Not really Nikki because catering to the individual allows the teachers to find the appropriate media with which to deliver the messages/concepts they are trying to teach.
I’m sure you can relate to an experience where you could understand something when explained in a particular way but the same concept was not clearly received by someone else in the classroom. If the teacher did not deliver the message in, let’s say different words to the other person, they might run a chance of being lost.
Once the basic foundation/concepts are strongly built in the child’s mind it simply becomes a game of knowing which to apply when. As the child matures it becomes capable of making that call.
Noor is the first grandchild in my family to go through Montessori and I faced several obstacles and reservations when I made this choice. I am not 100% convinced that it is the correct one but I will continue to monitor and encourage the process as long as I continue to see that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
With respect to competition…I firmly believe that there is no better way that we can prepare our children for competition except to teach them to accept both victory and defeat gracefully. Be it academic or athletic or extra-curricular, I would want Noor to know that there is no victory without defeat and that where one person places first there must be another that places second and so on. She should understand that her victory is hollow if it is not the result of challenging herself and that her accomplishments have no honor if she regards them as triumphs over people other than herself. By the same token she must learn to accept defeat not as a burden of shame but as a challenge to improve herself for the next battle, if you will.
I don’t think any specific teaching methodology can achieve this; character building happens at home.