Montessori teaching offers excell ence without mental duress

If Amy Chua, author of the controversial book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, had known about progressive teaching methods, perhaps she could have raised two equally successful daughters without all the drama, an advocate of the Montessori approach believes.

'The majority of the goals espoused for her children are wonderful: self-reliance; belief in oneself; and accomplishment,' says Anne Sawyer, co-founder of the dual language (English-Putonghua) International Montessori School in Hong Kong. 'Most parents would resoundingly agree that these are our hopes for our children.'

Where Sawyer differs with the 'tiger mum' is that those goals can be achieved without psychological duress. Instead, the child ought to be shown from an early age how to find their 'own intrinsic motivation and discipline rather than using shame and physical domination'.

Achieving moral, social and academic success depends on an ability to control one's own behaviour, rather than having an external motivator - such as a dominant mother - to enforce compliance.

'Belief in a child or another person requires giving them the tools for success, and then the opportunity to attempt, fail and re-attempt,' Sawyer says. 'An example of Ms Chua's approach was her anecdote of her refusal to allow her daughter to stop practising a piano piece through physical and emotional dominance, tears and name-calling until she managed to play it, stating that this showed that she believed in her daughter when her husband did not.'

Yet many insist the old-school method achieves the desired results.

'There are other approaches which prove equally, if not more, successful, and which allow for positive parenting,' Sawyer says. 'It is hard to understand the logic of how calling a child 'garbage' might be helpful. Ms Chua, flying in the face of most educational and developmental psychologists, does not appear to believe that self-esteem per se is important to success.'