For our new column, Ask an Educator, we turn to educators, whether teachers, tutors, or principals, to answer frequently asked questions from parents. To send in your question, email jessicasuotmaa@beijing-kids.com.

This week, our question is:

“What is hypnobirthing? Can giving birth really be painless?“

Answering for us is Joy Skinner (Xing Zhou You), Hypnobirthing Practitioner, Dancing for Birth Practitioner, and Reiki Healer.

As a US certified Childbirth Educator, I help women during their pregnancies, guiding them to a more comfortable childbirth process. I have also assisted fathers, adjusted babies who were in the wrong position or had their umbilical cord coiled around their necks, and provided comfort during birth via reiki massage.

Actually, the “pain” associated with giving birth doesn’t exist. We learn it from other people and from doctors as we always tell horror stories of pain and birth.  Giving birth is a muscle movement. Muscle movements should not cause any pain, just an uncomfortable feeling.  Therefore, we use hypnosis, water treatment (water birth), and essential oils to help expecting mothers experience a gentler birth. By completely relaxing and loosening their muscles, mothers can experience a painless birth. When I gave birth, I didn’t experience any pain, and some of my students also didn’t experience any pain.

Many think giving birth is painful, but it can actually be beautiful. Those who think giving birth is difficult can realize women’s internal strength. I gave birth naturally two years ago, experiencing the deep connection of skin-on-skin contact with my newborn baby, and nursing on call.  Two years later, I have helped almost 200 women give birth, where 93 percent was natural, and none had c-sections. Of the women I have helped, 80 percent reported improved comfort in delivery, 75 percent reported their babies being less fussy and easier to appease, and 20 percent said their experience of natural childbirth was pain-free. In a country with the highest reported c-sections, I feel happy to help women follow their natural instincts towards a more comfortable delivery.

Photos courtesy of Joy Skinner

The name of Mike Gatting may not be familiar in China or North America, but in much of the English-speaking world and South Asia he is remembered as a combative and hugely talented cricketer, who was involved in many of the sport’s most exciting and controversial moments between 1977 and 1995.

Gatting almost became a footballer instead; at 14, he tried out for London club Queens Park Rangers, but was told he was “too short and fat” to be a goalkeeper. Instead he joined his local county cricket club Middlesex, where he played for his whole career, and now sits on the board. He represented England in 79 Test matches (the long form of the sport, where one game can last up to five days) and 92 One Day Internationals (a shorter game, which takes a mere seven hours). From 1986-1988 he was captain of the national team.

I met him when he came to town for the second annual Mike Gatting Cricket Festival at Dulwich College Beijing (DCB). As a player he was described as “pugnacious, bold, brave and belligerent”, but in person he is courteous, modest and patient, taking time with everyone who asks for a picture or an autograph. I talked to him about his sporting career, and what he learned from it about leadership and life.

Tell us about the Mike Gatting Cricket Festival.

“It all began when I came out here with the MCC Women’s team [a touring team consisting of distinguished female cricketers]. We talked to the schools here and realized there wasn’t much cricket, so we looked at what we might do. Dulwich said we should organize a competition. On the day of the first one we weren’t sure who was going to turn up! But nine schools came.

“This year we held it in June, at the end of the school year, but next year we’ll hold it in May, or maybe September or October. We’re looking to cement the work we’ve done with Dulwich, and create regional hubs in Beijing and Shanghai.”

With all the different sports on offer, why should children take up cricket?

“Cricket teaches you important life skills: self-esteem and respect. It’s a game with history and traditions. You have the chance to be a star, but you still have to play as a team, to integrate with others, and however well you play as an individual you can still lose. You can be elated one minute, sad the next, and it’s all about how you cope with that, how it drives you to become better.”

Twenty20 [a fast-paced form of cricket in which a game takes about three hours]has been a huge success over the last decade. What does this mean for cricket in East Asia?

“I think it’s a good thing. It’s a game that children will like: it’s not long, not complicated. There’s lots of it on TV and on the internet. It encourages innovation, you need to improvise; it’s a good thinking game. When you’re facing different bowlers, or different batters, you have to work out how best to play them.”

You played in an era when cricket and cricketers were still front page news. In many countries cricket can only be seen on TV on pay-to-view channels. Is this a problem for the game’s development?

“Not at all. Many kids don’t watch TV these days! It’s not the way they view things; they’ve grown up using Skype, email, Facebook, Google, Youtube… They watch things on their own phone or iPad. TV used to be important, it’s not so much now.”

Your talent was obvious from an early age, and the selectors showed great faith in you – you played in 31 Tests before you scored your first century [100 runs scored in one innings, an important indicator of success for batsmen]. Do you think there’s too much pressure on young people these days to succeed immediately?

“I certainly took the tough way through, but it didn’t do me any harm. It’s good to see selectors being loyal. In fact one of the reasons I got that century was because David Gower [then England captain] told me he wanted me in his team, as vice-captain. He said “What number do you want to bat? I want you to bat at three, but if it doesn’t work we’ll move you down to five, and I’ll bat at three.” That helped me because I’m a very loyal person, I appreciate loyalty.

“That had a big impact on the way I captained. I never felt I was welcome, not because of individuals but because of the system. [Gatting came from a working-class background, which was unusual for an England cricket captain at the time.] I always made sure people knew they were there because I wanted them to be there. I made big efforts with the younger ones, made sure they had someone from the senior players looking after them.

“When I made my debut in Karachi Mike Brearley, who’d picked me, was injured, and he was replaced by Geoff Boycott [a notoriously blunt Yorkshireman] as captain. Boycs said to me, ‘Here Gatt, you’re lucky on two counts. One, you’re playing today, and two, if I’d been captain you wouldn’t be here [in Pakistan]at all.’”

As England captain you achieved something few have: you won the Ashes in Australia. [The Ashes is the prize for a series of five Test matches between England and Australia, held in each country alternately. Dating back to 1882, it’s the oldest international sporting rivalry in the world.] What did you learn about leadership which helped you to victory?

“I’d never toured Australia, but I played grade cricket [Australia’s top level club competition] in Sydney for three years. I knew the sort of people I needed on the tour, knew the sort of cricket we’d have to play to win. I made sure the senior people were on my side, that they knew I was open to suggestions. I told them ‘You’re going to have to help me,’ and that helped settle everybody down. Of course they needed to understand that I had to make the decisions in the end, but they had input.

“I had to get them to play the right sort of cricket, and they all did it when they needed to. Ian Botham [legendary England all-rounder] helped enormously, his contribution was enormous. He said a few words before the first Test in Brisbane [England’s warm up games had been disastrous, prompting one journalist to write that they ‘had only three things wrong with them – can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field’]. Beefy [Botham] said ‘There’s eleven of us, and we haven’t played well, but that’s just practice. Let’s do what we can and be the best we can.’ We didn’t drop a catch in that test match, and we went on to win the series. We won the ODI series too, and then the World Series: all three competitions on that tour.”

You captained a team with a lot of big characters. Are there fewer characters in cricket these days?

“There aren’t so many characters in the county game. Character comes with talent, so if you look at the national team, you’ve got Stokes, Anderson, Broad, Root, Cook – they’re all very different characters. Johnny Bairstow, now he’s a character, as was his father.

“What’s changed in the county game is that you used to have overseas players playing against the guys there all year round. If you had someone like Malcolm Marshall [celebrated West Indian fast bowler] for the whole summer, it raised the standard of county cricket.”

You were famously bowled by the “Ball of the Century” [Australian spinner Shane Warne delivered a ball which appeared to defy the laws of physics.] What’s the secret to playing spin?

“You have to be positive, use your bat not your pad. A lot of people try to just kick the ball away, but that’s harder now with DRS

; DRS makes them play. You have to use your feet, hit both sides of the wicket, and have a shot that will get you up the other end and rotate the strike. That’s very important against spin.”

Do you think technology like DRS has made life easier for umpires, or undermined their authority?

“I think it has taken the angst out of the game, like neutral umpires did. [Gatting was involved in an infamous row with an umpire chosen by the country hosting the game, after which the rules were changed so that umpires had to come from a neutral country.] People can say ‘I was unlucky to get out’, but now you know if you’re out or not – providing you believe it works well, of course! And decisions have only improved by one or two percent, which shows that umpires do a great job. It’s a difficult job, they’re under much more scrutiny than they used to be. But we can’t do without them.”

It seemed hard at first to reconcile the fiery, controversial competitor that I remember from my childhood, with the genial, almost avuncular man that I met at DCB. However, although Gatting was always diplomatic in his responses, a picture began to emerge during my conversation with him: of a talented and sensitive young man who experienced snobbery and prejudice at the hands of sporting organizations still in transition from the days of Empire; a man whose “belligerence” was driven by a strong sense of justice and loyalty; whose most notorious moment was triggered by a wholly justified indignation at being falsely accused of cheating.

Mike Gatting played a pivotal role in bringing cricket into the modern era. Now he is working to drive the next stage of its development, expanding interest in the game beyond its traditional heartlands. Only time will tell whether Beijing is ready for this historic, subtle, and rewarding sport.

(If you are interested in cricket coaching for your children in Beijing, please contact me via email to cricket@beijingwriters.com or via WeChat ID AndyKilleen. With sufficient interest it may be possible to get a program off the ground.)

Photos: Bob Thomas/ Getty Images, Getty Images, Karen Killeen

A Teacher’s Perspective

Hungarian Vera Mitford began learning the cello at the tender of age of 6 and took her love of music through to university. She graduated first from the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Budapest, then obtained her cello teaching certificate and performed as a chamber musician at Szechenyi Istvan University in Gyor.

Mitford moved to China six years ago when her husband relocated to Beijing for work. The relocation meant an end to playing professionally, so she became a teacher and started working at the British School of Beijing (BSB) Sanlitun in 2007, subsequently qualifying as a primary music teacher at the University of Buckingham in the UK.

As well as teaching music classes at the school, she leads the choir and orchestra, and in her spare time plays cello for the Beijing International Chamber Orchestra.

Mitford has two children, Emma (age 5) and Benjamin (age 2), both of whom attend BSB Sanlitun. As a music teacher and a mother, she is well-placed to understand how to encourage musicality in children. We recently caught up with Mitford to get her take on music education at home.

Why is music an important part of a child’s education?
The number one [benefit]of music is its recreational value. If people have been brought up with music, they find it so much easier to enjoy a concert.

It also has strong benefits for literacy, math, and creativity. I have a large selection of percussion instruments at school and I can just throw the kids into it. They discover they can create something, whereas previously they may not have believed musical creativity was their forte.

What steps should parents follow if they want their children to be musical?
Early and regular exposure to music is key. Parents should offer a wide variety of engaging music at home, and make music part of everyday play and routine. You can play percussion instruments (even bang on pots and pans) to your favourite tunes. I recommend dancing, singing, and listening to live music whenever possible.

What kinds of music should parents listen to with their kids?
I’m a classically trained-musician, so when I started my teaching career I was way too rigid and rigorous when it came to choosing the “right” piece of music. I learned the hard way that you can’t reach certain children unless you throw something popular in the mix; you can gradually introduce them to better-quality music over time.

Is there such a thing as “tone deaf”? What if a child has no ear for music?
Anyone can distinguish between different pitches to a certain extent with regular training in a friendly environment. Children with less courage to sing or the ones who get carried away with the excitement of singing and lose control over their voices are often classified as non-musical or tone deaf.

Children are often assessed on their musicality based on their singing skills, but I would be very careful about doing that. You really don’t have to be able to sing to be good at music. I went to music college with students who didn’t have the vocal control necessary to sing in tune, yet turned out to be excellent performing instrumentalists. Rhythm is a very important part of music as well.

There are kids who have no sense of control or pitch. Piano is the best instrument for children with less singing ability; I wouldn’t start children with less of an ear for pitch on the violin. With the piano, there’s a feedback loop; you learn to recognize pitch because you are playing a perfect note [unlike violin].

At what age should parents introduce their kids to a musical instrument?
Learning an instrument requires a minimum concentration spurt of 20 to 30 minutes and good coordination. Children typically reach that level by the age of 5 or 6 depending on the individual. We offer instrumental tuition at BSB Sanlitun starting from Year 1 based on that principle.

What are your top tips for parents?
If you want your child to approach music with love and enthusiasm, you need to be their role model. Without your active participation, they’re unlikely to get excited about music-making.

Encouraging your children to share their instrumental skills with you gives meaning to their hard work and makes them proud about doing something you probably can’t (unlike all the other school stuff you’re better than them at).

At BSB Sanlitun, pupils are encouraged to share their instrumental skills at every level with their peers during music lessons, assemblies, and recitals.

What kind of children take to playing an instrument?
Most children can learn an instrument to a certain level; to become a musician is a different story. That takes talent, passion, and a lot of hard work.

The Primary Instrumental Programme at BSB Sanlitun provides every child with an opportunity to explore an instrument in small groups and this is something the children really enjoy. After the initial exposure, some of them choose to take individual lessons and learn more about playing that instrument.

How much time should a child practice an instrument?
I would suggest short but regular practice sessions. Ten minutes daily for beginners, which can be gradually increased as the child gets older and practising becomes part of their routine.

What’s the best way to encourage kids to practice?
Each child responds best to a different approach; however, most children enjoy working towards little goals, such as a small performance or sharing a session with family or friends. Praising and occasionally rewarding good work also gives children confidence and encourages them to keep going.

What should parents do if their kid wants to stop learning an instrument?
Learning an instrument requires hard work, dedication, and resilience. Many children reach a point when they want to quit or switch to another instrument. In some cases it is fine, depending on their talent, the length of time they have learned the instrument for, and their reasons for giving up.

Is it better to take exams or learn for fun?
Some children respond well to pressure and some enjoy working towards smaller goals. The right tutor should be able to tell you if taking exams is the approach for your child. Some exams can also be fun, providing a nice selection of pieces to choose from.

Would you recommend a career as a professional musician?
It’s brilliant to play for fun, but becoming a professional musician is not a good career choice. I was brought up in a communist country where classical music was culturally important. It was a competitive environment and not many of us made it as professional musicians. My brother is a professional – a violinist for an opera house orchestra – and life is a struggle.

Where do you recommend buying instruments? 
Most music shops in Beijing are either on Xinjiekou Nanjie or Gulou Dajie. They offer a huge selection of instruments and accessories for every level and price.

A Student’s Perspective
Nine-year-old Jason Fung (from Hong Kong) is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, performer, and composer – a little boy bubbling over with enthusiasm for music. Head of Music Vera Mitford explains: “Teaching Jason is amazing. He can do anything. It’s really challenging because it’s hard to stretch his skills within a normal music class. His piano skills are way above average, and he is extremely musical.”

Jason and his mom Phoebe Fung arrive to our interview fresh from a musical assembly where he sang “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean” with other students singers at BSB Sanlitun. Soon, it becomes apparent that Jason is in the process of losing one of his baby teeth. “My tooth is bleeding,” he announces and grins to display a wobbly incisor. “I don’t believe in the tooth fairy,” he adds, “so I don’t think I’m going to get any money for this.”

While he may not succeed in trading his ivories for renminbi,
Jason is highly successful at tinkling the ivories. He excels not only at piano and organ, he plays at least one instrument from every family of the orchestra: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. “I play flute, trumpet, violin, ukulele, piano, organ, and the drums,” he says with a smile. “I’ve been playing music for longer than I can remember. The first instrument I learned was the organ; I started when I was 3.”

Phoebe Fung interjects, “When he was in Hong Kong, we started Yamaha organ courses and added piano when he was 3 1/2. We realized he was really talented when he was around 6 years old. He was one of a couple of children selected for a specialist class at Yamaha. He began composing songs and performing them, and then we understood that he was gifted and had a unique talent.”

Jason’s musicality came as a surprise to his parents. “Neither I nor my husband Willy are musically-gifted,” Fung adds, “though his brother Kayden (age 5) is musical too.”

Mitford witnessed firsthand Jason’s ability to master new instruments in a short period of time. “He learned the violin at BSB and picked it up so quickly. Now he has started learning the flute. All I can do to stretch him is give him an instrument he’s not that confident at and try to get him out of his comfort zone.”

Jason works hard, receiving Distinctions and Merits in all of his Associated Boards of the Royal School of Music (ABRSM) grades. This year, he is studying for his Grade 8 piano exam, which is more commonly taken by children twice Jason’s age. To achieve this advanced level, he practices piano and organ every day for an hour and a half. “I enjoy practicing,” he says. “I tell myself that if I keep going I will get really good at music, and maybe one day I could even become famous! First, I play the piece slowly a few times and then I play it faster until I get to the right tempo. Never giving up is the most important thing.” He is currently learning Chopin’s “Minute Waltz,” but the piece he dreams of learning one day is Mozart’s “Rondo Alla Turca.”

Jason was introduced to composition through advanced classes at Yamaha. “I write all types of music,” he explains. “I composed my first song when I was 6 1/2. I listen to different types of music and get ideas from it. Then I improvise a motif and add to it. I repeat the melody, improvise and play with it, making variations until I hear something I like, and then I develop that.”

Jason’s extraordinary gift had a knock-on educational effect on his mom. Phoebe Fung explains that she learned musical theory by following his progress. “I am gradually becoming more informed about his process. I can’t do what he does but I’m learning about it through Jason. When he was doing Grade 2 and Grade 4, I sat beside him when he was practicing, but at Grade 6 and Grade 8 I couldn’t help him anymore. The notation is so complex; I can’t read the music or follow the part he is playing. Now I just let him learn by himself.”

To date, Jason has composed three songs: “What a Wonderful World,” “Praise for the Great Wall,” and “The Sound of Northern China,” which he performed at the China National Junior Original Concert in 2013 hosted by Yamaha. He is currently working on a new piece.

“He is very creative when he writes his own music,” says Mitford. “I can give him a bassline and ask him to go next door, and he comes back with a piece. He really understands music; it’s not that he has just picked it up by repetition.”

In addition to performing his own compositions, Jason plays a key role as accompanist for the school choir. “He’s been [accompanying the choir]for two years now, since he was in Year 3,” says Mitford. “I can give him a piece of music and tell him ‘There’s a concert in two weeks’ and leave him to get on with it.”

As assured as Jason is backing up the assembled voices of BSB Sanlitun, he prefers playing by himself. “Playing with a choir is harder,” he says. “Sometimes they sing faster or slower than they should, and I have to change my speed to keep up.”

Given his commitment and passion, it is not surprising that Jason dreams of a career in music. “When I grow up I’d like to be a composer or work for an orchestra. Music is fun, and it makes me feel relaxed, happy, and good. I love music because I can enjoy it every day, and I can make music whenever I like. I think a world without music would be boring and negative.”
photos by Mitchell Pe Masilun

This article originally appeared on p40-43 of the beijingkids February 2014 issue.

Check out the PDF version online at Issuu.com

Jamie Loewer is a Mathematics and Science Coordinator at The Learning Center. She has been in Beijing since June 2012. beijingkids met up with Loewer to talk about Math tutoring.

What kind of atmosphere do you try to foster in your classes?
I try very hard to be an open ear and approachable for my students. I want them to feel comfortable and confident in my abilities when they are asking any questions that they have about their schoolwork.  I want them to feel comfortable to ask those questions that they might feel reluctant to ask during school and I want them to always let me know when they are not sure of something. I’m here to help!

What are your qualifications?
First, I have my master’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Secondary Education.  I am a qualified and certified teacher in the state of Texas covering all academic content for early elementary up through grade eight. I am also highly qualified in the United States to teach secondary school mathematics. 

What experience do you have?
Before moving to China, I taught for the Department of Defense for one year at Fort Sam Houston.  After that, I taught secondary mathematics and science for three years in San Antonio, Texas. I have been teaching ever since I arrived in China.

What age kids to you teach?
As mentioned above, I am qualified to teach all grade levels and I currently work with students ranging from grade 5 all the way up to grade 12.

Where can tutoring sessions take place?
All of the tutoring sessions take place here at The Learning Center.

How many students do you tutor at a time?
Typically students are tutored on an individual basis with the entire hour dedicated to them achieving their learning goals. However, on occasion I have also taught tutoring sessions with two students who happen to be at the same grade level and/or studying the same content.  Also, The Learning Center offers group workshops on weekends and during our summer camps that accommodate up to eight students.

How do you prepare for class?
Each student is different.  I always have worksheets and activities available as backup, but typically students bring in their homework and classwork, and that always comes first.  It is important to make sure, as a teacher, that I know my mathematics content inside and out.  Students come into tutoring expecting someone to be not only able to explain to them how to come up with a correct answer, but also, how and why a certain theorem, formula or method of solution works to get that answer.  It is my job to fill in the gaps and help develop the students’ understanding of the content that they may have missed during their regular classes in school.  I also have access to past papers for a variety of examinations which allows me to thoroughly prepare students for the levels of testing they are likely to face. In other situations students may come to The Learning Center to prepare for specific standardized tests (like the SAT or SAT subject tests) or entrance examinations for other schools or universities. In those cases I will design a course of work that will be tailored to the student’s situation and the content will be determined depending on the student’s current level and the level they want to reach. These situations allow me to work at a pace that is suitable for the student and to deliver the material in a way that suits the individual’s learning style.

What is your teaching style?
Once again, it’s different with each student I work with.  Generally, I try to make tutoring a fun place to be.  If the student is already struggling with the content, I want them to feel more confident when they leave each time.  If the student is already quite strong in the subject area, I want to challenge them, keep them ahead of the class and develop their skills even further. I feel like it is very important to create a strong rapport with each student so they look forward to coming to their sessions.  The more comfortable they are in a session, the more likely they will be to ask those questions and raise questions about any problematic areas.

Photos courtesy of The Learning Center

International Montessori School of Beijing (MSB) is a Kindergarten and Elementary school which has provided education in English and Chinese for Beijing’s international community for over 20 years. Caroline Chen, MSB’s founding principal, and a qualified qualified AMS Montessori teacher herself, answers our questions about the Montessori Method. Click here to read part one.

Is Montessori education good for children with learning disabilities?
A Montessori based education is universally applicable. The environment and methods used in the Montessori classroom are designed to ensure the holistic development and success of all children.  All children benefit from individualized and child-centered instruction. Every child has areas of special gifts, a unique learning style, and some areas that can be considered special challenges. The Montessori teaching approach, which believes that each child should be allowed to develop at his/her own pace, is designed to allow for these differences. It allows students to learn at their own pace and is quite flexible in adapting for different learning styles. In many cases, children with mild medical or physical handicaps, behavioral issues or learning disabilities may do very well in a Montessori classroom setting.

The Montessori system has been used successfully with children from all socio-economic levels, representing those in regular classes as well as the gifted, children with developmental delays, and children with emotional and physical disabilities.

What about gifted children?       
A Montessori based education is universally applicable. The environment and methods used in the Montessori classroom are designed to ensure the holistic development and success of all children.  All children benefit from individualized and child-centered instruction. 

The multi-age classrooms also allow children to excel. Children can easily advance in the complexity of their work without waiting for the group as a whole. With higher-grade level materials easily accessible, and the possibility to teach children at different levels, students with a high aptitude in a subject matter can easily work above grade level.

How are parents involved at Montessori schools?       
The biggest factor to consider is if Montessori philosophy is right for the parents – can you support it in your home, and work for good partnership/relationship with your teacher and your school on behalf of your child?  Modeling respectful, courteous behavior, reading, discovering, and sharing your interests/passions with your child promotes a love of learning at home that translates to a love of learning in the classroom – a love of learning for life.

Parents are often in dialogue with their child’s teacher so that they can be involved in supporting and helping their child at school and at home become more able to follow their interests and responsibilities with care and passion.
      
Montessori parents can support their child by helping to foster Montessori principals in the home: respect, choice, accountability, responsibility and follow-through-to-completion in an effort to nurture their ability to make responsible choices. The more compatible the philosophy and practical application is between home and school the better support your child has to develop that ability to be cooperative and independent.

Is early learning a good idea? Or should young kids just play and have fun?
Yes, early learning is good idea as children up to the age of 6 are “sponges.”
Dr. Montessori’s research (based on her direct and extensive observation of children in diverse cultures and in many countries) showed that there are four key developmental planes in the journey to adulthood. The first one takes place from the age of 0 to 6, and focuses on the development of the self as an individual being.

Every child also has specific ‘sensitivities’ or ‘windows of opportunity’ where learning comes with ease. Dr. Montessori pointed out that the young child has a natural sensitivity for language development, which follows closely on the years when he/she learns to speak his/her native language. Young children have a unique fascination for words and dialogue.

When Dr. Montessori opened the first Children’s House it was full of pretend play things. The children never played with them as long as they were allowed to do real things – i.e. cooking instead of pretending to cook. Children are instinctively drawn to want to carry out the activities they see adults performing.  The Practical Life activities in a Montessori classroom are based on the child’s desire to repeat that which he/she sees adults doing.  They are meant to reflect the child’s interest and teach him new skills required for his life. 

These exercises are not only designed to teach children independent self-help skills, but also support the development of very important fine motor dexterity and concentration skills that will be so integral to future academic work.  Montessori students also tend to take the things they do in school quite seriously. It is common for them to respond, "This is my work," when adults ask what they are doing. They work hard and expect their parents to treat them and their work with respect. But it is joyful, playful, and anything but drudgery.

All children explore new things playfully. They watch something of interest with a fresh open mind. Dr. Montessori believed that the real world is full of wonder and that children before the age of six should be deeply rooted in the reality and wonder of nature. Story telling and reading should revolve around the wonder-filled life of the animals, people, and plants on our earth, so that a child’s absorbent mind is filled with real impressions of what is true.

All Montessori classrooms incorporate art, music, dance, and creative drama throughout the ages and curriculum. Imagination plays a central role, as children explore how the natural world works, visualize other cultures and ancient civilizations, and search for creative solutions to real-life problems.

Can parents do Montessori at home with their children?        
Yes, Montessori principles are easily incorporated into home life. Many of the Montessori approaches are directly applicable to the development of your child at home.

Children need a sense of belonging, and they get it by participating fully in the routines of everyday life. The Montessori approach strives to create independent children who are able to of themselves and their environment. Providing opportunities for independence is the surest way to build your child’s self-esteem and to build the skills needed for life-long learning. As a parent, you can find ways for your child to participate at home for example meal preparation, cleaning, gardening, caring for clothes, shoes, and toys. This builds a child’s self-esteem and their willingness to participate as a meaningful member in the life of the family at home and school.

Can children from Montessori schools be accepted into any elementary/high school (e.g. local Chinese elementary schools, American-style junior high schools)?
Yes. A Montessori environment naturally fosters inner discipline, self-motivation, love of learning and a sense of order, the skills necessary for successful learning.  These skills accompany them throughout their academic journey in any environment.  A child’s first educational experiences affect the type of learner they will be throughout their lives. 

Montessori children usually adjust readily to new classroom situations. This is because they have developed a high degree of self-discipline and independence in their Montessori environments. Also, children have a high degree of adaptability and can assimilate into and accommodate different situations, including sitting at desks arranged in rows.

MSB offers a strong academic program and expects the children to meet the high academic standards. Our curriculum fully meets the requirements of national curricula and allows students to go well beyond grade level in many subjects. This strong academic base gives students a great start as they later transition into traditional schools or return to their home countries.

Are Montessori children successful later in life?
Success in today’s world is not only measured by grades and degrees. Strong study and work habits, self-motivation, independent thinking and excellent communication skills are essential for academic and career success and are an integral part of MSB’s Montessori based education. At MSB we are laying the groundwork for future innovators and leaders by teaching the children to be Independent thinkers, problem solvers and team players from an early age. 

On the Barbara Walters ABC-TV Special "The 10 Most Fascinating People Of 2004" Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of the popular Internet search engine Google.com, credited their years as Montessori students as a major factor behind their success. When Barbara Walters asked if the fact that their parents were college professors was a factor behind their success, they said no, that it was their going to a Montessori school where they learned to be self-directed and self-starters. They said that Montessori education allowed them to learn to think for themselves and gave them freedom to pursue their own interests.
It is quite an interesting collection of people throughout history who have gone to Montessori schools, sent their children to Montessori schools, or supported this method of education in one way or another. The short list includes: Alice Waters, Friedrich Hundertwasser, Julia Child, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Helen Keller, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Mahatma Gandhi, Sigmund Freud, Buckminster Fuller, Leo Tolstoy, Bertrand Russell, Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, John Holt, Ann Frank, the Dalai Lama, Jacqueline Kennedy, Prince William and Prince Harry, Yul Brynner, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Yo Yo Ma.

Photos courtesy of International Montessori School of Beijing

International Montessori School of Beijing (MSB) is a Kindergarten and Elementary school which has provided education in English and Chinese for Beijing’s international community for over 20 years. Caroline Chen, MSB’s founding principal, and a qualified qualified AMS Montessori teacher herself, answers our questions about the Montessori Method. Click here to read part two.

What is Montessori?   
Montessori is named after Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian educator of the early 20th century. She developed a teaching approach we now call the Montessori Method, which emphasizes a hands-on, individualized learning approach within a child-centered, mixed-age group classroom. Although best known as an educator, Dr. Montessori’s formal training was as a scientist and medical doctor and she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times.
Dr. Montessori developed her educational philosophy as a result of her scientific observations of the way children learn. She based her approach on the belief that children are individuals with their own strengths, needs, likes and learning styles. Her teaching strategies and her discoveries about the process of learning revolutionized the field of education and profoundly influenced children’s education all around the world.  Today, Montessori schools most commonly encompass preschool and elementary grade levels. However the approach is also used extremely successfully in middle and high schools.

What are the core values of the Montessori  educational approach?
Montessori education is based on the belief that children are individuals with their own strengths, needs, likes and learning styles. The teacher acts as a guide for each child through the learning process by using materials that fit their specific needs and pace.
A Montessori curriculum uses hands on, multi-sensory/multi-modality instruction. This means that concepts are not just taught by rote memorization or out of a textbook, but in a variety of ways using scientific designed materials that help the child to completely understand and also apply a lesson.
The learning in Montessori environment is activity based. The children are allowed to explore and learn through scientifically designed Montessori materials and in a prepared environment. The child is free to choose and work on the available material for as long as he/she wants, under the guidance from the teacher. The teacher in the Montessori classroom ensures that each child moves through the curriculum at an individualized pace, while making sure they meet national/international standards.
A Montessori education focuses not only on academic skills but also on essential life skills and character development. The Montessori social curriculum is incorporated into the academic curriculum at all levels and children learn how to behave in specific situations and acquire social skills for everyday living. The children develop a sense of personal dignity, an understanding of their culture, and an awareness and respect for people of all ages and traditions. Conflict resolution skills are taught and attention is given to making good choices. Having the appropriate social and language skills enables a child to engage positively in the classroom community and beyond.
 

What are the benefits of Montessori?  What advantages does a Montessori school give children?
A Montessori based education is child-centered and is based on a child’s need, interest, learning style at that moment in their life.  Instead of applying a “one approach fits all” style of learning to an entire classroom of children, the Montessori based approach takes into account that not all children learn the same way, have the same needs. Furthermore, it encompasses not only an academic curriculum, but also focuses on a child’s personal and social development. An important part of the Montessori education is in fact learning respect for one’s peers, learning grace, and courtesy. Montessori helps children to become self-motivated, self-disciplined, focused, and to retain the sense of curiosity that so many children lose along the way in traditional classrooms. Children are given the tools to be successful in their future life. They typically become life-long learners and problem solvers, they become innovators and good team players. They tend to act with care and respect toward their environment and each other. They are able to work at their own pace and ability.
From an early age exercises in grace and courtesy are presented daily and are a part of the curriculum. The children learn to behave in specific situations and acquire social skills for everyday living. The children develop a sense of personal dignity, an understanding of their culture, and an awareness and respect for people of all ages and traditions. Early conflict resolution skills are taught and attention is given to making good choices. This area of the curriculum also extends to the aspect of Citizenship. Students begin an empathy program, identifying feelings and studying virtues such as friendship, caring collaboration and more.
 

What is the difference between Montessori education and traditional education?
At every level in a Montessori program, the child actively participates in learning; the teacher’s role is to act as a guide. The child centered, individualized learning approach allows the child to choose his/her own work from interests and abilities, to formulate concepts from self-teaching materials, to set his/her own learning pace to internalize information. The classroom environment and mixed-age grouping encourages children to teach, collaborate and help each other and the individual and group instruction can adapt to each student’s learning style and level.  Children are not required to sit and listen to a teacher talk to them as a group, but are engaged in individual or group activities of their own, with materials that have been introduced to them the teacher, who knows what each child is ready to do.
In the traditional educational model, there is an emphasis on learning by rote. The child is a passive participant in learning and teacher’s role is dominant and active. Most of the teaching is done by the teacher, and based on the adult’s teaching style. The child usually given specific time for work at an instruction pace set by group norm or teacher.
Dr. Montessori believed that teachers should focus on the child as a person, not on the daily lesson plan. Montessori teachers lead children to ask questions, think for themselves, explore, investigate, and discover. Their ultimate objective is to help their students to learn independently and retain the curiosity, creativity, and intelligence with which they were born. Montessori teachers don’t simply present lessons; they are facilitators, mentors, coaches, and guides.
There is great respect for the choices of the children in a Montessori classroom, but they easily keep up with or surpass what they would be doing in a more traditional setting. There is no wasted time and children enjoy their work and study. The children ask each other for lessons and much of the learning comes from sharing and inspiring each other instead of competing with each other.



Who accredits or oversees Montessori schools?
There are several Montessori organizations to which schools can belong. The two major ones operating in the United States are the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI, with a U.S. branch office called AMI-USA) and the American Montessori Society (AMS).
However there is no single organization which oversees all Montessori schools and accredits their programs. Thus the name “Montessori” can be used freely by schools whether they are offer true Montessori programs or not.

What is the main difference between a traditional classroom and a Montessori classroom?
A Montessori classroom does not look like a traditional classroom. A Montessori classroom is not filled solely with textbooks, writing paper and pencils. Rarely, if ever, will you find the whole class sitting with their books looking at the teacher showing them how to complete a task. Instead you will see children, some in groups, some by themselves, working on different concepts, and the teachers sitting with a small group of children, usually on the floor around a mat.  Children typically work quietly and are focused on their work. There is a noticeable hum of productivity.
The classroom is filled with many materials that teach a wide range of levels and concepts. Shelves line the wall and are set up so that at a moment’s notice a teacher can reach for a material and teach a student or students the concept they need to know. The furniture is child sized so the students can easily access all the materials. Students can reach for the materials themselves and use them in the way that they were taught so that they can practice a concept that they are working on.        
 

What materials are used in a Montessori classroom? What special training do Montessori teachers have and how are they different than traditional teachers?
Dr. Montessori believed that teachers should focus on the child as a person, not on the daily lesson plan. Montessori teachers are specially trained to lead the children to ask questions, think for themselves, explore, investigate, and discover. Their ultimate objective is to help their students to learn independently and retain the curiosity, creativity, and intelligence with which they were born. Montessori teachers don’t simply present lessons; they are facilitators, mentors, coaches, and guides.
Traditional teachers often say that they "teach students the basic facts and skills that they will need to succeed in the world." Studies show that in many traditional classrooms, a substantial portion of the day is spent on discipline and classroom management.
Normally, Montessori teachers will not spend much time teaching lessons to the whole class. Their primary role is to prepare and maintain the physical, intellectual, and social/emotional environment within which the children will work. A key aspect of this is the selection of intriguing and developmentally appropriate learning activities to meet the needs and interests of each child in the class.
Montessori teachers usually present lessons to small groups of children at one time and limit lessons to brief and very clear presentations. The goal is to give the children just enough to capture their attention and spark their interest, intriguing them enough that they will come back on their own to work with the learning materials. Great teachers help learners get to the point where their minds and hearts are open, leaving them ready to learn. In effective schools, students are not so much motivated by getting good grades as they are by a basic love of learning.
 

What is the benefit of a multi-age classroom?
One of the core principles of a Montessori based education is the belief that mixed age groups and flexible groupings allow the children to learn at the best rate.
A mixed-aged classroom offers an inherent motivator for children to constantly challenge themselves.  The older children benefit tremendously from this environment as they become teachers and leaders, developing confidence and independence.  They can reinforce their understanding of the material by teaching it to the younger students, while the younger ones have it taught to them in different ways. Sometimes another child can word a concept in a way that an adult can’t, facilitating better understanding for both children involved.
This process of sharing what they know reaffirms what they have already learned. Younger children usually want to do what the older children are doing and benefit from having role models in their classroom environment. 
Multi-age classrooms also allow children to excel. Children can easily advance in the complexity of their work without waiting for the group as a whole. With higher-grade level materials easily accessible, and the possibility to teach children at different levels, students with a high aptitude in a subject matter can easily work above grade level. In other words, a well functioning multi-age classroom will be able to adapt to the needs of each child, promoting enrichment and support in the specific concepts that each child needs to work on.
 

Photos courtesy of International Montessori School of Beijing

Farshad Danicek is the co-founder and principal of House of Knowledge, a trilingual kindergarten (German, English and Chinese) which offers a curriculum which incorporates Reggio Emilia, Montessori and Confucian theory. We asked Daniecek to school us on the Reggio Emilia approach. For Part 1 click here.

How did you become interested in Reggio Emilia?
I’m German and I grew up in the multicultural heart of Germany, Berlin. I studied at Freie Universitaet Berlin and did my diploma in early childhood education (MA.Ed.). A Professor at the university, and a very good friend of mine, Prof. Dr. Annette Dreier, sparked my interest in the philosophy of Reggio Emilia education. She was very passionate about Reggio Emilia and infected me with that passion.

Why did you decide to make it a core feature of the HoK curriculum?
Actually, the Reggio Emilia education is more a philosophy of life than a curriculum per se. As it is a child centered education you have to adjust the learning outcomes to each child individually. The HoK curriculum defines outcomes for all our age groups and development areas, but there are hundreds of ways to reach those outcomes. For the HoK curriculum the path of development is more important than just reaching the outcome, the path becomes the aim of our approach.

Each child follows their own journey, as HoK educators accompany the children on this path of building a strong foundation of core competencies. For me personally, the Reggio Emilia approach is the best educational approach in a multicultural and multilingual environment like Beijing.

What are the benefits of Reggio Emilia? What advantages does a Reggio Emilia school give children?
From my point of view each Reggio Emilia school is different from one another and each Reggio school can only be an adoption of the Reggio Emilia approach and not an attempt to copy or duplicate. The culture, country, parents, teachers, environment and the students will always influence and create a unique adoption of the Reggio Emilia approach.

Therefore, the advantage of Reggio Emilia is a child-directed approach that allows for highest possible level of intrinsic motivation to explore, discover and learn at school, expanding their social and academic potential.

Reggio seeks to promote fundamental competencies for lifelong learning. This philosophy believes that we are all students for life, and infinitely able to learn about our surroundings and ourselves. More important than learning facts, is the process of learning to learn.

Can children from Reggio Emilia schools be accepted into any elementary/high school (e.g. local Chinese elementary schools, American-style junior high schools)?
Absolutely, even if a child is stepping into a new curriculum or previously unknown academic subjects, Reggio will have equipped them with the competencies to pursue and acquire knowledge. They will use deductive reasoning; feel confident to ask others for help, or utilize any number of other methods to get the information they need. Through use of these strategies, a child will learn from and use their new surroundings, making them highly adaptable in any school setting.

What one thing would you like Beijing parents to be more aware of, as regards choosing a school for their kids?
The basic foundation of learning is not to build up meaningless and endless knowledge in different subjects. It is more important to build a foundation of competencies, on which a child can grow. Those competencies are for example, a positive and stable self-image, a high level of self-esteem, trust in one’s own strengths, a helpful attitude towards others, strong conflict management skills, ability to accept responsibility, etc. Parents should choose a kindergarten which helps build strong competencies.

Furthermore, I recognize that in order to become a successful world citizen in a globalized world you need to be open to new cultures and to have knowledge of different languages. Parents should choose a school which offers a multicultural environment with multiple choices of languages and a high student-teacher ratio to assure new languages are learned in the time frame giving in the early years.

How are parents involved at Reggio Emilia schools?
Parents are the child’s first teacher, they must be prepared to be involved at a Reggio Emilia school. At HoK for example, we ask our parents how they might involve themselves into our projects. We appreciate parents coming to our classes to talking about their professions, cooking dishes or teaching us dances from different countries, etc. Furthermore parents are asked to help by preparing events or joining some field trips.

It is said that the Reggio Emilia approach is not teacher-directed. What does this mean?
In a teacher-directed school the teacher is the center of the class, directing daily school life and lesson plans and also deciding what subjects will be studied. The Reggio Emilia philosophy, is a child directed or child-centered approach. Therefore, teachers must observe very carefully their student’s interests and plan the daily tasks based on those interests and the level of intrinsic motivation the child is bringing to explore and discover within the lesson and classroom projects.

How are Reggio Emilia classrooms arranged?
The Reggio Emilia approach sees the room as “The 3rd Teacher”, after the parents and the classroom teachers. A Reggio Emilia classroom must invite children to explore their environment independently. All Materials and learning stations must be reached by children without asking for help, e.g. all kind of art materials, learning stations, computer, books, etc.

Furthermore, at HoK we design all our classrooms with high level areas so our children can climb up to a place to overlook the classroom and be taller than others. This gives the children another perspective to see things from another angle. The speaking and project walls are also part of our classrooms.

Photos courtesy of House of Knowledge

Farshad Danicek is the co-founder and principal of House of Knowledge, a trilingual kindergarten (German, English and Chinese) which offers a curriculum which incorporates Reggio Emilia, Montessori and Confucian theory. We asked Daniecek to school us on the Reggio Emilia approach.

What is Reggio Emilia?
The name Reggio Emilia originated from a city in northern Italy in1945. After the end of WW2, the citizens of Reggio Emilia (Reggiani) started to re-build their city. Parents and educators wanted to create a community of support centers for families and a unique system of early development centers their children. The educator Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) systemized those ideas and helped to open the first infant, toddler end preschool centers in Reggio Emilia.

What are the core values of the Reggio Emilia educational approach?
Before I describe the core values of the Reggio Emilia approach I would like to explain the view of a child of a Reggio educator. We see children as poets and musicians, as artists and performers, scientists and philosophers. Children discover the world through their own will through movement and all their senses. They know exactly what they have to do to acquire knowledge and skills. For this reason, we see children as an active builder of their own development.

• The first core value is, that a child is an active participant in all learning processes.
• The second core value is that a child learns through his relationship with others, so his parents, teachers and other students are part of its learning community.
• The third core value is that children have endless ways to express themselves.
   

What separates Reggio Emilia from other curricula?
Every curricula and teaching method has its advantages. Where Reggio excels is its ability to teach children how to acquire knowledge. Teachers work through careful observation to see what children are interested in, and what their curiosities are. When questions arrive from these curiosities, a teacher      does not give answers as you would in a conventional school, but instead, they enthusiastically prompt kids with questions that will allow students to arrive at their own answers. Through this dialogue, kids are not just obtaining facts or academic skills; they are developing the strategies and methods with which to acquire knowledge throughout their lives, in any field.

In the adult world, learning to engage with these self-directed competencies, and thus easily realizing how one can use their environment to help others and themselves, is often what makes a person equipped with the confidence and abilities to be in high-level jobs or succeed as entrepreneurs. These positions require more than a reserve of facts or academic knowledge, they require forward thinking people who are quick on their feet and equipped with excellent problem solving skills. This type of thinking, knowing the strategy to independently find answers and solutions, comes from an environment where children are prompted and trusted to ask questions and make discoveries, not just taught facts and given answers. This is where HoK gets its motto “learn to learn” from. When it comes to learning, Reggio philosophy remembers that the journey is always more important than the destination.

How is Reggio Emilia different from Montessori?
I see the differences in the length and depth of projects, a project between 4-8 weeks is not a rarity and each project then focus on connecting the different developmental areas. Another difference is the idea of learning as a process of co-construction of knowledge; this implies the idea that each child has already a hypothesis in mind by each question they ask. In order to reassure their hypothesis they need to try, to observe and get feedback from others.

Because of this, Reggio Emilia educators emphasize the social nature of a learning process. Learning from and with each other is very important because we see all persons (and the classroom) as part of the child’s learning community.

What is the core curriculum?
While Reggio firmly believes in strengthening children’s academic skills (such as math, geometry, biology, etc), the thing of greatest importance is to experience one‘s surroundings (persons and materials) via all their senses. This is how children learn to learn – through experience. Founder Loris Malaguzzi used to say that children are born with 100 ways to communicate, but we as adults steal 99 of those away from them. His point was that children have an infinite ability to learn, communicate and create (through song, dance, drama, painting, dialogue, exploration, etc.) but unless we provide them with the opportunity to do so, we remove from them their avenues to communicate, and thus, their opportunities to learn.

To draw an example from our daily life at HoK, we can look at a “numbers” unit. With Montessori, children may be given ten balls to count with. This is something tangible that they can see and feel, and helps them understand numbers effectively. At HoK, the Reggio Emilia side of our philosophy takes this further and we ask the kids to become the numbers, allowing them to use drama and/or creativity for their learning process. So one child may hold up five fingers to be the number five. One may hold two balls in his hand to represent the number two. And so on and so on. Children are learning numbers, but they’re also learning how to creatively utilize their surroundings to their advantage, all while using and expanding their communication skills – even more so at HoK because the children will do this activity in three different languages.

Part 2 of our interview with Danicek will be available tomorrow at noon.

Photos courtesy of House of Knowledge.