elementary

23 Aug

An Open Letter To New Elementary Parents

Soon enough our early elementary classrooms will be filling once again with children excited to begin the new school year. Among the happy faces will be those of the youngest children, those who are making the leap into the second plane of development and experiencing for the first time the elementary environment that we will have so carefully prepared for them. In all the excitement of welcoming the new children, let us not forget their parents – for their parents, too, may be new to the elementary and just as much in transition as their children.

I would like to share with you a sort of “open letter” to these new parents – a letter that says what I would like to say to help them through their first months of parenting a new elementary child. Perhaps you will find some things in it that you would like to share with your own transitioning parents.

Dear Parents,

Welcome to our elementary community and to your new role as the parent of an elementary-age child. You did it! You successfully nurtured your child through the crucial first six years of life, giving them a solid Montessori foundation on which they will now begin to build a healthy childhood as the foundation for a healthy adolescence. It wasn’t easy at times, and there was so much to learn about your child and yourself as a parent, so many surprises, so much to think about.

Much of what you now know about parenting will continue to stand you in good stead, but it is also important to acknowledge that you are now the parent of a new child. Those sweet, transparent, cuddly little ones that you have so loved and enjoyed will quickly be leaving their infant selves behind to stretch and strengthen themselves to leave the nest and began to venture out into the larger world. The environments and the relationships we and you so carefully prepared at school and at home to support the developmental needs of the young child no longer fit this new child. New preparations are in order! Not to recognize this and change our ways of working with the child would be like forcing a frog to continue living underwater as though it were still a tadpole.

Your child will very likely find their new elementary classroom to have much that is familiar to them from their previous school experience. They will see some of the same materials on the shelf. They will see children working by choice and with the grace and courtesy characteristic of the Montessori community. They will find that their new guide has the same respect for and commitment to children that their old guide had.

All the same, your new elementary child will need some time to grow into the new classroom environment. The elementary environment is full of freedom, friends, group work, and unstructured blocks of time, for these are some of the elements that elementary children need to reach their full intellectual and social/emotional potential. To a newcomer, however, it may seem like a never-ending party! Don’t be too surprised if your little Primary worker bee is initially a bit disoriented and drunk on freedom. The guide and the community of older children will bring them around in due time and show them what it means to work productively in the collaborative environment of the Montessori elementary. The elementary is largely about learning to balance freedom and responsibility, and this is the work of years, not days or weeks.

Don’t worry if your child is not yet reading or doing arithmetic. The elementary guide will know how to meet them wherever they are and keep them moving forward. From the first day of school, there will be work for them to do as they pick up the thread from last year. The beauty of Montessori education, and the reason it is still flourishing around the world in scores of countries, cultures, and conditions, is that it is organized to support the natural development of each child according to their individual developmental timetable. Save yourself and your child the anxiety created by comparing them to other children and to students in curriculum-driven lock-step traditional programs.

As a new member of the elementary community, you can expect the guide to provide extra support for you as well as your child. The guide will be working diligently to create a solid partnership with you on behalf of your child. They will also be working to help you and your child find your respective places in the community of parents and children. They will be getting to know your child and connecting them to meaningful work. They, with the help of the older children, will be acquainting your child with the culture and customs of their new community. Later, sometimes as late as the second year, they will be introducing your child to Work Journals or other tools that will allow your child to gradually take more and more responsibility for their own education.

It goes without saying that your child’s guide is there to help them develop academically and intellectually, but the bigger and even more important work they will be undertaking is the creation of a classroom culture that supports the development of character, positive habits of mind, and the social skills needed to be a happy contributing member of our work culture based on collaboration, mutual help, and mutual care. This greater focus on the social nature of work parallels the elementary child’s psychological needs and natural interests. While the guide will continue to work with each child as they have need, they will work more often with the whole community. In a very real sense, the elementary child has two guides – the adult and the community of their peers – and a skilled guide will understand that they always have that other partner in the room to consider and support.

The stimulation and intensity of the well-functioning Montessori elementary classroom can be physically and emotionally exhausting for the new children who are still in transition. There’s so much to take in, so much to think about, so much to learn! Plan now to offer them extra support at home by seeing that they have the very best nutrition and 9-11 hours of sleep each night. Renew your commitment to protecting them from daily exposure to television, computer games, and video games. Give them lots of “down time” and time outdoors in nature. This is not the time to load up their schedules with private lessons and extracurricular activities! Read aloud to them daily from books recommended by your school or your child’s guide. Have a family meal at least several times a week to practice the art of conversation about topics your child will be encountering in school. Practice giving your elementary child room to talk, to speculate, to question, to imagine aloud. Speak less and listen more.

Ask your guide to recommend good parenting resources for parents with elementary-age children. Be sure one of the books you read soon is How to Talk So Kids Will Listen, How to Listen So Kids Will Talk by Faber and Mazlish. Check out Sandy Blackard’s book and online course at languageoflistening.com. And stay in touch with your guide as you have questions and concerns.

Above all, enjoy getting to know this new child of yours, as they come to know themselves. The elementary years will be rich, challenging, and full of new experiences and vivid memories. Grow joyfully along with your Montessori elementary child these next six years! Never again will you have such an opportunity for self-improvement and personal growth. This is the gift of your new child to you, if you will only accept it.

Sincerely,

John

21 Dec

Who is the Elementary Child?

by John Snyder | Montessori Blog

3 Comments

These astonishing, inspiring, infuriating, delightful, intellectual, affectionate, willful, imaginative, perplexing, energetic, shape-shifting, social, inconsistent, big-hearted, enigmatic, demanding, reflective, dramatic, complicated elementary children of ours: who are they? They are like arrows shot from our bow, and if we would understand them, we must look far into the distance where they are aimed: adolescence.

The elementary years are years of vigorous, continual growth, stretched between the two poles of the first and third planes of development. Building on the foundation – whether solid or shaky – of the first six years, they aim for the heights of adolescence. Everything that we have a hope of understanding about these elementary children can be understood as a function of three things: the raw materials of personhood that they bring with them from early childhood; the developmental trajectory toward adolescence; and the quality of the support and protection they have from us along the way.

Adolescence is a supremely social time of life dominated by the work of self-understanding, of orienting oneself in society and history, and of beginning to experience oneself as a power in the world. Our elementary children are on the way to this and are therefore increasingly social, increasingly independent and competent, and possessed of an increasingly penetrating intelligence.

As Donna Bryant Goertz likes to say, if the First Plane children are like tadpoles, the elementary children are like the frogs into which they were transformed, and to keep a frog in the underwater environment that was right for the tadpole will kill it. Both guides and parents must dramatically alter their way of working to match the very different needs of the new elementary child before them.

This does not mean that we begin to treat our elementary children as though they were adolescent to “help them grow into it” anymore than we would take a tadpole out of the water to help it get used to breathing. On the contrary, the needs of the child are just as different from the needs of the adolescent as are the needs of the child under six from the child over six. Children need for us to be fierce protectors of their childhood, by which I mean protectors of a full six years of safe space and time in which they can run the many social and intellectual experiments, experience the many little and not-so-little failures and successes, and learn the many ins and outs of their maturing bodies and brains that necessarily constitute “growing into it.”

17 Jul

Boys and Gun Play

by John Snyder | Montessori Blog

23 Comments

Elementary children need to experience themselves as increasingly powerful agents in the world. As their personal power increases with age and maturity, they begin to encounter all the classical questions about power with which humanity has struggled and continues to struggle. At the root of these questions is the fact that power and its uses define relationships.

There is that in the male psyche, in particular, that is fascinated with the projection of personal power at a distance. The emperor sits in his throne room ruling his far-flung empire. The generals gather in the war room to talk about “force projection.” CEO’s earn their bonuses by expanding the “global reach” of their corporations. The eminent professor sits in his study writing books and papers calculated to demolish the theories of his colleagues on the other side of the world and change the direction of his academic discipline for all time.

Boys, on the other hand, just like to throw things. Rocks, snowballs, mud balls, dirt clods, sticks, spears, Frisbees, boomerangs, baseballs, footballs, basketballs – all involve the projection of power at a distance – and if accuracy is involved, so much the better. Standing right here, I can have an effect way over there. I can get that wooly mammoth, bear or dog before it gets me. I can get you before you get me. And I can do it even if I’m not as big, strong, fast, ferocious, agile, or smart as you.

Guns are technology’s answer to this fascination with the projection of power at a distance. This attraction, this fascination is, in itself, neither good nor bad. It just is. Yet it is clear that in the context of a life and a culture, how a boy learns to relate to his capacity to project personal power can lead to good or bad habits of mind and good or bad outcomes for the boy, his family and his society.

17 Jul

Behind the Laundry Hamper

by Donna Bryant Goertz | Montessori Blog

25 Comments

Blond Boy Crying — © MariaMontessori.com

He was a sweet child with an angelic face, this new six year-old from another Montessori school. And he was so eager to please. How was I to know that he—during the very first week of school–would treat the parents at departure to the most spectacular display of temper I’d ever seen, complete with language I’d never in my life heard used against me, by anyone, much less a sweet child! And this reaction seemed to be triggered simply by my having indicated cheerfully that we sit on the bench until our car pulls up. I was shaken and determined to see that this never happened again in front of an audience of parents. A couple of older children smirked and a couple of younger ones cringed. “Uh oh, I thought, “I can’t let him get cast in a role. Now the parents have seen him and the children have reacted strongly. Not such a good start for a new child.” So, the next day, before going out to departure, I reminded the entire group that we stay on the bench for the ten-minute departure period. My experienced intuition told me that Sammy was eager and capable of cooperating. He just didn’t like being caught off guard, caught making a mistake. My gut told me that he was somewhat of a perfectionist.

Then, a couple of days later, when one of us had to deliver a message of information to Sammy, we were treated to the same display. I knew I had to act decisively to establish our way of thinking about Sammy and his needs. “Children, turn away. Avert your eyes. Let Sammy have his privacy. We will protect his dignity. Come gather over here for a story,” I said with a heart full of compassion and confidence. “Take no notice; let’s spare Sammy embarrassment. Let him have time to recover himself. Soon he’ll learn to handle frustration and anger without such a display.”

The children were shocked. They had never heard anyone say these words, much less scream them, and certainly not at their Guide. They were ready to go in any number of directions—demonize Sammy to their parents, titter about him and call him The Howler, or just plain coldly avoid and exclude him. I had to steer them to adopt the most compassionate approach, one of supporting his best development over time.

“This is very hard on all of us. We don’t like hearing the loud screaming or the vulgar and offensive words, but we can bear up under it. It’s the hardest of all on Sammy. We’ll do the best we can to help him find better ways of expressing his anger, but it may take a long time.”

A little later after Sammy had recovered and spent time engaged in work, when he was free and in a good mood, I struck up a conversation with him as we checked to see which books needed to be returned to the library. I led into the subject delicately. “You didn’t like being asked to let Rubin have his place back. When you sat down in that chair, you didn’t even know Rubin had been sitting there before. That could be unsettling, or it could even be very embarrassing. But I’m not worried. I know we’ll figure this out together.” I let it go at that the first time.

The next time Sammy had an episode, the community and I responded in like manner, and in like manner, I found a way to spend time with Sammy later. “That was very upsetting to you. Getting that angry was very hard on you. Ya feeling okay now? Can you tell me about it so we can work together to make it go better next time?” Sammy told me he was okay and that he felt fine now. “Sammy, I know you and I will figure this out so that, in time, you can let me know how upset and angry you are in a strong but calm voice, with strong but respectful words. And I will never scream at you or call you names. “

Over time, I introduced other thoughts to Sammy. “The children will always turn away and give you privacy.”

“I know how embarrassing it is to say those words about people, especially about me when we like each other so much. “

“The children care about how you feel. They feel sad and upset when they see how hard this is on you.”

“Soon you’ll be able to walk away and find a private place to be upset. Someday you’ll be able to use a quieter voice so others don’t have to hear those words.”

One day when the episodes of temper display and emotional outbursts were diminishing in frequency and intensity, I could hear a harsh whispering almost like a stage-whisper version of yelling and screaming. I was walking across the room puzzled, when a child approached me saying, “Donna, don’t go over there by the laundry hamper. Sammy is hiding back there and yelling in a whispering voice all those bad words.”

“Yes,” said another child, “see Donna, he’s nice enough now that he doesn’t want anybody to hear those words.”

“Well, he still has to say them, but he doesn’t have to scream them out loud any more. Now he knows how to whisper-yell them,” added a third child.

“And he goes to the side of the room and hides behind the laundry hamper so the rest of us won’t be bothered,” the first child.

The next day, during a pleasant interlude, I acknowledged Sammy. “That was very considerate of you, Sammy, to go behind the laundry basket. Just imagine, you figured out how to be very, very upset and angry without bothering the other children. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to be that upset and that angry without saying those words, especially about me. “

“Already, yesterday, I didn’t say any of those words about you, Donna,” Sammy said. “I just said them about nobody.”

The second semester, Sammy already developed out of his emotional discharges and his temper displays. We were still careful with our approach to him, but all our efforts had paid off. The following year, we forgot all about it, so much so that I said a couple of words to Sammy at departure without thinking. I saw the look on his face and remembered. We looked at each other for a long moment, and then it passed. He put the gravel down and looked away from me. I sat beside him and put my arm around his shoulder. “Nobody likes being told what to do, huh, Sammy?” I asked. “I don’t mind,” he said in an emphatic, staccato and tense voice. Then a couple of minutes later, “Look, I’m still holding one piece. It’s a crystal. See?” He looked at me and smiled. He was holding on to his dignity in his own way, and allowing himself an appropriate enough token rebellion against being in the wrong—a tiny crystal in place of a huge temper tantrum—what an exquisite exchange.

19 Mar

Creativity and Montessori Education

by Peter Davidson | Montessori Blog

5 Comments

On a recent morning, I gave an educational consultant a tour of our Montessori school. She was visiting local schools, familiarizing herself with their operations and introducing herself and her services. She specializes in creativity and in developing individualized programs for TAG (Talented and Gifted) students to supplement their learning experiences outside of school hours.

First, I settled her in to observe in a Children’s House classroom. When I returned twenty minutes later to escort her to an elementary class, she asked, “Are those really two and a half to six-year-olds? It was so peaceful and productive!” I pointed out a few of the many activities in which children were engaged. “This boy is writing sentences with cut out letters. That little girl is ordering blocks and prisms using visual discrimination of dimension. The girl next to her is arranging flowers in a vase to beautify the classroom. The group of three on the rug is doing an addition problem with decimal system materials. You probably recognize many of the practical activities such as sewing a button, cleaning the window, and learning to buckle and tie. I hope you also noticed the many expression activities in use – the clay, easel painting, cutting, coloring and collage.”

After her 20 minutes observing in an elementary classroom, I showed her the work journal of the 10-year-old seated closest to the observation chair. “This is where she records all of her activities throughout the day. You can see that today she arrived at 8:35 and resumed work on her Egypt report; at 10:00 she had snack, at 10:30 she was invited to join a small group lesson on decimal multiplication, and has been doing follow-up problems ever since.” Then the observer followed me to my office for a conversation.

She began by asking the questions typical of a first-time Montessori observer, then began to wonder out loud how her services would be useful in such a setting. “Let’s talk about creativity,” I suggested, “for I think you’ll find that everything you observed this morning was essentially creative in the truest sense of the word.”

“First, let’s consider the Children’s House class. You noticed that the expression activities all respect the child’s innate creativity. These were not ‘art projects’ with an adult-determined outcome. We teach children a variety of media but limit the lesson to technique, leaving the child free to explore. In each case any product created was a unique expression of that child. We are even careful that our comments are non-judgmental. We might recognize the kinds of brush strokes, the use of space or color, but would stop there. You won’t find children in these classrooms producing artwork to please the adult, but to satisfy their own creative urges.

What you might not have recognized was the creativity involved in the child building with the blocks and prisms. She was using two materials simultaneously: the pink tower, which varies regularly in all three dimensions, and the brown stair, which varies in only two. While she has been shown on separate occasions one of the many ways to build each of these materials, the rest of the variations are left for her to discover on her own. On this occasion, she has noticed the correspondence of the two materials in their two-dimensional aspect, and has chosen to build them side-by-side, first as towers and then as stairs. But, no one showed her how to do this, nor even suggested it. She discovered it entirely on her own, using – guess what? – her creativity.

When you think about it, the entire environment was designed to allow freely for that most creative of all acts – the self-construction of each individual child according to his/her own pattern and pace. That essential creative act, which began at birth and continued throughout their early childhood as they learned to walk, and speak, and care for themselves, continues here unabated in an environment full of the raw materials of self-construction and with the time and freedom to do this important work.

Now let’s consider the elementary child. In my experience, what TAG programs attempt to do is to pull the talented and gifted children out of class to have the experience of devising their own projects and progressing at their own pace, if only for a few hours a week. As you saw, Montessori children get to do these things with every minute of every day! So, essentially what we have here is a Talented and Gifted Program all of the time, and one in which every child is considered talented and gifted, not just an elite few.”

So, it was with little hope that she left her card with me, since obviously her skills would be redundant here. But, I like to think that maybe she found the experience inspiring nonetheless, and that perhaps the Montessori children had taught her just a little bit more about creativity.

19 Mar

Connecting the Dots

by Pilar Bewley | Montessori Blog

2 Comments

A few days ago I watched the movie “Home” (available for free viewing online). It paints a fascinating picture of the impact that human beings have had on our planet over the past century.

One of the main themes of the movie is the interdependence of the Earth’s three kingdoms – animal, vegetable, and mineral. If we pollute our waters, it is not just fish that will suffer. If we reduce the variety of crops we plant, it is not just humans who will be affected. In short, by ignoring or abusing the relationships found in Nature, we risk upsetting the delicate balance that makes the Earth such a comforting home.

As I watched the film, I couldn’t help but wonder what we as parents and educators are doing to help children understand these connections. We keep hearing how it will be up to our children – our next generation – to solve the problems that the past generations have created. We know that the problem-solvers will be those who have a comprehensive understanding of the issues. And yet… Are we giving our children an education that provides a vision of interdependence among all of the planet’s inhabitants (living and non-living)?

A Cosmic Vision

The introduction to the movie “Home” discusses the creation of the Universe, the development of life on Earth, and the complex role human beings have played since their appearance on the planet. What a coincidence… These are precisely the themes of the first three Cosmic Fables presented in the Montessori Elementary classroom!

Cosmic Fables (aka, Great Lessons or Cosmic Tales) are grand stories told at the beginning of every school year to all the children in the elementary environment. We use the term “cosmic” because these stories help the children develop an organized understanding of the Universe and how everything within it relates (cosmic comes from cosmos, meaning: “the Universe as a well-ordered whole”). The word “fable” identifies a story that stirs the imagination and sparks questions of a moral nature (right vs. wrong). Imagination and morality are two of the elementary child’s most formidable learning tools.

These great narratives set the stage for the children’s exploration of all the subject areas. They prepare the children for work that has a purpose and meaning far beyond passing tests and receiving grades. Additionally, these stories encourage children to appreciate the contributions of past generations and empower them to build a better future. Perhaps most importantly, they help children understand the relationships between the topics they study, and what impact these relationships have on the present and future conditions of the planet.

You might be asking: IS everything inter-related? What does biology have to do with history, or language with math? After all, aren’t these topics taught and tested separately in traditional schools?

To answer these questions and understand how Montessori supports the vision of the whole, let’s follow the learning experiences of Peter, a seven-year-old boy enrolled in a quality Montessori elementary environment. As you navigate through the lessons, keep in mind that they take place over a period of time that respects Peter’s interests, abilities, and desire for in-depth formation of knowledge. Contrary to traditional schooling practices, Montessori education does not split up “learning” into 45-minute blocks, but instead permits the child to spend as much time on each exploration as necessary to reach full understanding through hands-on experiences.

A Mile in Peter’s Shoes

On Monday, Peter receives a lesson on perpendicular and oblique lines. He spends some time using the related Geometry materials with a friend, writes down their observations, and then the boys decide to look for the two types of lines in their classroom environment (they’re everywhere!).

The next day, the teacher feeds Peter’s interest in lines by giving him a lesson on how the Sun’s rays strike the Earth at different latitudes (perpendicularly between the Tropics and obliquely everywhere else). Peter is amazed to discover that his perpendicular and oblique lines are partly responsible for climate differences around the globe!

After spending the morning working with the related Geography materials, Peter reads about world climates and discovers that vegetation and farming vary by climate zone. Curious about what vegetables will grow well in his climate zone, he consults a chart of agricultural climate zones and explores a seed catalogue. Then Peter writes a letter to his teacher and classmates proposing that they invest part of their class budget to buy five new kinds of seeds for their vegetable plot. He calculates how much the investment would be and how much money would be left in the budget. He will present the letter during the classroom’s group meeting.

In the afternoon, still thinking about the vegetable plot, Peter decides to listen in on a story the teacher is telling about ancient farming practices and how they gave rise to the first great civilizations. She talks about the ancient Sumerians, and Peter is fascinated by their achievements!

He and two friends decide to explore the Sumerian’s accomplishments, which take them into a week-long exploration of the ancient writing and math systems. When they feel ready, Peter and his friends prepare an oral presentation, an essay, and a poster board, which they present to a small group of interested children.

As part of his exploration, Peter and his friends learn that the Sumerians were responsible for dividing the circle into 360 parts, or degrees. His teacher shares with them a beautiful story about the voyage of a star, which helps to illustrate the concept of degrees. This sends Peter and a classmate into a frenzy of activity, as they endeavor to measure all the angles they can find! But measuring is not enough… Soon, they want to add and subtract angles!

And so, Peter spends his days in his Montessori classroom engaged in work that he finds fascinating, challenging, and deeply satisfying. In his mind, a vision of the world is taking shape – a world of tightly woven relationships. He begins to understand cause and effect at a universal level. The knowledge he gains will help him become aware of consequences and will encourage conscientious decision-making. Above all, Peter’s experiences will help him appreciate the achievements of past generations and realize that he, too, can make positive contributions to the world.

12 Feb

The Silent Journey & Discovery – A Photo Essay

by Matt Hillis | Montessori Blog

28 Comments

Barbara Gordon recently visited our school to lead an event for our parents entitled “The Silent Journey & Discovery” (J&D). Ms. Gordon is well know in Montessori circles; she is the founder of the Barbara Gordon Montessori School, an AMI school in Texas, and now travels the country helping schools to implement the J&D with their parents.

The J&D is a powerful and emotional event for many parents. Unfortunately, most parents did not attend a Montessori school as a child; although they can read about Montessori philosophy, attend parent nights and observe the classroom, it can be difficult, at times, for them to really understand the experience that their child has every day at school. The J&D provides and opportunity for parents to explore the entire continuum of the school and experience first hand, just like their children, the amazing things that an authentic Montessori program has to offer.

Rather than write a long winded post about the experience, I though that it might be a nice change of pace to post pictures of the event with brief captions. Just as the purpose of the J&D is to help parents experience Montessori, I hope these beautiful images help you to feel the spirit and energy that existed in our school during the event.

I did record an audio interview with Ms. Gordon about the creation of the J&D and her storied history as a Montessorian. Look for that to posted on the site in March.

Matt Hillis
Executive Director
Bergamo Montessori School

Barbara arrived at our school a day in advance to observe the classrooms and meet the teachers.

The teachers prepared the environment for the event by displaying a variety of lessons throughout the classroom.

Barbara met with the group for about 40 minutes when we started on Friday night. Most parents contributed to our discussion about their educational experiences and their perception of their child’s experience at our school

After the discussion ended, the group was led into each classroom environment (about 15 minutes each) with strict instructions not to speak. An questionaire was provided for each environment and participants were invited to write their observations to share with the group at the end of the “Silent Journey”. The group met and discussed their observations before going home for the evening.

After a group breakfast on Saturday morning, Barbara met briefly with the group. Participants were instructed to choose work of interest among the jobs and lessons that were displayed in advance by the teachers.

The group went to work!

Each material had a associated card – some had instructions, others said “Ask for a lesson!”

After spending 45 minutes in the Primary, we moved to the Lower Elementary.

We finished the “journey” in the Upper Elementary classroom.

After finishing in the Upper Elementary, we came back to the group to process our experience. Many participants were deeply moved. Most parents indicated it was the most important Montessori “parent education” event that they had ever attended.