A Delicate Balance
The Montessori and Direct Instruction teaching methods can seem worlds apart. But in Texas' Aldine district, parents can pick between them_at the same schools.
Candee Wilson commands two universes in one school building. "The part to the right is Montessori World," the principal explains, nodding toward one wing of the A.B. Anderson Academy. There, the classrooms are run according to the perennially avant-garde thinking of the Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori.
"And here," she continues, "is DI World," where another set of teachers practices the Direct Instruction methods of skill-building dear to many academic traditionalists.
The two worlds often collide when ideologues battle over how best to teach children. But here in this public magnet school on the frayed northern edge of Houston they coexist harmoniously. The students from the Montessori classrooms and those from the Direct Instruction classrooms literally make music together. Fine arts offerings are the third major draw of the school, which serves 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in the...
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