Grace and Courtesy

Starting with apologies I've made a rather terrible mistake. How dare I create a blog called grace and courtesy without explaining what grace and courtesy actually means? Well, I will remedy that now. Hopefully, you can grant me the grace to forgive me and now take heed (see what I did there?). The term is widespread throughout Western culture, but it can be used in many different ways. When we think of courtesy, that could mean showing politeness or good manners. In that same vein, it can also mean doing a service for someone en gratis , or for free. The first definition leans more towards what Montessorians mean when we speak of grace and courtesy as a phrase. But grace has quite a few meanings too. It can speak of a refinement in movement (graceful dancer), or even a prayer. Looking at the etymology of the words reveal that grace has much more to do with a state of being (being gracious or grateful) whereas court esy is more about actions (manners fit for a court; curtsy). Mari...

I wonder sometimes how it is that children, given the freedom, have the ability to create a game out of almost anything? It is certainly a lost art to adults. When we approach a task, we set forth with completing it from beginning to end, maintaining a motivation that is based upon what the task will achieve. For the child, it is the task itself that creates a sort of treasure. Children are trying to create themselves;  their task is to become. It gives them great enjoyment to do so. This is play. Granted, it makes some sense that adults would be sitting around talking about play as though it were the most serious activity; adults tend to be rather serious at times. For the child, play, is just fun, not development. And it is an amazing blessing that in the midst of that fun, somewhat unconsciously, they are problem solving, building executive function skills, and often challenging their physical coordination to better control their body. But this begs the question: can adults play...

Soak up I find that all of the information and perspectives that I bring to these posts come from the ideas and perspectives of others. But isn't that the same for everyone? We build on information that we've received, adding more insight (hopefully), and sharing more knowledge, more facets to the same diamond. Well, I wanted to take a moment to share with you some of the sources of my inspiration. They are often a mix of books, podcasts and conversations. In the future, I hope to have a separate page on my blog that is dedicated to gathering different resources, both for teachers and everyone else.  I've been trying to embrace this extended time of sheltering in place by engaging in "sponge work" And no, Montessorians, I don't mean the practical life activity that aids children in building the muscles in their hands by transferring water from one bowl to another via sponge. I just mean taking the time to learn as much as I can through reading lots of books, l...