One aspect of Montessori that differentiates it from mainstream schools is the multi-age classroom. At any given time, about 1/3 of the students in our classroom are in their third year at HMS. In fact, a Kindergarten student is in her fourth year with us.
Thus, in our classroom, when a child asks a teacher for help it is not uncommon for the teacher to respond “Why don’t you ask a friend?” This is especially common with our two-year-olds, who are just beginning to develop fine-motor skills and may require help with tasks such as putting on their shoes, cleaning up a spill, filling a water bottle or packing away their lunch. Older students are eager to help the young ones with these tasks.
Even among our older students, the culture of asking for help pays dividends. Our 5-year-olds occasionally need help with a large addition problem or figuring out a difficult word to read, and more often than not it is a peer who is able to help them out.
Helping out is a two-way street, and at HMS it is a road much traveled.
