Montessori Miss.....may be not !

Avi would miss the cutoff date of going to Kindergarten next year (his birthday being January 1st 2005) which means another 2 years of preschool. I started searching for a spot in a Montessori preschool for him sometime back. Its been frustrating calling the ones I want and the ones which are close to us that I am too late even to get a seat in the next session. Within 5 miles radius I have 10 top class Montessori schools and NONE of them have a spot for another 2 years. When we first moved to Irvine, we were not sure if we were going to be here for long term and preschool was far from our minds. Avi and I were happy taking mommy and me classes and exploring the parks. Before long we were ready for him to try the drop off program and though he cried a little in the beginning, he soon started to enjoy it. We all were happy doing this program and a bunch of other fun classes, until…….UNTIL some of my other friends updated me about their schedule – a full time , full week Montessori preschool, summer camps, swimming classes and “Kumon”. “Kumon” for a 3 year old ? For those who don’t know about it, its one of the private tutorials which have cropped up like weeds here. It has a strict sit and learn philosophy much like followed in India. My friend’s son is very precise with writing the numbers till 100 and upper and lower case alphabets and is on his way to reading a simple book of 3-4 letters. As I started talking to some of my other friends about it, I learnt that my friend is not the only one giving her child a head start. I was also told that families who have plans to go back to India, they have got to prepare their child for higher standards or else they may not get admission into a good school back home . I take pride in the fact that elementary education standards are higher in India but in the system – not so much. Not the one which was in my times anyway. I remember having excessive homework, pressure to perform, pressure to keep up with the image which came with being a ‘good student’. My life as a student was anything but fun. I can not argue if that system works or not because so many of us have made it big and far in life and may be one of the things to owe thanks to is the heavy backpack and loads of homework. All I know is that learning is hugely important and should be primary focus of education. I also believe that education system should be able to produce better well rounded personalities with skills that are needed to live life with confidence. I am disappointed that Avi could not get a spot in a Montessori school this year but only because I believe their system encourages the child to challenge his mind. We all do that with our kids but in my case I felt its not very structured or regular (answering Avi’s endless ‘why’ is constantly interrupted by something that ‘has to be done’ and finally ending our open ended conversation with ‘because it just is’ was making me feel guilty ) and that’s something I wanted him to have. I guess we’ll just have to be happy with the preschool program we have right now for him and work a bit more………………oops , I mean have fun a bit more. In the end hopefully I will not be sad that I saved almost $12000 annually as the tuition fee for a Montessori. Now that’s a lot of money, of some we plan to spend on going to the Zoo, Sea World and fun of that sort. To me that’s a better way of learning than looking at the pictures in a book always.