Unleash the Potential

Becky Bereswill

"But when I graduated in May of 2005, I took a few small steps into the real world and everything changed. I knew it was coming; entering a world where competition is everything. Since eighth-grade graduation, I have competed for a top spot in my high school class, for a coveted college admission with thousands of other applicants, and have competed on the world stage against other nations’ best athletes. When these challenges and opportunities began to involve me, I was not shocked or discouraged. I was ready. I had been preparing for them all my life and knew they were there. With the gift of nurturing and encouragement from Post Oak and my parents, these challenges were new and I couldn’t wait to be a part of them. So finally, in the words of Maria Montessori, "Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world."

Thank you!"

Read full transcript of Becky's talk at The Post Oak School.

True Grit 1 - Superwoman was Already Here

Our faculty welcomes 'Superman' Daniel Petter-Lipstein, one of the Montessori 'MadMen' to discuss Paul Tough's "How Children Succeed".  Tough's book on grit and other underlying character traits that are as important, if not more important, than IQ in determining the success of children in school and beyond could be read as a tribute to the work of Superwoman Maria Montessori.  The Montessori curriculum has powerful and intrinsic character development elements built into it that begin to develop crucial learning traits and attitudes from the moment children arrive into Toddler Montessori classrooms.  The work accomplished by Tough, which is being taken so seriously by public school reformers as revolutionary work (and it is!) has a natural partner in our classrooms.  Ours should be model classrooms to make real the ideas of Tough, Angela Duckworth, David Levin and so many others.  

Daniel Petter-Lipstein inserted Montessori into the "True Grit, Can You Teach Children Character" NBC News Education Nation Roundtable Discussion by asking the panel why such a natural match wasn't being considered in the debate.  He is meeting this afternoon with Ms. Susan and Ms. Preeti, our Lower Elementary North teachers, who are presenting a talk on character education and grit specifically at the New Jersey Montessori Association Corporation in March.  He is also meeting with Ms. Karen, our Head of School and the Vice President of NJMAC.

We'll keep you posted on how the talks go in subsequent True Grit blog posts!  We're excited to have Daniel on campus with us today!

IB - Montessori part 2 - Peace

"Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education." Maria Montessori

People that follow the work and life of Maria Montessori and the evolution of Montessori education closely have little need for a reminder of the strong connection between her work in schools and her ideal of peace.  Montessori's life and work on 'Peace Education' was engendered by two world wars, work in the slums of Rome, her exile from Italy by Mussolini, the Spanish Civil War and her work at UNESCO and as a UN ambassador.  

At Waterfront Montessori our Primary and Lower Elementary programs set a strong foundation for an understanding of the world and its peoples.  The Lower Elementary student knows peace and the world through mapwork, studying fundamental human needs, and an emphasis on human togetherness.  

The Middle School IB curriculum gives us an opportunity to abstract peace and human relations and cement the concept of peace.  As our students develop into abstract thinkers and continue to challenge subtleties and disconnections between what we say and do, questions invariably arise.  

Why do we fight?

Why does inequality exist?

Why are people sometimes cruel to each other?

What can we do about it?

Even an average IB curriculum is a strong peace education ally because of its focus on internationality and plurality of thought.  By focusing on economics, political geography in context and especially on understanding the mind and motivation of the other, our IB Middle School program asks all the right questions to develop that Early School Montessori foundation.

Open-mindedness is one of the IB learner profiles that we aim to develop in our understanding of peace and human relations.  In our curriculum, we explore iterations of a key question that informs the relationships we have with our classmates, peers and neighbors:

How do our experiences help determine our opinions and who we become?

We can extrapolate that question into the realm of international affairs and peace among nations and peoples.  The most important lesson however, is that the different experiences we've had yesterday will inform our actions and opinions today.  That we are not fundamentally different but have lived different circumstances and that what brings us together is much more powerful than what separates us.  

Our Montessori-IB students develop that question and answer every day.  The strong peace connection of the philosophies make them experts in the field and leaders of Peace Education.

IB - Montessori part I - Questions

We know from experience and Montessori's work that the driving force in our classrooms are not the adults standing in front of them, but the questions that develop in the child's mind.  The role of the teacher in the Montessori classroom is that of a guide, and that of a storyteller.  Through the five great lessons and countless stories we set the stage for a universe of human reality and wonder for the child to begin exploring.  Their questions will ultimately create their understanding of those lessons and of our universe, as well as provide their focus going forward.


The Montessori classroom is able to create an environment that prolongs the interactions that infants and toddlers have naturally with their parents, friends and surroundings.  Interactions where the toddlers are innately curious and voracious in their exploration. 

• What is this?
• What does this do?
• Why is this here?
• Where does this come from?
• Why are we going there?

The child's curiosity is insatiable.  Not only verbal, but also - as any parent will eagerly chime in - completely sensorial.  The child touches everything, tastes everything, listens to everything, smells everything and attempts to transform everything in this exploration.  By taking advantage of this instead of suppressing it, the Primary and Elementary Montessori curriculum is second to none. 


We chose to create an International Baccalaureate Middle School because the program is founded on asking powerful questions.  The difference in the two philosophies is that in the Montessori tradition our questions are not explicit or necessarily shared. Taking advantage of our MS students moving into a decidedly more social plane of development, we understand that discovery and exploration is not only private and self-driven but has also become a shared peer experience.  In our Middle School curriculum we share questions and ideas, we still let the child drive his learning by asking questions, but we now make their questions explicit and available to their classmates.  We tell stories and expand on the great lessons and use student curiosity to develop our curriculum.


We are driven by questions instead of content:

• What is order? What is chaos? Instead of Ancient Greece.
• What is a number? Instead of base ten number systems.
• What is an ideal community? Instead of The Giver.
• When is it good to be wrong? Instead of the Scientific Method.

Montessori and the International Baccalaureate

A match made in heaven!  And explored in our Montessori - IB Middle School as well as countless others.  The connection - Look at the center!

 

Part 1 of this magical relationship next!

Prove it! - Dr. Stephen Hughes Part 1

There is so much to say about this Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology turned mega Montessori advocate that I needed to make it a multi-part series.  Although it comes as no surprise after years in a Montessori classroom that a pediatric neuropsychologist has become a champion of the Montessori method, it certainly is reassuring to have Dr. Stephen Hughes on board.  His website is a fantastic resource (it's about Montessori kids and it's called 'goodatdoingthings'!) and his talks are required listening for Montessorians. 

In this first introduction I wanted to highlight his insistence on making the value behind a Montessori education more evident to education scholars and parents.  For far too long, Montessori education has held on to a sort of niche status and niche audience and it is time for the offer to become more widespread.  Dr. Hughes calls upon Montessori schools to prove it in a variety of ways.  Keeping alumni records is crucially important (the Montessori Mafia after all, is no fluke), portfolios are key (we use studentjotter.com), and some kind of standardized testing that does not involve preparing the students for the actual test can be helpful in making worthwhile comparisons. 

Montessori philosophy and curriculum often focuses on the internal and implicit.  We know that the drive to learn, explore and achieve is inside every one of our students.  Dr. Stephen Hughes highlights that this classroom (teacher) habit has to change when communicating with the outside world about Montessori education.  Our schools need to work at making our incredible achievements explicit, obvious and statistically significant.

Montessori Records Express (MRX)

Just talked to Dave Rabkin of Montessori Records Express (MRX).  Hundreds of Montessori classrooms all over the country make their curricula available to the Montessori community in this collaborative project to be able to accurately plan and report the amazing things that happen within the Montessori classroom.  Sequences for every area of study are documented, tracked for every student, and available to parents, administrators and teachers within seconds.  It truly decreases teacher workload by about 50% almost immediately and is a much more accurate and up to date way to keep track of our kids' progress.

An amazing planning tool for teachers (I can instantly check which one of my students needs a lesson and which ones have mastered a concept and are ready to give the lessons).  We love MRX because it gives the curriculum a little more formality and continuity.  It makes end of year meetings about where particular students are in particular areas run much more smoothly.  And it lets us share the work we've done with schools around the country.  Much like blogging, MRX is an incredible way to share with fellow progressive educators and Montessorians.