Japanese Montessori schools

[Charles]

Montessori schools offer an alternative style of education in Western countries. They are designed primarily for the youngest (ages 3-5) but many go into elementary years and some even in high school. Actually, students are not allowed to enter the Montessori system, if they were not in it from an early age.

I was in the Montessori system when I was young and, even though I did not continue into elementary, it had a great impact on me. I'm sad that it appears to be rare in the world. Moreover, this style of education seems to be extremely "non-Japanese." So, I am very interested in the opinions any native Japanese members of this forum have on Montessori and its acceptance in Japan.

Here is a link to The Montessori School of Tokyo.

http://www.montessorijapan.com/index.html

It's in English, but Japanese is part of the curriculum. The school is very small and it appears to be the only one in Japan. There are around 5,000 Montessori schools in the U.S. and 8,000 around the world, according to this recent WaPo article. They are growing at a rate of 7% annually. However, in Japan the growth rate appears to be zero.

I can't help but be reminded of how Japan missed the Industrial Revolution because its government feared cultural change. Will Japan miss the educational revolution as well?

[JonB]

Rainbow Montessori - http://www.montessori-rainbow.com/

They have 3 schools - at Hiroo (please say hi to Jessica for me!), Denchofu & Yoyogiuehara.

But here is a scary article - http://www.japantoday.com/jp/comment/1068 seems they want us to send our kids to Japanese public schools and may make it law. If so I guess all the international schools will be full of Japanese as they would love to send their kids to them but generally can't because of the priorities given to native speakers and short term ex-pats...

Not to mention Ishihara's latest diatribe about wanting visa applicants to have studied at Japanese university - not sure how you can do that without a visa, bit of a Catch 22 but then he is a bit of a muppet!

JonB

[marry123_518890]

Hello,

I have admitted my 19 months son in daycare , School in last July and I am so happy that they are very good at the there job, but it is in Canada. So if anyone wants they could also visit there.