Many Montessori classrooms require ballet shoes to be worn by the students while indoors. The Montessori educators who go for this feel that the wearing of these shoes signals a transition into the classroom environment and a time for serious study and proper behavior while keeping the classroom cleaner and quieter and removing the distraction caused by certain mainstreams types of shoes such as those that light up as a child steps along.
Some parents of Montessori students, however, object to enforced types of shoes, especially if they have boys enrolled in the Montessori school. Other parents object because they don’t feel that the support needed for the ankles and feet for hours at a time by children is provided by ballet shoes.
Other Montessori classrooms permit the wearing of slippers or “house shoes” to remove the resistance that can be met by requiring the indoor wearing of ballet shoes. There is also leeway given for children who need orthopedic shoes, so they are allowed to wear special classroom shoes of a soft, understated, quiet kind, and then their regular shoes when they go outside. “Scuffs”, however, are usually not permitted by Montessori educators because they too often prevent children from walking properly.
In addition, many Montessori educators won’t allow the typical kind of slippers that children wear such as those featuring superheroes or supervillains, as it creates a “good guy, bad guy” mentality that can be distracting and lead children into “fantasy”, which is not in favor with Montessori educators because it is seen as a distorted take on the adult world (although imagination is healthy and stimulated). Ballet shoes are simple in design and color, and boys and girls are of course free to choose different colors that more reflect their gender.
The main point behind wearing “Montessori shoes” is to keep the classroom setting quiet and clean so that the children’s minds are focused entirely on their studies and maintaining proper social conduct. A strong core tenet of Montessori is that the students must be kept free from distractions as much as is humanly possible.
In some parts of the world such as Japan, the children remove their shoes altogether in the Montessori classroom.
Some of the parents who still don’t like the idea of their Montessori children going about have suggested that alternative “cleaner and quieter” shoes be worn in the classroom, such as cork-footbed Birkenstock sandals, which also can be bought cheaply.
Montessori educators have noticed that, to their frustration, as the school year goes on children tend to forget more and more about changing from their home shoes into their soft shoes. This is more of a tendency in the boys than in the girls, as boys tend to be more physically active and forget about the “minor” details. Teachers have also noticed that some children come with soft shoes or slippers that are ill-fitted and cause scuffling or distractingly comic walking.
Parents of Montessori students are encouraged to remind their children of the importance of remembering to switch into their classroom shoes, and if they object to a classroom’s policy they should come up with alternative suggestions that would still fit the bill.
