Delivering a quality Montessori experience for your students is a lot of work. You prepare and maintain an environment and curriculum that meets every child’s needs, you guide children to uphold their part of a community agreement, you report student progress to parents and administrators: the job of a Montessori guide can be overwhelming and…
Over twenty years ago, I fulfilled a dream by embarking on a personally and professionally transformative journey over the course of an intensive year gaining my Montessori 3-6 credential. The American Montessori Society training center I attended is known for its academic rigor, its focus on Montessori philosophy, and for the support provided to new…
My first year in a Montessori environment was as an assistant to a seasoned, and I believe, enlightened 3-6 Montessori guide and mentor. I say “enlightened”, because Sue embodied that “lovingkindness” that Dr. Montessori promoted in her writings and is attained through inner spiritual transformation. Sue’s every interaction with the children was imbued with this…
After 28 years in Montessori, in which I have held nearly every type of position, including assistant, lead guide, mentor, school administrator, teacher trainer, and now international professional development provider, I have had ample time for reflection on my goal of bringing high-fidelity Montessori education to the world. What has struck me as a…
Earlier this year when I was in San Francisco and between speaking gigs, my perspective shifted a bit by visiting a Claude Monet exhibit at the deYoung Museum. That encounter coalesced into a blog post leaning on allegory about the role of reflection in leadership. Just this week, I had the opportunity to see yet…
I’ll never forget the wonder I experienced during my 3-6 training when learning about Montessori education as a means of creating world peace. The idea that our youngest children have the potential to transform humanity when we nurture their spirit and expose them to tools for gaining inner peace and the guidance to resolve conflicts…
Unschooling is a rare topic to be promoted by a professional educator; yet after you hear my tale as a mother who happens to be an educator, maybe you’ll see unschooling in a new light. I recently had the opportunity many people hope for in life: a do-over. Four years and a few…
Having grown up in a homogenous, predominantly white middle-class area of a very white state, my memories of diversity in my schools is limited to a few differently-abled kids, maybe a student or two of Asian heritage, a Jewish kid, and a few freckled redheads like me. From Kindergarten on through my freshman year in…
My lifestyle this last year could be the envy of some and would probably horrify others. Living closer to nature feeds my spirit. But so does feeding my physical being with a good dose of homesteading chores on our family’s Swiss Family Robinson-like lake cabin in the Adirondacks. For seven weeks, I bathed…
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