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Dear First Lady Laura Bush,

First, may I congratulate you on your strong determination to assist all children of our country in early literacy!  For thirty years I have worked with young children in Montessori education and have given my life to benefit young children in their formative, early years.

In reading the news article of February 10, 2001, in The New York Times, entitled, "Bush's Plan to Push Reading in Head Start Stirs Debate," I was disappointed to find that Mr. Bush's aide places Montessori philosophy of early literacy in the same category as that of traditional early childhood educators:  "Wait until they're ready!"  Actually, we in Montessori education have been criticized for years by child developmentalists for our emphasis upon early reading and letter sounds.

From your background as a teacher, I trust that you have read of Dr. Maria Montessori's view of the "absorbent mind" of the child and of her work with poor children in Rome in the first part of this century?  Through the introduction of tactile letters and phonetic sounds, these children began to read and write!

For nearly one hundred years now, Montessori preschool children, all over the world, have been successful in early literacy.  From the moment a child enters a Montessori classroom, she is hearing phonetic sounds, feeling sandpaper letters, sorting objects based on their initial sounds, and observing others making words with loose letters on lined rugs.  Many children are reading by age 4 or 5.

Early reading in a Montessori program does not happen through last-minute directive teaching but by a hands-on process of integrated learning.  Children at three begin in practical life to focus, to concentrate and to find the beginning, middle and end of activities such as pouring water, sewing, peeling oranges and many other kinds of "work."  The children come as naturally to reading as they do to speaking!

We respectfully request that you, or a knowledgeable aide, visit one of the Montessori Head Start programs in which the teachers have been trained through Sr. Lorna Colin of the Catholic Charities, 191 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, New York 11201 in collaboration with Montessori Teacher Preparation of WA.  I believe that you will be amazed to see the concentration of the children and their success in early literacy!  We urge that you allow this successful program to continue using Montessori methods rather than the new curriculum. 

I pray for you and your husband to accomplish the great tasks before you in leading our country.  Thank you!

Sincerely,

Sharlet J. McClurkin, President
Montessori Institute of America