Feast of St. James

“One who desires to be a teacher must have an interest in humanity that connects the observer more closely than that which joins the biologist or zoologist to nature.”   –Maria Montessori

My son, Liam, fishes during our summer vacation at Block Island

[This post was written on July 25. I didn't  finish it at the time, but I am determined to get back into writing my blog, so I decided the first step is to go back and finish what I started.]

Today is the feast day of St. James the Apostle. It has been a very long time since I have written in my blog. Perhaps that demonstrates the kind of year I had last year. Very little time available for reflection. I hope to change that this year, and I hope the Feast of St. James helps me in that quest.

James walked with someone who promised him the truth. He followed someone who taught with authority but who used all sorts of creative ways to teach. He spent time with a storyteller who enthralled his listeners. He lived with a person of compassion whose integrity inspired greatness. Because of his exposure to this unique person, James was inspired to continue the work even after the charismatic leader was gone.

James was inspired by the teacher and the teacher in return loved the student. The teacher most likely didn’t make James memorize facts and figures, but the teacher allowed him to grasp new concepts by walking alongside the student and providing an environment wherein James could thrive.

The path is ours, together. The idea that the teacher is the only one in the room with something to contribute is, of course, not the case; the teacher is a member of a learning community whose particular task it is to inspire and entice the student to greatness. Maria Montessori didn’t expect (and didn’t desire) teachers to be the one and only resourcce for knowledge, opening up brains and inserting facts and figures. She intended the teacher to be a lover of humanity who desires to create an environment that is life-giving and allows the child to thrive.

St. James was lucky to be able to spend time with such a compassionate teacher. It is my hope that our children may experience even a fraction of that compassion so they may be inspired to a greatness of their own.

Lucky to be here

“This is the first duty of an educator; stir up life, but leave it free to develop.” –Maria Montessori

One of the ongoing junior high projects. This kind of work will be a part of their micro economy.

The quick conversation in the car on the way home today caused me to think a bit on what we are doing here. My daughter is in the eighth grade, and the junior high began their “immersion week” today, where they spend the entire week at the farm rather than in the classroom. They will do chores (my daughter told me she wanted to wear her rubber boots tomorrow because she’s on duck pond duty), they will construct a solar-powered water trough, work on their micro-economy (which is woodworking, and now there is a twist–painting quotes like you see above), and clean out the barn, among other things. They will do this Monday through Thursday, and on Friday they will participate in the St. Marcellus Day celebration together with South Bend’s Center for Peace and Nonviolence (St. Marcellus is a model for non-violence). Then they’ll be back in the classroom on Monday to begin another cycle of learning.

The comment I made to Clare in the car on the way home from the farm was, “You are lucky to be here. Lucky to have such a junior high.” Her response was, “I know.”

As I thought about that, I realized just how wonderful it is to have a thirteen-year-old recognize that she is LUCKY to be at school, without a second’s hesitation. She knows. She didn’t need to put on the stereotypical adolescent angst and roll her eyes about school. She doesn’t think school is something she has to tolerate. She loves it. And she is learning and growing in leaps and bounds.

Maria Montessori knew that the child needs to move in order to learn, and that the adolescent needs to relate in order to learn. The adolescent needs to engage in meaningful work with peers. The adolescent needs freedom with responsibility, independence, and our trust. Our junior high students jump on the city bus to go study at the public library, or they walk to the farmers’ market to buy the food they will cook for each other, or they arrange to meet downtown or at a local park or at the river to continue their ongoing research into local history. They review literature in a seminar format, learning how to think and discuss and argue their points. Their Math is advanced and practical at the same time, as they study Algebra and Geometry and also build their own lockers from bookshelves removed from another part of the building. They work as a team, they guide each other, they learn from each other, they work hard, and they love learning.

Clare is not the only one lucky to be here at this junior high. I am lucky to be able to take in even a fraction of what she does, simply by being present.

Tradition and the story we share

So here we are again. Apple pie baking time. In October 2002, about one month after we opened our doors for the first time, I baked pies with our founding 16 children. I did that because I enjoy baking pies, the children had done a large unit on apples, and they had visited a local orchard. That night we had our first Back to School Night for parents, and we served the pies.

Somehow that became unchangeable tradition. I bake pies with the children every year now, and we serve them at our Back to School Night. I spend two mornings doing it, one morning with one lower elementary class, the other morning with the second lower elementary class. I enjoy spending the time with them, and they enjoy the work.

This year,  more so than in the past, I noticed a regular comment/conversation. It wasn’t about the flour, or the rolling pin, or the cinnamon. The comment I heard from the majority of the students was about the contraption we used to peel, core, and slice the apples.

Over and over children wondered aloud who would have invented such a thing. They touched it, and moved whatever part would move so they could get a better sense of how it worked.

Inventions. New Ideas. Contributions. That is what the child wants to focus on. Who invented it? How did they figure it out? What caused them to want to invent it?

History is a story of new ideas, new thinking, creative inventions, of contributions to culture. The Montessori classroom is founded on the story of culture; the environment is designed to consider how we are in community with each other. We participate in the conversation begun with the creation of the universe, a conversation that has continued throughout all history, a conversation that was handed to us to continue. We are grateful for the person who invented the lightbulb, the one who invented the plow, the one who figured out how to weave , and even the anonymous person who first domesticated the dog. Each of these “inventions” contributed to culture, contributed to the story, to the conversation in which we are engaged.

A conversation that happens even in a food preparation area of a kitchen in a Montessori school in South Bend, Indiana. Who invented that machine? It sure makes our work easier, it is really cool to watch it work, and it is a lot of fun. Everyone wants a turn.

So we continue baking apple pies with the head of school, because it is now in the realm of Unchanging Tradition. We talk about lots of things when we bake; some children do this work for the very first time, others are seasoned professionals. We spend time in community to create something wonderful for parents, something we can all be happy about. The pies are in no way perfect, but we even talk about that. And this year, we talk about the awesome invention you see below. And we are grateful to that person, whoever he or she is, who invented it and contributed to our story.

Connectedness

It has been a long time since I posted here, probably due to the somewhat overwhelming  and disorienting nature of moving.  We moved our family to a new house at the beginning of September, and we unloaded all sorts of boxes at school to recreate classroom environments that had been shut down due to summer construction work.

Now, just about one month after the faculty arrived, things are settling in a bit and I am coming up for some air. Today I write mostly to get myself to write, so I am borrowing the words of a wonderful Montessorian, Donna Bryant Goertz, to get me started again.

Donna is now a Facebook friend, and I am truly enjoying our interaction there. Additionally, she is coming to South Bend in February to speak to area Montessori schools, something that will be enlightening, I am sure.

Her book (I’ve mentioned it before in this blog) is Children Who Are Not Yet Peaceful: Preventing Exclusion in the Early Elementary Classroom (Published in 2001 by Frog, Ltd., Berkley) and the quote that follows is found on page 11 of the Introduction.

I am all the more inspired to do the work I do when I think of the child in the manner described by Donna:

“Deep down, each child knows he is only as worthy as any other child. Casting some children in negative roles puts the very being of each and every child at risk. If even one child can be cast aside as unworthy, no child is truly safe. He feels keenly insecure at the ground of his being.

…Inclusion of more eccentric children in our classes affirms the human worth of all the children. It provides an opportunity to learn emotional skills as well as academic subjects. It is an unhealthy burden for a child to be ‘bad’ or ‘good.’ We must relieve every child of that burden and allow all of them to be works of art in progress.”

Awesome. Thanks, Donna. Now that I have begun to blog again, I will continue to do so. Pardon the long hiatus.

Grand and lofty ideas

“We seek to sow life in the child rather than theories,to help him in his growth, mental and emotional, as well as physical. And for that we must offer grand and lofty ideas to the human mind.” –Maria Montessori

“Grand and lofty ideas.” That keeps my attention with Montessori. Nothing is small. When the goal is a world at peace, it is hard to think small.

The Montessori elementary years connect all learning by way of the Great Lessons–impressionistic and exciting stories about the coming of the universe, the coming of life to earth, the coming of humans, the creation of language, and the creation of numbers. The stories give context for learning, so that when a child is working on the parts of a flower, she is doing so in light of the creation of the stars. Everything in the universe is intimately and irreversibly connected.

Fundamental human needs offer the foundation for culture, as children continually wonder about what it means to be human, what is necessary in human existence, and what is not. Cultural studies guide the curriculum and bring context to learning, connecting humans across time and space. Math and language become all the more alive when investigated in context of culture. When the child chooses among a variety of curricular areas and focuses on what intrigues her most, a spark of imagination is ignited that propels the child deeper into the fire of grand and lofty ideas.  All done in context of cultural studies, forged initially through the great lessons.

In this manner, by way of the great lessons and cultural studies, grand and lofty ideas launch the learning process, which in effect then leads to grand and lofty ideas. New ways of thinking are celebrated, both historically and in the present time; we immerse the child in grand and lofty ideas and observe the exciting formation of new thinking, the birth of creativity.

Grand and lofty ideas inspire greatness.

Abundance thinking

“It is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand the universe. She must prepare herself, and truly work at it.”  –Maria Montessori

a walk in the park

It can seem that scarcity is found at every turn. There’s just not enough. Not enough money, not enough time, not enough help, not enough inspiration.

However, we have too much work to do, too much to accomplish, so we need all the resources we can find; we cannot afford to focus on scarcity. A focus on scarcity limits possibilities. It divides rather than unites great people who think great things and do great work. Scarcity ignites fear; fear limits creativity.

Our focus instead is abundance, creativity, energy, and delight. Our message is invitation, not rejection; relationship, not isolation. Love over fear. Love for the universe, love for the community, love for the child. Love’s nature is abundance.

We can exist in a state of crisis or we can seek new and creative solutions together. We can lament the lack of (name your lack: money, resources, time, ideas, people, help, etc.) or we can extend ourselves and build together.

Abundance is everywhere, from the peony bush in my front yard that produces more flowers and aroma than it could possibly need for mere survival, to the wrens who nest in the box in my backyard and bring sweet-songed offspring to our neighborhood year after year after year, to the child whose curiosity and capacity for learning is limitless.

Am I challenged by running a school in these difficult economic times? Yes. Do I worry that the next grant proposal I write will amount to nothing, or the next visit with a benefactor will lead to rejection? Yes. Do I believe that this worry will get me anywhere? No. A focus on scarcity will not lead to abundance. A focus on abundance will generate abundance.

I have been accused of being too optimistic, too idealistic, but I cannot imagine that the alternative will lead to greatness. I d0 not see culture as an account of pessimistic, fear-based thinking. Culture is the story of new ideas, new inventions, new insights, new challenges, new risks.

Our children deserve to be surrounded by people who first love and (at least somewhat!) understand the universe, so full attention can be brought to loving and understanding the child. This, I believe, happens with abundance.

The Montessori environment

“The teacher’s first duty is to watch over the environment, and this takes precedence over all the rest. Its influence is indirect, but unless it is well done there will be no effective and permanent results of any kind, physical, intellectual or spiritual.” –Maria Montessori

we are doing a little construction this summer

It is hard to believe that the empty, beat up classroom you see above will soon be a rich, beautiful, thriving environment for children. This summer we have done some work on our building, first removing asbestos from the 1970 construction, then replacing ceilings and lighting. We wanted to do a lot more but time and money didn’t allow it, so much of the renovation will wait until next summer.

The environment is critical to the work of the Montessori classroom. I remember early in my Montessori experience, a beloved trainer pointed out something so simple but something we often forget to consider; the environment affects the child’s behavior. If a child is misbehaving, we look to the environment first to address the behavior. The example she gave was that if a child is running in the classroom, the adult has some choices; you can tell him over and over and over again to stop running, you can raise the level of punishment involved with running, you can call his parents about the running, you can send him out of the room because of the running…or, you can put a shelf in the middle of the room that would make the running stop. The environment shapes the experience.

So much of a teacher’s training is about preparing the environment. So much of his or her work in the classroom is attending to the environment. The environment calls the child to a deeper level of concentration and love for learning, the environment presents choices to the child that elicit curiosity and intrigue.

This summer I have known first hand the loss of an ordered environment, having been moving among borrowed offices off campus while the construction work went on in our building. I am eager to return to the environment I left in June, to work with the people I trust and respect, as we prepare for a new year with the children who will shape our world.