Taming Montessori

A century-old educational system that eschews rote learning and regimentation finds its public school programs under pressure in an era of high-stakes testing.

Seabrook, Md.

The classrooms at the Robert Goddard Montessori School are stocked with materials that could be found in any school that follows the same 100-year-old educational philosophy: trays of small silver items to be polished, beans to scoop from one bowl into another, letters of the alphabet with a sandpaper finish.

In Elizabeth Smith’s classroom of 3- to 6-year-olds, a boy wearing a blue apron is scrubbing a small wooden table, while the preschoolers in Rosie Rexach’s classroom have spent the morning using blunt, serrated knives to cut carrots and celery—under supervision, of course.

Maria Montessori, the Italian physician who founded her celebrated school in Rome in 1907, called such tasks “practical life” exercises because they teach children to take care of...