORI IS UNDOUBTEDLY GOOD IN THE EARLY YEARS, BUT I’M NOT SO SURE AFTER ABOUT AGE SEVEN. I could be wrong, though, and I’m certainly open to persuasion: Maria Montessori’s ‘Libertarian View of Children’
Maria Montessori’s ideas about education stem from the principles of choice, individual dignity, spontaneous order, experimental discovery, and freedom of movement. They stand in radical contrast to traditional schooling, too often based on authority, central planning, rigid instruction, and force. She once described children in such schools as “butterflies stuck with pins, fixed in their places.”