Projects  Indigenous Communities Armidale |
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Peter Erskine, Montessori teacher, recounts some of the results of the Minimbah Montessori pilot programme. The pilot programme ran from 2006 to 2009 and was supported by the Montessori Children's Foundation and by a donation from Virgin Blue's Red Jet Foundation. Montessori is transformative of children, family and communities. This has been demonstrated time and again on every continent for over 100 years. I believe that the experience of the Minimbah program is another such demonstration of this. The programme began with 7 children aged from 5 to 7, a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and was adapted to meet the needs of the children. After almost 4 years the class had been built up to 18 to 20 children, all of whom attended full time. None of the children could read, write or count beyond twenty at the beginning. The children who completed the programme improved their literacy and numeracy levels by up to 2 to 3 years. In 2010 the Indigenous Montessori children topped their school in the national NAPLAN tests. Two of those children achieved the highest bands in literacy and numeracy. This is an extraordinary achievement. However, the change was not confined to the children. Parents began taking their children to the library regularly and strove to keep the programme at the school because, "it is the only thing that has worked for our children". Behaviourally, the children in the Montessori class were the best behaved in the school, motivated to learn, caring of their peers. Their school attendance and motivation was also consistently high. One parent described how her daughter had transformed, reliably caring for her younger sister and brother, had opened her own bank account, and initiated her own homework at home. Another student, as a result of the kitchen garden programme which I was developing alongside the Montessori programme, was growing vegetables at home with his father and exhorting his parents and siblings to stop eating junk food. The drop out rate amongst Indigenous children in schools throughout Australia is extremely high. In the north east region of NSW the drop out rate of Indigenous students through to the HSC is around the 90% mark. Most of the problems that Indigenous students face in high school have their origins in early childhood and primary education. Montessori education can provide a model of innovation and thereby make a significant contribution to increasing the number of Indigenous children who complete their HSC. This will happen if there are strong and inclusive Montessori communities in towns like Armidale. This indeed is the reason the Montessori Children's Foundation was founded. |
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