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ERIC Number: EJ1054344
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1054-0040
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
From Zero to Infinity: Montessori Parent Education in Hong Kong and Greater China
Lau, Daisy; Yau, Ralph
Montessori Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society, v27 n1 p34-41 Spr 2015
It was a hot and humid afternoon in 2006, 3 months after the opening of the Children's House at the Infinity Children's School in Hong Kong. A 3-year-old boy selected a table-scrubbing activity. He moved erratically and without purpose, accidentally bumping into another child and spilling water on the floor. Meanwhile, a toddler girl strolled around the classroom aimlessly for almost an hour. She finally chose a puzzle work, but before she could begin work on it, she was already attracted by another activity on the shelf. The author's previous teaching experiences in Canada had shown that it usually took a couple of months for a new cohort of children to become normalized. However, these Hong Kong children continued with chaotic and hectic behaviors even after a few months had passed. The nut was cracked after the authors spoke with the children's parents. They learned that the boy's mother always covered her son with long-sleeved outfits, no matter the weather, and seldom took him to play in outdoor settings, lest he catch a cold. The girl's father had given her frequent exposure to so-called "educational" videos and DVDs. He believed he was nurturing her, but the authors believed it had the opposite effect: the screen time had led to a lack of focus, impeding the child's concrete grasp of orderly actions and sequences of movements. The authors quickly realized that the root of the problem was the behaviors of adults who were not well informed about their children's developmental needs. The parents then asked to learn more about the needs of young children and about the Montessori philosophy. The authors scheduled a 2-hour meeting, which, in the end, ran to 4 hours! Among other things, they discussed parenting methods and whether the Montessori way can take root in Hong Kong. This conversation was the seed for "Infinity Children's World," an organization founded to provide parent education, with the aim of helping parents become their children's best teachers. This article discusses how the Montessori Method fits in with education in Hong Kong.
American Montessori Society. 281 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-6102. Tel: 212-358-1250; Fax: 212-358-1256; e-mail: info@amshq.org; Web site: http://www.amshq.org/publications.htm
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China; Hong Kong
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A