The contemporary take on the Montessori method of child rearing and education appears to have a variety of advantages. I am no expert but from what I gather the Montessori approach is child-focused. It sees children and babies with huge amount of learning potential and provides methods of working with children to allow them enough freedom to flourish or at least cope better with difficulties that they might be experiencing.

Montessori style nursery settings do not tend to be overwhelming as these are supposed to be carefully arranged settings that allow children to work calmly, freely and practically. Learning activities also appear to set children up for their future adulthood but in a way that makes sense to a child. For example, if a child chooses to engage in an activity around playing with dolls, this might include a book about babies, and an opportunity to use child sized equipment to care for the doll (i.e., through washing or medically examining the doll) so that empathy, fine motor skills and language are worked on through role-play. Within nurseries I have seen there also tends to be Montessori classrooms for more focused work, so for example, if a child chooses a focused activity relating to geography there might be a basket including iconic landmarks in the form of mini figures and cards which can be used to label these figures, so the child may enjoy handling the mini figures but might also become able to identify words attached to objects like, ‘Big Ben’.

What I find most appealing about Montessori education is seeing how warm and kind the staff can be towards the children. This is linked to the overarching idea that if you raise children with kindness and respect they might become adults that treat others and the planet with respect.

Whilst the contemporary Montessori method suggests that there is value in difference and inclusivity, Montessori nurseries and school settings can are often too expensive for some parents. Firstly, these nurseries are private. But those that I have visited seem to have more expensive care package costs and more stringent conditions attached to child places around the minimum number of days and times that children can attend. – This can then  result in costs being higher for parents with government funding. Whilst it is not always easy to make comparisons with costs when speaking with other parents in the area about a fabulous Montessori nursery that they loved they stated that they could not financially afford to send their child to this nursery. The rare few Montessori schools that I have come across are also fee paying schools. The Montessori method originally derived from working with ‘disadvantaged’ children, yet contemporary Montessori education can seem to be quite appealing if you have enough money/income to cover the costs.

In the summer I made a trip to private a nursery that claimed to have a Montessori-inspired approach, but this nursery was a cheaper option. During my visit I found that the room for babies was quite small and there were very few things set up for babies to openly explore. The other toddler and preschool rooms seemed to be a bit chaotic and the activities did not seem to be set up with much meaning, for example, there was a tuff tray with dolls piled on top of each other. There was also no Montessori classroom. The majority of the staff also seemed a little glum. When I asked about Montessori the manager said that one person is doing a training course but they are still studying this at the moment. In a phone call with a customer feedback employee afterwards when I state that the websites states that the nursery is Montessori-inspired but I did not see evidence of this, they ask me to explain what Montessori is – seemly unaware of this.

Like many things that are now being used as buzzwords, it appears that this business has caught onto the profitable attractiveness of using the word Montessori. It is easy to say fashionable or tick box words like ‘Montessori’, ‘Intersectionality’, ‘equality’ and ‘inclusion’ to make money but these words become empty if there is no re-orientation to ways of thinking, working and managing a business.