By Joyce Kryszak
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-914675.mp3
Buffalo, NY –
Budget cuts and ever stricter standards leave public schools, especially in urban areas, struggling to provide quality education for children. Some wealthier suburban school districts get high marks for the quality of their public schools. But some parents are frustrated with the entire traditional system. And there is a growing interest locally in the century old Montessori method.
The gray-haired woman sits crouched on a child-sized chair next to petite four year-old Audrey. She's busy looking for apples and alligators. Eileen Buermann has been helping children like Audrey "find out things on their own" for more that three decades now. She even teaches the teachers who keep the Montessori method going.
The program started in Europe and has spread around the world over the last one hundred plus years. Buermann said it is a system that places peace, nurturing, respect and self-discovery above even academics. She said children miss out on all of that with a traditional education.
"Why do we do that to children?" asked Buermann.
Buermann was one of five educators in Buffalo who asked those questions back in 1976 - and then persisted with a solution. Their efforts led to the creation of the Bennett Park Montessori school in Buffalo - one of the country's first public Montessori schools. Since then, Buermann has trained hundreds of teachers in the Montessori method.
Student teachers in Buermann's current class sit down to compare notes after the day's session. They are learning how the Montessori method works by observing children in a real classroom setting. They will become skilled at helping children develop a love of learning by giving them freedom in an environment prepared with materials designed for their self-directed learning.
Once the teachers' training is complete they hope to get jobs at Bennett Park and a handful of private Montessori schools locally and in the region. Nardin had the first Montessori program in Western New York. Kristin Whitlock is principal of the private Montessori elementary school that teaches children through 3rd grade. Whitlock said there is a growing demand, and they operate year-round to meet the need, especially for working parents.
One of those working parents is Christina Barrett. She has enrolled her two children in a Montessori school. And, once she's done with this training class, she will be joining them. You see, Barrett left the corporate world to become a Montessori teacher. Barrett said she wants more for her children - and herself - than traditional education offered her.
Barrett will have plenty of opportunity to see her children learning. She has already been hired as a teacher at a new Montessori School where he children are enrolled for the fall.
Montessori school owner Anu Ramesh walks us through the newly constructed school, Curious Minds. This new Montessori school is opening in a town where you might not expect there'd be much of a demand for public school alternatives. It sits in the heart of Clarence.
Ramesh is a long-time Montessori teacher who moved to Clarence from Boston with her husband and son about a year ago. Ramesh said she knows the schools in Clarence are excellent. But Ramesh said she wanted her three-year old son to have a Montessori education - and there weren't any Montessori schools nearby. The closest is in Lockport. So, Ramesh said she decided to build one. Yes, she says, Montessori is really that special.
And she is not the only one in her area who is passionate about Montessori.
Ramesh said they have already taken enough registrations to open two classrooms for ages three to six. They have children enrolled from Clarence, Williamsville, Amherst and other high quality public school districts.
For now, the school only teaches through kindergarten. There actually aren't any Montessori schools in the area that teach beyond the elementary level. But Ramesh said she has dreams of one day of expanding the school and being able to offer Montessori to older students too.