with permission from:
Practical Homeschooling Magazine - May/June 2004

An Honorary Interview by Mary Pride - Publisher

With Dewey Parker,  of MECS Montessori Software 

MECS Software Won FIRST PLACE Among Practical Homeschool Readers.

DEWEY and CAROL PARKER - MONTESSORI ALL THE WAY.
2004

"I am enthralled with the Montessori method of education, " enthuses Dewey Parker.  "My children and my grandchildren have attended Montessori schools and have also been homeschooled very successfully with the Montessori method using our software and Montessori materials."  No surprise here - he is married to a Montessori teacher with 32 years experience.  His wife, Carol Parker, has taught all ages from young preschoolers to 12-year-olds.  She has also been a Montessori private tutor for 28 years.

Although Dewey's career was managing technical groups in the semiconductor industry, he was able to observe Carol's teaching techniques during private tutoring sessions in their home.  "I observed what seemed to be miracles to me in her successes with children of different learning styles, including ADHD, dyslexia, MS, and autism, along with average and highly gifted children," Dewey remarks.  "I often wished for a way to share her wonderful talents with all children.

The cross-fertilization of Carol's Montessori experience with Dewey's computer expertise occurred as a result of Carols fruitless search from usable educational software based on the Montessori principles.  "There was virtually nothing available," Dewey recalls.  "The programs that masqueraded as 'educational' were actually thinly-disguised games, cartoons, and information databases.  Games and cartoons are not appropriate teaching tools, and information is available everywhere.  What Carol wanted was powerful learning experiences that would capture a child's imagination prompt them to move ahead, and make it fun enough to cause them to reach out for more.  To me, that seemed an achievable goal.  We would simply clone Carol.  We would put her on a CD-ROM.

And so was born Montessori Educational Computer Systems (MECS), which this year took First Place in ABC category and Second Place in the Phonics category.

Not resting on their laurels, the Parkers have spent the last 13 years refining and fine-tuning their programs.  Several years ago they decided to combine the modules into more affordable sets and offer them to homeschoolers.  Katherine von Duyke then wrote the single longest review Practical Homeschooling Magazine has ever published, and the rest is history.  You can read that review here.

GOAL:  "We do not seek to enhance the Montessori Method with computer learning; we seek to enhance computer learning with the Montessori Method."

MOTTO:  "Bring a Montessori Tutor into your home or classroom, always patient, always present."