Grace and Courtesy

Count Von Count would be so pleased (and God is amazing!) As much as we can think through and manipulate abstract ideas we are constantly reminded that there is a God who created those ideas long before we existed. Take numbers for example. In the Lower elementary Montessori classroom, there is a group of lessons called The Great Lessons. They map out how the world came to be as it presently is, but in a narrative form. One of the last Great Lessons is the arrival of numbers; the discovery that one can quantify objects and create symbols that represent that quantity has not always been with humanity. It's a wonderful thing, though in some ways imaginary (we're not going down that rabbit hole, friends). Yet the very idea of numbers, though "discovered" by man was created by God. Now, there is no verse in the Bible that says this. But there is Psalm 24:1 "The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof..." Yes, it does refer to God speaking the wor...

I first established the idea for this blog many years ago, when I just started working at a public Montessori school in a relatively poor neighborhood. But then life happened. Before I knew it I found myself in a Montessori teacher education program, graduate school, and lead teaching in an early childhood classroom. Being one of a handful of men in my school (there were three of us at the time), I felt a bit of pressure to perform. I was quite stressed and worn down. What constantly brought me back was the primary reason that I came to my school, that I began learning Montessori pedagogy, that I do anything at all: to bring glory to God.  Granted, I had to learn the lesson of being satisfied in Jesus by being hospitalized, but that's another story for another day. (I'm quite fine now, thanks). My point is that there was very little time for me to reflect on what it means to be a Montessori teacher, while first being a lover and follower of Jesus.  But now I can. On...