Maria Montessori: Is the Montessori method any good?

Google celebrates the 142nd birthday of Italian physician Maria Montessori. Does Montessori's 'child-centered' method work? In 1907, Italian physician Dr. Maria Montessori opened the first Casa Dei Bambini to work with poor children in the slums of Rome, presenting the world with a living example of her scientific theories of education. At the beginning of the 20th century, Italy's first female physician, Maria Montessori, sought to turn education on its head. Using methods developed through her work with developmentally disabled children, Montessori created a 'child-centered' approach that emphasizes rich environments, freedom, and respect for the student's point of view.

"Education is not what the teacher gives," wrote Montessori, a devout Catholic whose classical empiricism echoes that of St. Thomas Aquinas, in a 1946 book. "[E]ducation is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words."

Instead of emphasizing drills and memorization, with students all doing the same thing at the same time the same way, the Montessori method deploys student-selected work, small-group instruction, a lack of exams and grades, and collaboration, often between students of different ages. Montessori stressed the importance of developing social skills alongside academic ones.

RELATED: Maria Montessori and 10 famous graduates from her schools

Her approach has caught on. The International Montessori Index estimates that there are some 4,000 certified schools in the United States and about 7,000 worldwide. ('Montessori' is not trademarked, and other estimates say there are roughly 20,000 such schools around the globe.) In the United States, this includes hundreds of public schools, as well as some high schools.

But does it actually work? How does a Montessori education stack up to a conventional one?

The evidence tilts in Montessori's favor. A 2006 study of 112 students in a Montessori school and conventional public schools in Milwaukee found that the Montessori students performed significantly better on both cognitive and social measures.

Half of the students in the study were 5 years old, and half were 12. The Montessori 5-year-olds performed better than those their age at other schools when it came to identifying letters and words, solving basic math problems, and ordering and categorizing. The young Montessori students interacted more positively on the playground and were more likely to deploy reasoning in social negotiations, often with appeals to abstract values such as justice and fairness. The researchers found no differences between the spatial reasoning, vocabulary, and concept formation skills between the two groups of 5-year-olds.

The differences between the two groups of 12-year-olds were less pronounced, but still present. Essays written by Montessori students used more complex sentence structures and were rated as more creative, but the students in the conventional public schools appeared to have "caught up" on many of the researchers' other measures. The Montessori students tended to select more constructive responses to hypothetical social problems, and they reported feeling a stronger sense of community at their school.

In a 2006 interview with Scientific American, University of Virginia psychologist Angeline Lillard, who led the study, speculated that the less-conspicuous differences in academic performance between the Montessori and non-Montessori 12-year-olds could have been a result of the school being only three years old when the 12-year-olds enrolled back in 1997. Lillard noted that it takes time for a school to put Maria Montessori's method into practice.This was very authentically implemented Montessori," she told Scientific American. "It's actually a fairly small percentage of schools that are this strict.

Other studies loosely corroborate Lillard's findings on the effectiveness of a Montessori education, but they vary in the details. A 2009 study, also in Milwaukee (which is attractive to researchers because students are placed via lottery), found that high school students who had attended a Montessori school performed significantly better on math and science tests, but not in English and social studies.

What accounts for the outcomes among Montessori kids? It could be that the Montessori method teaches them to be more motivated and focused. A 2005 survey of 290 middle-school students by psychologists Kevin Rathunde and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that the Montessori students were more likely to report being driven by an interest in academic tasks, and that they were more likely to report getting joyfully immersed – feeling "in the zone" – when doing their work.

Such finding would be very much in line with Montessori's educational philosophy, which emphasizes devoting long uninterrupted blocks of time to tasks. "The child who concentrates," wrote Montessori in her book The Absorbent Mind, "is immensely happy."

The same holds true for adults, even into old age. A number of studies have found that Montessori-based activities can benefit the elderly, particularly those experiencing dementia.

So if the Montessori method is so effective, then why are most American students still getting twelve years of standardized, test-driven, teacher-centered, school-bell-interrupted pedagogy? Part of the reason is that the Montessori method is so tricky to implement. Read this sweet, yet daunting, essay, "Owner’s Manual for a Child," written by author and educator Donna Bryant Goertz, who founded a Montessori school in Austin, Texas.

Taking the perspective of a toddler writing to a parent, Goertz describes how demanding child-centered learning can be. She writes:

    "I want to be like you.  I want to be just like you, but I want to become like you in my own way, in my own time, and by my own efforts.  I want to watch you and imitate you.  I do not want to listen to you except for a few words at a time, unless you don’t know I’m listening.  I want to struggle, to make a grand effort with something very difficult, something I cannot master immediately.  I want you to clear the way for my efforts, to give me the materials and supplies that will allow success to follow initial difficulty.  I want you to observe me and see if I need a better tool, an instrument more my size, a taller, safer stepladder, a lower table, a container I can open by myself, a lower shelf, or a clearer demonstration of the process.  I don’t want you to do it for me or rush me or feel sorry for me or praise me.  Just be quiet and show me how to do it slowly, very slowly."

Goertz's essay is directed at parents, not teachers, but it's easy to see how only the most skilled and patient educators can consistently adhere to this method, even as the child is ultimately leading the way.
 

Clint Eastwood didn't exactly make Team Romney's day

The idea must have seemed sure-fire when Mitt Romney's advisors hatched it: Highlight the final night of the Republican National Convention with a surprise appearance by that long, tall drink of gritty Americana, Clint Eastwood.The beloved movie star and filmmaker surely would confer some of his abundant credibility on the Republican presidential nominee, still trying after six years of running for the White House to persuade some voters of his authenticity.

Eastwood would then flee into the swampy Florida night and Romney would launch his acceptance speech. Instead, Eastwood's 12-minute rhetorical ramble — featuring his conversation with an empty chair that represented President Obama — became the target of decidedly mixed reviews for the film icon, inspired a social media pile-on and diverted at least some attention from Romney's nomination acceptance speech on the crowning night of his political career.Republican Party regulars watched gleefully as Eastwood took the stage at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Thursday night and slammed Obama for the "national disgrace" of allowing 23 million Americans to remain unemployed. He told the chair, "When somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go." He suggested Vice President Joe Biden amounted to nothing more than "a grin with a body behind it."

Talk radio star Rush Limbaugh said Friday he "loved" the shtick, certain that it had gotten "under Obama's skin." A lot of other conservatives said they felt that way too.If Obama was sweating, he tried not to let it show. He tweeted out a photo of himself sitting in a chair marked "The President," with the text: "This seat's taken." Top Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens insisted that the Eastwood "improv" (the staff thought he would sit in the chair, not use it as a prop) was not a problem and that Romney laughed at it as he waited in the wings to make his acceptance speech.But that did not appear to be the sentiment from at least some of Team Romney, with advisors the day after the close of the convention shifting the conversation to anything but their Hollywood pitchman.And, on the network morning television shows, Romney's wife, Ann, sounded less than thrilled with the Eastwood performance.

She told ABC's "Good Morning America" she was "grateful for his support" but quickly shifted to much more effusive praise of Olympic athletes and Mormon church friends who had addressed the convention earlier in the evening.

She also quickly segued away from Eastwood's bit when speaking with "CBS This Morning." "You can never take away from the fact that this country is in trouble" she said, "and people are looking for real leadership and that I know that Mitt is the man for this moment." A Romney campaign official, who asked not to be named in order to discuss internal planning, said Eastwood had gone on for about twice as long as expected. Although staffers had seen some of the actor's notes before he took the stage, they didn't have any control over the message.

"You don't edit Clint Eastwood," the official said.A rising GOP star, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he "cringed" at the Eastwood appearance, which implied a couple of off-color references by the imaginary Obama. Walker said he would have preferred to see prime-time appearances by the Romney family friends who made emotional speeches during the lightly televised portion of the program before 10 p.m. EDT.

Other fans of Eastwood were not as kind."Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic," tweeted film critic Roger Ebert. "He didn't need to do this to himself. It's unworthy of him." Republican political consultant Mike Murphy tweeted that he was "dying" to read a full account of how the "Clint train wreck actually happened. Incredible." Murphy on Friday added: "Some senior Romney genius (amazingly) didn't know a basic showbiz rule dating back beyond the Ed Sullivan show: Always clear the material." A representative of Eastwood's production company said he was not granting any interviews Friday. But his longtime agent, Leonard Hirshan, said most of the calls he had received were from Republicans who liked the empty-chair riff.As with any self-respecting 21st-century pop culture phenomenon, the Eastwood moment quickly developed its own social media afterlife.One wag created a Twitter handle, @InvisibleObama, for the unseen chief executive. It had more than 52,000 followers by Friday afternoon. Social networks teemed with photos of "Eastwooding," people (and even pets) gesturing to empty chairs.

Comedians considered what the party in power would have to do next week at the Democratic National Convention to top Eastwooding. "To restore balance to the universe," said Patton Oswalt, "Obama must have Tommy Chong onstage at the DNC, talking to a steak." Seth Myers of "Saturday Night Live" offered another option: "[Vice President Joe] Biden has to go shirtless for DNC to top it.

Blue moon shines around the world

Tonight's blue moon may not be as rare as it sounds, but it's still special — as is every glorious full moon, whichever color you use to describe it. Actually, the term "blue moon" is something of a misnomer. There's no reason for the full moon to be any bluer than usual (though it's certainly possible for the moon to take on a blue tinge). Instead, it has to do with the extra occurrence of a full moon in a given calendar cycle. Various cultures have used different terms to describe that extra lunar cycle — Adhik Maas for Hindus, or an extra month of Adar for the Jewish calendar. The Maine Farmers' Almanac used the term "blue moon" to describe an extra moon in a particular quarter of the year.Then, in 1946, an amateur astronomer named James Hugh Pruett wrote about the phenomenon for Sky & Telescope magazine, in the context of the old saying that a rare occurrence happened only "once in a blue moon."

Only problem was, he got it wrong.Pruett described the blue-moon phenomenon as the second full moon in a calendar month. Sky & Telescope stuck with that, and the definition has been used (and hotly debated) ever since. If you go along with the definition, then tonight's full moon is blue due to the fact that it follows a full moon on the night of Aug. 1. There's another long-debated issue surrounding blue moons: You could argue that they happen way too often to be considered as rare as a "blue moon" in the proverbial sense. The interplay of the lunar and solar calendars dictates that a blue moon should occur, on average, every 2.7 years.Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson summed up the issue a couple of days ago in a Twitter update: "A month's second full moon is the blue moon. Not rare. More frequent than presidential elections, yet nobody calls them rare."

Technically speaking, the moon is already a few hours past its full phase — but it's still well worth taking note of, and not just because it's the last blue moon until July 31, 2015. It provides a fitting opportunity to pay tribute to history's first moonwalker, Neil Armstrong, who passed away last weekend. In fact, Armstrong's family is urging you to look at the moon in Neil's honor. "The next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink," the family said.Photographers around the world have already been getting great moon shots. Here's a sampling of the "blue moon" views:For still more blue-moon pictures, check out SpaceWeather.com's photo gallery and NASA's Flickr site for blue-moon imagery. If you snap a great picture of the moon tonight, please consider sharing it with us. Use our FirstPerson upload tool to send us your moon shot, and we'll pass along a sampling of the photos we receive.

Vesa Vauhkonen's moonrise montage served as the subject of this week's "Where in the Cosmos" photo quiz on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. It took a while this time, but John Culp and Brian Svacina eventually guessed that the photo was taken in Finland. To reward their geographical smarts (or was it just plain luck?), I'm sending them pairs of 3-D glasses, provided courtesy of Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope project. Those red-blue glasses will add an extra dimension to moon pictures like this one. Got 3-D? Click the "like" button for the Cosmic Log Facebook page and get ready for next Friday's quiz.The Phrase Finder delves deeply into the origins of the phrase "blue moon," meaning a rare event, and appears to have come up with a sensible explanation. In 16th-century England, the expression was apparently used to describe an impossible event, like pigs flying. The phrase pops up in a sarcastic context in a 1528 work by William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, titled "Treatyse of the Buryall of the Masse": "Yf they saye the mone is belewe, we must beleve that it is true."

It took centuries longer for the phrase to describe something that hasn't happened in quite a while. The Phrase Finder cites this quote in Pierce Egan's "Real Life in London" (1821): "How's Harry and Ben? haven't seen you this blue moon." Meanwhile, the Maine Farmers' Almanac put its own astronomical twist on the term, going back to the 19th century.

Arctic ice cap shrinks to new record low

Researchers are blaming global warming for a record ice melt. Although many people still refuse that humans are completely responsible for the Earth getting warmer, it's difficult to stay away from the truth that global temperatures are without a doubt raising. Simply take a glance at the Arctic Ocean, in which researchers state ice levels is going to be at their lowest modern levels ever within a week or two. Before this year, the record smallest dimensions the Arctic ice cap was 4.25 million square kilometers. Although the present ice cap isn't quite at those levels the last approximate was 5.09 million square kilometers levels still drop sharply by around 100,000 square kilometers per day. Ice levels will constantly drop through the end of the melting season that may be around two weeks from now. Or even if the ice melt ceased instantly, the present level would still mark the third lowest on record. Unluckily, Arctic ice melt is a vicious cycle. According to National Snow and Ice Data Center Director Mark Serrez, "the ice now is so dilute in the spring, just

iPad mini coming in October

The most popular holiday gift for 2012 won't come from a cabbage patch, but it won't desire you "tickle me." No, this year's well-liked gift may be the new iPad mini, which, according to AllThingsDigital, is going to be formally announced at an event this October. Depending on AllThingsDigital's several sources, Apple may have two major unveiling events this fall. One on September 12 for the iPhone 5, after which another in October to announce the iPad mini. The concept is that the iPad mini will likely be an enormous seller for Apple this holiday season the company doesn't need to drop two atomic bombs on the same day. It's been rumored that the modern iPad mini will have a 7.85-inch display, which makes it a lot more portable than the existing new iPad with Retina display. The smaller sized size means it is going to compete directly with a smaller class of affordable tablets that will contain a completely new iteration of Amazon's Kindle Fire. And although we don't be familiar with the price point of the new iPad mini yet , several apparently think that the machine will be priced around $249 or $299 to remain competitive with the incredibly popular $199 Nexus 7.

 

The world’s longest bus seats 256 people

Germany is rolling out a gigantic 98-foot-long form of public transportation. The city of Dresden, Germany will very soon be getting an extensive addition to its public transportation system that will only be identified as a train on wheels. Manufactured by Fraunhofer IVI and the Technical University Dresden, the three-section Autotram Extra Grand bus is 98 feet long that can carry 256 passengers, however doesn't need specific training for its driver. Considered to be as easily maneuverable as a commonly sized bus, the Autotram Extra Grand uses a computer system to aid its driver with turning. The system's most important objective is to make sure that the rear section of the bus specifically follows the front and middle sections constantly. Along with the advanced guidance system, the bus includes green technology in the form of a hybrid gas and electric engine that will take a trip five miles operating completely on battery power. The Autoram Added Grand would hit the streets of Dresden in October after completing safety testing outside of the city. Its manufacturers say that they've already got inquiries from other cities all over the world about getting their own versions of the bus, because it costs far less to put into operation and keep up than commuter rail systems, yet still carries an enormous amount of passengers.

What are West Nile virus symptoms?

West Nile virus is transmitted by mosquitoes, who get it by biting infected birds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About four out of five people who become infected by a mosquito bite have no symptoms.

However, about 20% of people who become infected with West Nile virus develop West Nile fever, within two to 15 days afterward.

Symptoms include fever, headache, tiredness, body aches, occasionally with a skin rash (on the trunk of the body) and swollen lymph glands. While the illness can be as short as a few days, even healthy people have reported being sick for several weeks.

There is no treatment for West Nile virus fever, the CDC says.

About one in 150 infected with West Nile virus will develop a severe form of the disease called neuroinvasive disease, according to the CDC. This includes West Nile encephalitis, West Nile meningitis and West Nile poliomyelitis.

Symptoms of these diseases include headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, and paralysis.

Anyone who develops a high fever with severe headache should consult their health care provider.

People over age 50 and the immunocompromised (for example, transplant patients) are at the highest risk for the severe form of the disease.

One in 1,000 people who get West Nile virus die.