In Part II of GCP’s interview with Dr. Pedro Noguera, Professor
of Teaching and Learning at New York University’s Steinhardt
School of Culture, Education and Human Development, GCP asked
Dr. Noguera for suggestions to help parents identify the best
educational settings for their sons from pre-school to college.
Dr. Noguera noted that parents often look for the most highly
structured, regimented pre-school program for their son, because
they feel it is critical for their boy to learn to follow rules.
He suggests instead that parents should carefully consider their
son’s personality and think about who their child is when
deciding where he should start his formal education. Dr. Noguera
firmly believes that an open and less structured early learning
environment, like the one found in Montessori classrooms, can
benefit a child and ”develop [his] intrinsic motivation to
learn”, thus creating a life long learner. When trying to
determine whether an unstructured Montessori environment or a
more structured environmen