Montessori puts life in learning

If you are a child lucky enough to go to Children's Meeting House Montessori School in Loveland, chances are you won't be sitting at a table dawdling over work as spring bursts forth outside your windows.

Chances are you won't be sitting in a cafeteria dawdling over a rubbery lunch of you-aren't-sure-what.

At Children's Meeting House, chances are you won't be sitting at all. And CMH children never dawdle.

Springtime at the small private school means you throw open the doors of your school (a converted dairy barn) and take your curiosity out to the marsh, the white pine grove, the orchard or the organic garden.

There are food chains to study in the pond. There are wildflowers to identify in the meadow. And there are vegetable seeds to plant in the garden, so you won't have to eat that you-aren't-sure-what.

''There's a whole educational system right outside our door,'' says teacher John Phenix, who helped design the five-acre eco-learning lab and nature trail. ''Our school building is not the boundary of what we're learning.''

Sunday, , the many friends of the school will gather to dedicate the lovely space to Margy Knollman, an esteemed teacher who died much too early in 1989. A simple plaque in her honor says, ''For the Children.'' It was Margy's favorite phrase, and the school's unspoken mission.

Even if you are not yet a friend of the school, have never been near it, and have never quite understood the term ''Montessori,'' you can go there Sunday to see an example of learning at its best.

At Children's Meeting House, learn is an active verb.

The school is another example of why Greater Cincinnati has a glowing national reputation of which it is largely unconscious. It is a mecca for Montessori education.

It is not just that the area has a surprising number of Montessori schools, or that they are both public and private. It is not that some of them serve children all the way through junior high, a rather rare option since elsewhere most end with elementary school.

It is not even because Xavier University offers superb Montessori teacher training for which it is recognized across the United States.

It is that the Montessori philosophy has filtered into the broad marketplace of education in Greater Cincinnati. It has shaped many non-Montessori schools, and influenced the ways adults treat children. It has even changed the climates in homes.

So many of the reforms now taken for granted in U.S. schools have been in place for more than 100 years in Montessori schools. The difference is, in Montessori schools they were carefully integrated and monitored. The same has not always been true with the newest wave of reform.

In Montessori schools, children do real-life work, using math to lay out gardens, and language skills to follow recipes for their own snacks. They move freely about the classroom, often choosing their own work (but actually, carefully guided by a strong underlying system of discipline and organization). Teachers act as guides and facilitators, working flexibly with small groups or individuals. Classes are made up of age ranges. Learning is often project-centered and built around several subject areas.

It is not that Montessori education has been without critics. In recent years, they have challenged its strict adherence to Montessori materials and its emphasis on exposing children to ''prepared environments'' rather than traditional teaching.

And, as with any educational approach, there are schools that excel and schools that fall short.

But the clamor for Montessori schools has grown greater among families. These are schools where learning makes sense, and from which children leave smarter, stronger and happier.

The Children's Meeting House is one of these schools. It is that magical place where children can plant, hoe, paint, experiment, dream and - in their lovely corner of nature - occasionally even dawdle.

The public is invited to the dedication of the Margy Knollman Nature Trail, at 3 p.m. Sunday. The school is at 931 O'Bannonville Road, Loveland. For directions or information, call 683-4757.

Originally published April 27, 1996.