There was an event sponsored by the East Tennessee Montessori Association this morning at which Catherine McTamaney spoke. I have known Catherine for many years, as her mother and I are contemporaries and were trainers for St. Nicholas Training Centre back in the old days.

Catherine gave a talk to help inspire Montessorians as we are moving through this particular school year. One thing Catherine had us do was write a letter to someone in the room to let them know what we appreciate about them.

As I wrote to my co-teacher, I found tears streaming down my face. It was as much that I hadn’t taken the time to express my appreciation for what she brings to the class as that I was able to do it then, in that moment. After writing the letters, we gave them to the recipient.

And the letters from others started arriving on my table. Letters of appreciation. I couldn’t read them until later. And the tears started again. The letters were filled with appreciation that went back for many years and some from more recent interactions.

I’m glad that I had the opportunity to experience this. Thank you, Catherine.

An on-going activity in our classrooms is having the children learn more about compassionate communication. Part of that process involves learning to touch base with feelings, one’s own and the feelings of others. Yesterday we spent some time identifying different kinds of feelings and whether they are “sunny” or “blue” feelings. One of the feelings identified was “tired.”

This morning a student came to me and inquired whether “tired” could be a sunny feeling. We discussed possibilities when that would be the case such as after doing some hard task that was tiring, but also satisfying. She confided that she had done a really big math task and she was feeling a good tired.

Of course. Earlier she had shared that she just loved doing addition so I introduced taking a timed test to see how long it would take her to complete 100 addition problems. She was thrilled. The idea of seeing how fast she could get from repeated tries really seemed to inspire her.

That highlights one of those seemingly contradictory things about how students perceive their work. When they take “tests” they do so in order to test themselves. They are not compared to other students. They do not get good or bad grades. But they are able to see how they improve over time. It allows them to recognize personal accomplishments.

And that leads to feeling “good tired” instead of feeling mental exhaustion, anxiety or failure.

I sit on the board of the Montessori Middle School, a new school slated to open next school year. Last night we were on the agenda of the Louisville Planning Commission in order to get approval to place a modular on the property that we are purchasing for the school.

Many parents attended to lend their support for the school and after the meeting a dad was sharing with me that he had told his daughter on the way home from school that he would not be at home for story time since he was going to a meeting about her new school. She misunderstood his intentions, though, and thought he meant that she would be leaving Montessori in the near future.

As soon as he saw her distress, he had to clarify that her new school would be in the future, when she was old enough to go to middle school. Then she was happy, but wondered whether her current teachers would be there, too.

This vignette illustrates two important points. The first is that Montessori gets in the blood of children and parents. Once parents understand how thoroughly their children benefit from an integrated system that addresses academic, emotional and social development, they want their children to stay as long as possible. In fact, studies show that the longer children stay in Montessori, the longer the effects last. What we hope for is that our students will be changed for life.

The second point is that our children love school. They want to come here. At the meeting last night, after distributing information about the middle school, I heard several comments from adults that they would like to attend. Who wouldn’t? Learning in Montessori is natural and enjoyable. The next best thing to attending Montessori as a student is getting to teach in a Montessori school. It is safe to say that the teachers love going to school here, too!

This has been a very hot season and it has been important for us to remind the children to drink while they are playing outside. Such sweaty bodies, and red cheeks!

This week there has been a distinct change in the weather, though. And today with rain in the morning, it was very evident that the change was affecting the children. When there is any upset in routine, the children not only feel it, but manifest a change in behavior.

Arrivals this morning were a perfect barometer of how children react. Through a confluence of circumstances there were very many adults in the entrance hall this morning. That created a “crowd” where there is usually a comfortable group. With so many bodies, the noise level increases and the atmosphere changes from warm and inviting to chaotic and stressful for the children.

As a natural reaction to this several children felt insecure and fretful. Instead of the happy good-byes we saw tears and clinging. And of course, once there were a couple of fretful children that affected others. We call that the cascade effect. Amazingly, once the excess of adult bodies abated, the atmosphere once again returned to relative calm.

Oftentimes visitors comment on how calm it is here. And usually that is true. But we find that Montessori environments are much like some scientific experiments – the act of observing affects the outcome. In our case the presence of parents changes the dynamic considerably. It is too bad parents rarely get the opportunity to “see” the environment without the change in dynamic they bring to it. They would truly marvel at the capabilities of their children.

There has been such a wide variety of learning going on in the elementary, it is hard to keep up with all of it. Yesterday some second and third grade students were working on compound multiplication. There has been lots and lots of different kinds of language work, from reading to writing with grammar thrown in for good measure. The entire class has gotten a handle on the workings of wheels and axles through their work with building different models with K’nex materials. And art! And music. The list goes on.

I read to the class every day. It is only for about 15 minutes toward the end of the day before we clean up and go outside. The children are often in the middle of some kind of individual learning activity when it is time for me to read. I let them know that they can continue quietly and put their things away when they are finished. Montessori herself suggested that children should keep their hands busy while listening to books.

One of our students needs to have a snack at a particular time each day. It works out that during my time of reading is a perfect time for this to happen. He was working on a rather large floor lesson when it was time for me to read today. He looked up and said, “I’m going to have my snack really fast so I can come back and finish this.”

In fact, very few of the children put their work away immediately when I start to read. It isn’t that they don’t want to hear the book either. Today’s chapter had all the children listening intently. At the same time, they don’t want to give up the learning that they are doing. So, we let them learn. We let them learn at their desks. We let them learn on the floor. We let them learn at tables. We even let them learn outside. We let them learn by reading. We let them learn by drawing. We let them learn by building things. We let them learn by experimenting. We let them learn with materials. We let them learn with workbooks. We let them learn alone and with others. We let them learn in any way that brings them understanding and joy.

The freedom to learn as individuals runs deep and wide in Montessori classes. The freedom to learn on their own timetable based on their own needs is basic to the Montessori way. We let them learn.

We had observers in the early childhood class yesterday. Carl was a bit nervous about having them come in because the day seemed very loud to him and it was the first day for a new child. I assured him that what we consider loud and chaotic seems orderly and calm to those who have seen other programs. Indeed, our visitors were pleased with what they saw among our younger class. Oh, but it will get better as time goes on.

And today, during music, Georgi commented on how much improvement she could see from her last visit (granted, that was 2 weeks ago). Some of the children are very attentive during her class and they all enjoy the time with her. I love to see the way she weaves all sorts of skills into “music.” There is cooperation, vocabulary development, rhythm, movement, following precise directions and fun, fun, fun. The elementary students even started singing in rounds today. It was lovely.

I was so pleased to have every single child at school today. The amount of learning happening under one roof with all our children here is awesome. In the elementary there is growing excitement around the research children are doing about their historical people for the historical dinner. Soon we will be writing our limericks and building our heads and making our wigs. Oh, it is so much fun.

And I’m looking forward to the pumpkin auction, too. I sure hope that we are able to get pumpkins this year after the drought we have had. At least the weather is starting to cool off a bit.

We are fortunate this year to have several “Apple Corps” students from UT spending time in the classroom. They will be learning more about Montessori from their hours here and it gives us some additional coverage, too. Today elementary students got some quality reading time with one of our Apple Corps. One first grader read and read and read. Such a pleasure.

Later in the morning two fellows were working on animals of the biomes. “I can’t read that card,” one of them said. “Don’t worry,” said the other. “I’ll read it for you.” What I found most interesting about this exchange was that the second learner has had a hard time learning to read with confidence. And yet, he was willing to take that plunge when helping another child.

And later there were two girls going through a similar process. It reminded me of a time years ago when there were two children working on a time line. One was a competent “decoder” but had trouble with comprehension. The other was great at comprehension, but was not good a decoding. So the decoder read the cards for the time line and looked with puzzlement at the second child who said things along the line of, “That means that they made tools that were very advanced.”

This kind of collaboration allows children to learn things that interest them regardless of how well they read. And interest is the driving force for being inspired learners.

This morning a student arrived in the elementary and after getting things put away announced, “I’m going to finish some Mortensen. I planned that this morning.” So he got out the materials and started working on some hidden addend problems. Then he looked up at me and said, “I love to do Mortensen.”

A little later another student arrived and wanted to know if he could teach a lesson to someone.

And a new student arrived to begin her first day in the early childhood class. All smiles and confidence after coming for an orientation visit yesterday. Hardly a backward glance as she said goodbye to her dad.

Can you imagine if every school were populated with students so eager to learn (and teach) that they could hardy wait to get to school in the morning? What if our children kept that spark for learning throughout their entire school career? Imagine how far they could go in their quest for knowledge.

That is exactly what we strive for. Inspired learners.

I serve the Montessori community in many ways, one of which is by acting as the secretary/treasurer of the International Association for Montessori Education. Most of the time my other responsibilities don’t interfere with my regular classroom duties, but today they did. I had to reconcile the accounts for the organization. Although my checkbook was balanced (Yea! I’m not unbalanced!), I had to get all the income and expenses properly categorized for an annual report.

The numbers just weren’t adding up! I had to keep plugging away until I found all the little errors in transferring amounts from one place to another. It took me until the middle of the afternoon, shortly before time for me to read to the children.

As I entered the room, one of the students asked where I had been. It really took me by surprise. Since Rebecca and I trade off rooms each day, I might go all day without seeing a particular student who is working in the other room. But my absence had been felt. Even though I had been in the school all day, I had not been giving lessons. THAT is what the children want. They want to learn, they want to grow.

I’m so glad this task is behind me and I can return to my “real” job tomorrow.

I participate in some listservs for Montessori teachers and on one a teacher was bemoaning the dearth of authentic Montessori elementary classrooms. That touched a nerve and I fired off a response. An administrator from another school asked if she could use what I had written with the families in her school. I gladly gave her permission, and realized that I should share it closer to home, too. Here is what I wrote:

There is so much cultural pressure out there to “compete” and Montessori is simply non-competitive. Grandparents, neighbors, friends and relatives are sowing the seeds of doubt in parents. What if their child does not get in to
the college of choice? What if they are on the “second list” for admissions at the prestigious prep school in town? What if, what if?

The questions parents aren’t being pressured to ask by the current culture are the more important ones about how well adjusted their child is. What if they get good grades but have no love of learning? What if they garner no sense of satisfaction from the work they do? What if they will only put forth effort if there is some kind of reward attached to it? What if they measure happiness by the opinions of others? What if they do not know how to formulate original thoughts?

We need to stand up against standardized testing, factory-inspired schooling, and mediocrity. We need to speak out as advocates for the rights of children to learn in environments that inspire them to explore the cosmos in their own way rather than following a curriculum that is designed to be easy to teach.