Inclusion includes who?

Many of the methods that were incorporated by Maria Montessori in her pedagogy came from her study of Friedrich Froebel and others who worked with "idiot" children--what I will henceforth call children who learn differently. Additionally, Montessori's first observations of children were those who were in an asylum. So I am thankful that including children who learn differently as well as those who have special needs are being placed back into the national equation as it pertains to Montessori programs. One could ask the question, "How were they ever subtracted from that equation?" But such an answer requires far more blog posts. And they are coming, dear friends. When I saw this Facebook post on your right...

It gave me hope for the future of Montessori education in this country. But in order to be an agent of peace for the future of our children, it is worth considering the past (and present) wounds of a nation that places a limit on whose children we consider to be "ours". That is to say, "difference" is so easily equated with division. Anything outside of sameness easily becomes other. How do we fight against this human tendency? Better still, how do we cultivate a new tendency? While we can lovingly (and vocally) disagree with one another, how do we create an environment in which we can still learn from and serve one another? May such answers come all the more quickly as we walk forward, child in one hand--who holds the hand of yet another child...and another---and the smallest pink cube in the other.

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Something I want my students to know...

I've had the privilege of teaching young children for about ten years. From the first fearful step into the 3rd grade classroom of P.S. 154 as a City Year Corps member, to looking up at my ninth and tenth graders during my teacher fellow year at the Collegiate Institute of Math and Science, I've been humbled to be in the presence of these young people. And now, in a primary Montessori classroom, with children who will remember me as one of their first teachers--if not the first teacher they've ever had--the stakes feel higher, even as I have to bend lower to look at my students in their eyes. I sometimes wonder if the message I want to get across to each child comes through in the way I'm teaching. If not, here's what I'd want them to know: Everyday I think about how I can be a better guide to you, and everyday I feel more inadequate to do so. I want you to know that you have far greater ability than you think, particularly the ability to do good in the world....

When a square is more than a square

While we've spoken of the long bead chains before, I wanted to focus on a specific point of interest. Each colored bead represents a certain number and a certain set of that number. When placed in a long chain, children are able to count them, identifying important numbers within the set. So in the Long bead chain of 5 (light blue in color) it has number tags for each set of 5 (5, 10, 15, 20, etc). There are larger tags for each square of 5 (that is, each set of 25). When a square tag is placed on each squared number, a square bead is placed as well. To think that Maria Montessori thought about the concept of squared numbers and considered a means to make it as concrete as possible! To think there are children all over the world who are learning a mathematical concept that they can feel in their hands before ever knowing how to connect it to an algebraic equation. It's quite baffling. What beautiful things God makes, both concepts and man to understand them.

The Love of Christ and the Long bead chains

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...

Grace and Courtesy

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