Local program gives children freedom to explore

Children in Jean Hauge’s classroom at Balboa Elementary School can’t wait to come to school each day.

“A lot of times when I say it’s time to put things away at the end of the day, I get the ‘huh-unh, not yet,’ ” Hauge said.

Hauge teaches in one of two multigrade Montessori classrooms at Balboa. Instead of sitting silently working on assignments, students in Hauge’s class of first- and third-graders roam the classroom, learning from each other and exploring.

“It’s a lot of hands-on,” Hauge said. “The children are always working together; their hands are always busy.”

Spokane Public Schools has six Montessori classrooms in two schools – Balboa on Spokane’s North Side and Jefferson Elementary on the South Hill – for students in grades one through six. The classes are divided in grade levels one through three, and four through six.

Spokane is the only public school district in the region to offer Montessori, said Terren Roloff, district spokeswoman.

However, there are many other private Montessori schools in the area that offer classes for pre-kindergarten and above.

The school district’s Montessori program – which is free – is so popular there is typically a waiting list to get in, district officials said. Last year the school board agreed to add an additional class at Jefferson to accommodate the need.

“The kids do a lot of exploring, researching and asking questions,” Balboa Montessori teacher Peg Troske said. “They pursue a lot of the interests that come from inside of them; there’s no limit to how much exploring they can do.”

In grades one through three, students use building blocks, beads and other items on the classroom shelves to explore history, writing, languages, fine arts or biology.

The district has a curriculum that follows the Montessori model, but still uses state standards. Students in the program must still take the WASL.

“To prepare for a reading WASL, we would do a lot of research,” Hauge said. Then to write, students put the book away, showing that they can retain and recite what they learned. Students also do daily problem solving, a key subject of the math WASL.

The older students are more self-directed. Troske gives her fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders a list of what they need to accomplish each week. The students keep a journal, up to the hour of what they accomplish each day, and decide what their daily goal will be.

“I’m going to do my math, probably do some reading and finish a state,” said Alison Vitale, 11.

Nearby, sixth-grade classmate Kenji Booey, 12, was also working on his assigned state, Hawaii. For geography and social studies each student was assigned a state to research. Booey was working on a laptop computer at his desk, looking up information about Pearl Harbor.

“I like how I can choose what I want to do,” Booey said.