Montessorium Blog

Lessons and modeling alone are not enough to cultivate the level of independent awareness and joyful initiative we see in a classroom— to be ingrained into the child’s character, to become second nature in the countless instances in life where no one is watching and no one has given explicit instructions, a proactive sense of order requires the development and mastery of certain essential skills.

Daily activity in a Montessori Children’s House can easily pass by in a bright and busy blur. Yet, even with a vivid awareness of all the interactions, effort, and activity that fills each day, it can be difficult to explain to those unfamiliar with Montessori just what exactly you do as a Montessori guide.

In education, how should we conceive of the parent as a customer? This week, join us for a discussion with Deb Ross, founder of KidsOutAndAbout.com, as we dig into questions of parenting, choice, and what parents really want from their schools.

As parents and teachers, we want to prepare children to face this vast array of decisions with confidence and integrity. Whatever our view of what is right and virtuous, we want them to have the capacity to make choices with conviction and to follow through with corresponding action. Yet, Montessori believed the traditional methods for building this capacity, rather than supporting children, stunt them.

Mentoring is the oldest model of education, but it is uncommon today. Why is so effective? Why is it now rare? Why does it still matter? Join us for a discussion with Audrey Wisch of Curious Cardinals.

In recognizing that even the youngest child engages in cognitive activity, and in seeing the child’s development as a unity—as a progression containing certain salient features, with each stage laying the groundwork for the next—Montessori saw the need for a radically altered system of education, one that begins at birth.

Join us for a chat with Lenore Skenazy, of Free Range Kids and Let Grow, about raising independent children—why it’s so important, why it’s so hard for parents and educators to get right, and how to do it.

Montessori, unlike the centuries of educational tradition before her, did not view knowledge as a lump sum that can be gifted wholesale to a child, filling his mind as one would fill an empty vessel. Neither did she view knowledge as an experiential grab-bag, a disparate and disconnected assortment of facts and skills that can be learned (or not!) at random. Instead, for Montessori, knowledge is an achievement. It’s an effortful process that can be accelerated and whose product can be amplified by following a specific path.

Join us for a conversation with Jeremy Tate, creator of the Classic Learning Test. Motivated by a desire to reconnect knowledge and virtue, the CLT is an alternative to the traditional American SAT and ACT college entrance exams. Listen to hear more about the origins of standardized college exams in the U.S., the pedagogy behind the CLT, and where virtue fits in.