What is a “four”?
Counting has been with us a good, long time. The idea that we could keep track of things by doing so is indeed fascinating and helpful beyond description. Rather than have “one”, “one”, “one”, etc – or rather, “this”, “this”, “this” (since “one” doesn’t come into being until you have the idea of “numbers” to […]
Eco Teaching
Add to the list of things that you can’t “teach”: eco-friendliness. The rage these days is teaching earth-friendly, eco-sensitive perspectives. This has been popular for a while now. The thinking is that if we TEACH students to be respectful of the Earth they will make better choices for sustainable practices. This is like teaching morality: […]
Creating Meaning – What Learning is
“You learn what you do, and you can’t learn what you don’t do”. You create meaning by doing. It is that simple. We, each of us, need to be our own meaning-maker. You don’t create meaning by just listening. Real learning requires you to be physiologically engaged, and to be physiologically engaged means to have […]
Mistakes and Learning
“If you can’t make a mistake you can’t make anything”, that’s what educator Marva Collins said. She knew something about learning that too often is forgotten. Why do schools traditionally focus so much on “how many did you get wrong? how many right?” In doing so a culture of “the right answer” is created. The […]
When Helping is not a Good Idea
Here’s a story that was told to me recently: in some store for small children, there’s a toddler trying to pull out a chair at a small table so as to be able to use something that’s on the table. The toddler is struggling to pull the chair out… it’s a lot of work… finally […]
Montessori Myths
It is a given that anything that has been around for as long as the Montessori Method (over 108 years now) that it will at times be misunderstood, miscommunicated, criticized and poorly defined. And so, over the years, many things have been said about the approach to developmental education that Dr. Maria Montessori pioneered in […]
Movement in Education
There is growing talk about the value and need of movement in schools. Bloggers write about it and research shows the relationship between movement and brain development. However, for conventional schools, they simply aren’t sure how to fit this in. More time outside? Regularly scheduled intervals for “movement”? Allow children to wander the classroom while […]
Why Is Stepping Stone Montessori School Different?
Why Is Stepping Stone Montessori School Different? 1. Stepping Stone Montessori School (SSMS) is beautiful, peaceful and organized. 2. There is mutual respect between teachers, staff, and the children. 3. SSMS Founders, Management, Teachers and other staff have a real passion for children and the many gifts that a Montessori education offers. 4. The uniqueness of […]
Giving From the Soul
Everyone wants their child to grow up to become a “nice” person: considerate, helpful respectful, honorable, empathetic, and so on. And surely the world needs more people like this. Dr. Maria Montessori, in her book “Education and Peace”, talked about how peaceful children, people, are created. She said that peace will not come about by […]
Learning is what Nature Does
This quote from Dr. Maria Montessori lays out the foundation of her approach to children and learning. By saying that “education is a natural process” Dr. Montessori is relating the education of a person to the development of all living organisms: taking from the surrounding environment and building something up from that. So education is […]