Category Archives: making a difference

It’s time to leap!

26 Wednesday Feb 2020

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Leap year. It comes every four years. Presidents are elected every leap year. The United States takes a major leap, deciding who will lead our country for four more years. Promises are made – some kept and others not. We know this going in, and we engage in the democratic process nonetheless.

Thinking about leap year causes us to consider the last time we truly leapt into an unknown, something we were unsure of and for which we couldn’t necessarily predict the results. We tend to play it safe. We notice the risk-takers, the people living closer to the edge, not only willing to try new things, but eager to leap. We each have varying tolerance for risk. We may risk our money, but not our physical safety, or we may do the opposite.

Most of the inventions we view as remarkable came about due to a risk, a chance taken by the inventor and maybe the people who first tried or backed the new idea. The changes in our society have been led by those willing to risk using their voices to move our world forward. We remember them, honor their contributions and respect their efforts.

As you approach February 29, think about the four years since we last had a leap year. What risks have you taken? What have you done that you thought you would never do? What have you continued to avoid? What led to the most personal and professional growth? This is a once in four-year opportunity. Will you take a leap?

A Little Help from My Friends

07 Friday Dec 2018

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During the past few days, I’ve had several different educators outside of my school reach out and ask a question or two about something they are working to figure out. The topics have ranged from policy and procedure questions to challenging employee situations and “How did you handle this?” questions. None of the people expected a solution to their particular problem. Instead, what they were seeking was a listening ear and more information to help them as they work to solve their particular version of a problem that I may have struggled with.

This week I was also struck by the fact that we also ask students to help us as we try to accomplish our goals. Our school has a team of students who are working toward making the school a greener, more environmentally friendly school. Those students met for the first time this November and are buzzing with ideas, excited about the changes they will make to impact our school. Middle school students have been asked to run assemblies, create an admissions video and support other students in various ways. They’re invested in making a difference and making contributions to the community.

We do not stand alone. We are all part of groups, small and large. At times we lead, at others we follow. Sometimes we are the helper, and often we are being helped. The common thread is that we seek information and support from others, counting on them to help us learn and grow, not to do our jobs for us. As adults we recognize the need for this and seek information that helps us to make decisions or do a particular job. Schools must replicate these experiences for their students. Children need to see us asking for and receiving help, refining our thinking based on new information, and leaning on each other to do the best job possible. They need to know that doing “their own work” often relies on information and a helping hand from others. Schools, workplaces and all of life depend on our interactions with each other and conversation and questioning that leads to greater understanding, learning and action.

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

18 Thursday Jan 2018

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MLKphoto9Our nation has just honored Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday. Dr. King is inarguably a hero to many from many past, present and future generations. His most famous speech is the “I have a dream speech,” delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. In thinking about the upcoming memorial to Dr. King, I came across a lesser known speech and quote from a commencement speech he gave at Oberlin College in June 1965: “The time is always right to do what is right.” Continue reading →

Establishing Peace

24 Thursday Aug 2017

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These are difficult times. Tragic events such as those in Charlottesville, Va., and Barcelona, Spain, have focused our attention on acts of violence and intolerance. Conversations are focused on our differences, with race, religion and culture at the forefront. What is our obligation when events such as these dominate our landscape? How can we make a difference?

One need look no further than historic thought leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Dr. Maria Montessori to guide us. They provide wisdom that will remind us of our obligation to each other as we work toward peace and justice. They and countless others have allowed us to live the lives we live today – lives of opportunity, equity and security.Peace Day 2015 - 29

Each day schools have the opportunity to shape our future. Peace and social justice are central to Montessori education. Students are taught grace and courtesy from the moment they enter our schools. These tenets are part of our students’ experience each and every day. Through conflict, they learn acceptance, tolerance and understanding. They make mistakes. They are sometimes unkind. However, what they learn is how to see another’s point of view, how to listen and how to respectfully engage in conversation with others. For as Maria Montessori said so well, “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education.”

As another school year begins, we must work to help children learn about others – their similarities and their differences – to create a world of peace.

Independence

30 Thursday Mar 2017

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If you are reading this blog, my guess is that you have gone to school. No matter where that school was located, or who your favorite and least favorite teachers were, my guess is also that the school you attended looked very much like the schools most children attend in 2017. Your classroom was most likely filled with desks, chalkboards or dry erase boards, books, pencils, notebooks and perhaps some art materials. There was probably one teacher who talked more than he or she listened, and even your enrichment classes were probably similar to the ones most schools offer today: physical education, music, art and foreign language. Why, you might ask, is this so? Do the cars we drove 20 or 30 years ago look and act in the same ways? Do our banks, stores and other businesses function as they did when you were a child? Chances are the answer is no.

Why is it so hard to create change in schools? Reading blog after blog and book after book, attending conferences, and learning from other educators leads me to understand it is the way of education. Change happens slowly – and it happens even more slowly in schools. You might be fortunate enough to have experienced a teacher or classroom that is at the cutting edge of what it means to create a vital teaching and learning environment. Typically, it takes decades for those changes to become what one might consider “best practice” in education and part of every child’s school experience. .

The advantage of an independent school (like Wilmington Montessori School) is that the changes we know need to happen in education are happening in classrooms on a daily basis. Independent schools are able to make changes more quickly. We are able to be more experimental, trying things, seeing if they work and incorporating change from one classroom to the next in a more responsive way than can occur in the public school system. Independent schools have thrived and continue to contribute to the education of children by doing just that.

We know the children in our schools. We understand them and work each day to build the experience those children will benefit from the most. The result is students and graduates who are themselves more independent. These young people are not only capable of upholding and exceeding the standards that are critical to ensure an educated populace; they are also able to think independently, synthesize information and effect change in our world.

An Untapped Resource

16 Thursday Mar 2017

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The greatest untapped resource in the world is human potential. It’s not oil or gas. This untapped resource exists because our children aren’t getting an education from an early age.
– Nicholas Kristof

While attending the American Montessori Society’s annual conference last week, I had the pleasure of hearing New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof speak to more than 3,500 Montessori educators. With lots to share and a responsive audience, he spoke of the many injustices that he has revealed over the years through his writing and the humanitarian efforts on behalf of those world problems. Speaking to educators provides a welcoming audience, an audience who has the potential to make an impact through their work with children.

One of Maria Montessori’s most important messages is that the future of the world is in the hands of our children; we must develop their human potential. They must be presented the world in order to work to make sense of it and create the change that is needed to ensure the future of our planet and its people. This is the central purpose of a Montessori education. Children are our future. They need the opportunity to learn, to develop an understanding of the world and to begin to create solutions to the world’s problems. The way we care for our world is to care for the children who inhabit our planet and ensure the future of both through education. I can think of no better way to do this than through Montessori education.

Establishing Peace

19 Thursday Jan 2017

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This week, our country celebrates the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., the week that our first African-American President leaves office, and the week of the presidential inauguration. It’s a momentous week to be sure. As we honor these dates, we reflect on what has led us to this place in history – some things we are proud to claim and others we may prefer to forget.

Through many years of working with upper elementary students, one thing I learned is that looking at history through their eyes is nothing short of remarkable. As we have shared stories from World War II – books about children treated as less than because of their race or ethnicity and people immigrating to the United States only to face more struggles than they imagined – the students’ reaction is one of disbelief. They cannot understand why anyone would treat another person in any of these ways; they are rightly appalled. In their lack of understanding of the world, they tend to see it more clearly than we do. Things are much more simple. Kindness results in kindness. Rising up to denounce the cruelty of a person or a society’s actions is an obvious act that must occur. Why did we, the adults of the past and present, allow these things to persist? Why did we not create the changes needed to protect and preserve the people of our world?

Education for peace is a central focus of the Montessori curriculum. As Dr. Montessori stated, “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education.” As children move through their school years, history reveals itself. The good and the bad are apparent. Students are sure they can do a better job than their ancestors. They are certain they would not stand for many of the things that have occurred throughout our world’s history. They want to create change and to treat people in the same ways, no matter who they are. They know they have the answers. It is our responsibility to help them find those ways, to right those wrongs and to learn how to make a difference. We open their eyes to what has happened, to see what is wrong with our world so they can move steadily forward making the changes that are needed. They need to know that their actions are imperative, that they have meaning. They are creating the future. And we are there by their side to stand with them, answer their questions and guide them along the way. Peace education is a critical aspect of educating all children. Thank you to Dr. King, Dr. Montessori and all of those who went before us leading the way for our future.

 

We can’t always get what we want.

17 Thursday Nov 2016

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heather-siple-read-aloud-011What happens when you don’t get what we want? How do you react? Is it a feeling of hopelessness, or is it a challenge to shift your behavior or reach out to someone? This week has been a challenging time for many. Election day brought results that caused some to rejoice and others to cringe.

No matter your politics, one of the biggest lessons we all need to learn is how to be gracious. Whether we win or lose, our reaction is what sets us apart. Children have ample opportunities to learn this on the sports field, in the classroom and at home. Playing games typically results in someone winning. We’ve all had the experience of the winner gloating and the loser storming off. The challenge that we face when we enter a contest of any sort is to handle ourselves with grace and courtesy, a central aspect of Montessori education. Our days are filled with ways to practice kindness, courtesy and, yes, manners. We teach children to look each other in the eye, to shake hands and introduce themselves to guests, and to apologize when they have hurt another’s feelings.

It’s easy to be a kind winner or a sore loser. It’s a lot harder to be a winner who reaches out to the people on the other team and congratulates them for participating in the game, for giving it their all, and for being a worthy opponent. A good contest is satisfying and rewarding. Though the Cleveland Indians lost the World Series to the Chicago Cubs, both teams gave it their all; the games allowed sports fan to see some of the best baseball games played in a long time.

Winning feels great. Losing, not so much. How will we move forward after an election that was not the best example of grace and courtesy? How will we guide our students and children to help them learn how to behave when things don’t go their way? What example will we set?

Seeking Peace

21 Thursday Jul 2016

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“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education.” – Maria Montessori

Too many times over the past few weeks and months we awakened to hear of instability and injustice in our world. We are shaken to our very core with stories of violence from Orlando, Chicago, Dallas, Paris, Nice, Turkey, Baton Rouge and more. As adults, we try to make sense of these situations that make no sense to us at all; we yearn for peace and understanding. And we often ask how we can get there. What can we do?

This weekend, I had the pleasure of listening to Thich Nhat Hanh in this podcast. It is not a new episode, but one that seems particularly relevant. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk who works for peace throughout the world:

“Peace always begins with yourself as an individual, and as an individual you might help build a community of peace….And when the community of a few hundred people knows the practice of peace and brotherhood, and then you can become the refuge for many others who come to you and profit from the practice of peace and brotherhood. And they will join you, and the community gets larger all the time. And the practice of peace and brotherhood will be offered to many other people….”

Establishing peace is at the core of the Montessori philosophy. Cultural studies are central to each and every lesson in the Montessori curriculum. As we share stories of the universe, the coming of life and of humans to earth, and the development of language and mathematics, we are sharing the world with children. We are not only sharing the science and the history of how life began; we are also sharing our interconnectedness and recognizing what it is that binds us. We are establishing a community – a world community. For in a Montessori classroom, we quickly realize that we are more alike than different. We have the same fundamental human needs and depend on each other to survive and thrive.

As Thich Nhat Hahn states, “When you practice looking at people with the eyes of compassion, that kind of practice will become a good habit. And you are capable of looking at the people in such a way that you can see the suffering, the difficulties. And if you can see, then compassion will naturally flow from your heart.”

Teaching compassion and peace underlies all we do at Wilmington Montessori School.

Peace Education

30 Thursday Jun 2016

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Peace Day 2015 - 29“Education is the best weapon for peace.”
– Maria Montessori

 

As we continue to hear more about the shootings in Orlando and other acts of violence in our world, we question how this is possible and why it happened. We also struggle with how to talk to children about such atrocities. Many parents work hard to shield their children from these violent events. Sometimes, despite the best intentions, they learn about them anyway. This week I was reminded of the quote from Fred Rogers, of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.

This shifts the focus from the aggressor or attacker to the fact that people are helpers. We want to help. We want to do something meaningful to contribute to those who are suffering.  We yearn for peace. A strong tenet of Montessori education is the peace curriculum. It must be taught each day if children are to grow into adults who promote peace and continue to care for our world and each other.