Every Day A Leap of Faith

The longer I work in Montessori education the more I realize that practicing Montessori is a radical expression of faith.  Yes, there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence that The Method fosters not only children’s education but also their holistic self-development.  There is also historical evidence that a foundation in Montessori, even if only a few years well-spent, has a life-long impact on the way a person sees every-day and exceptional challenges. And there is a  growing body of scientific evidence that The Method works in concert with natural learning processes, producing deeper and more resilient knowledge.  But keeping the faith alive, even with copious evidence, is sometimes challenging. 

The Toll of Being Counter-Cultural

We have long been immersed in a national conversation about weaknesses in our educational system.  This ongoing discussion provides an ever-renewing impetus for researchers and for-profit educational resource companies alike to produce new guidelines for benchmark skills nad new educational best practices every year.  Some of these ideas, particularly some based on enhanced understanding of neurodiverse learners, have great impact and will no doubt withstand the test of time, while others, like the “whole language reading” and “new math” of past decades, will meet with mixed results for a few years and then fizzle, leaving the better part of a generation of confused and discouraged children and teachers in their wake.  As these shiny new ideas momentarily capture the hearts and minds of educators, administrators, or politicians, it can feel as though Montessori is a tiny voice in the desert, crying out, “What about the whole child?”

We bob about on this sea of solutions, buffeted about by programs, standards, testing, and mandates.  The sheer relentlessness of these pressures can cause us to compromise our practice in subtle or dramatic ways if only to keep the peace.  We institute practices designed to help children perform better on tests and, not surprisingly, test scores go up.  This “success” may erode our faith in Montessori a bit more, even as a small voice in our heads asks if the children are really more well- educated, better prepared to become contributing members of society, more normalized. 

Fighting the Good Fight

Our best protection against the slings and arrows of educational fads is being firmly anchored in Montessori.  If we can judiciously, critically evaluate new ideas in light of what Montessori provided for us, we will more readily recognize that some of these are dilute distillations of what we already have in place, wrapped up with a shiny new ribbon.  We will see that some approaches jump prematurely to abstraction, or combine several difficulties into a single product/activity, or present ideas in a sequence that makes sense only at an abstract level.  Armed with that knowledge, we can sometimes make informed or nuanced choices about what to include in our practice.  We can weave the chosen elements seamlessly into our practice rather than adapting our practice into the new idea. 

Unfortunately, there are some occasions when we have less choice about what to include in our practice.  Some of our programs are mandated to set aside the same hour each day exclusively for literacy and another hour dedicated to math. Some of our classrooms have mandatory content: literacy or numeracy programs.   This can be a price paid by programs that are administered by schools or districts that are fundamentally traditional in their approach.  We can take comfort in the fact that we are none-the-less bringing Montessori education to children who otherwise would have no access. But we can also incorporate as much Montessori as possible while complying with requirements.  Spend the “math hour” or “literacy hour” giving lessons concretely to small groups of children while others work more independently on the prescribed subject matter.  Have math and language works available to children during other parts of the day for those children who want more than an hour to work on the subject on a given day.   Evaluate the mandated programs to tease out which skills underpin the activity that can be supported concretely.  Make the child’s experience as seamless and as steeped in Montessori as possible.

Tailoring that seamless predominantly-Montessori experience takes more effort and more intentionality than simply doing as asked, to be sure. It also requires vigilant, proactive defense against doubt, the gateway to adaptations.  That is why we must reestablish our faith in our work periodically.  When we remind ourselves of what we believe and why we do what we do, we make it easier to guide children in harmony with our training and our beliefs.  And it empowers us to support our fellow teachers to do the same. 

Reflection for Adults:

Most of us have greater faith in some aspects of Montessori implementation than others.  Where is my faith most unshakable?

• In the child – believing that children are well-intentioned and do not need to be made to learn
• In the materials – believing that if put them before the child with careful attention to isolated difficulties they will reveal a deeper and more useful understanding
• In the method – believing that children appropriately guided can be the change that we wish to see in the world (socially, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually)
• In myself – believing that I have everything I need to be an emissary for Montessori including the resources to learn whatever I don’t currently know
• In my team – believing that we are at our best when we support one another in authentic implementation of this great act of faith

What challenges my faith?  Where has doubt or fatigue allowed adaptations to slip in uninvited?

How will I recharge my faith?  Am I best served by:

• re-reading Montessori’s writing
• reading current writing on Montessori philosophy and implementation
• reconnecting with materials by attending a refresher workshop or class
• revisiting materials and strategies with like-minded teachers
• investigating current learning theory’s connections to Montessori

Reflection for Children

Faith is believing in something without proof that it is real.  It can also be about believing in someone – having faith that they can do something that they haven’t done before or that they can become something that they aren’t yet.  John Glenn, the first man to orbit the earth in a spacecraft, showed faith in the designers of his spacecraft, in the team managing his flight path, and in all of the scientists whose studies said that he would be safe in that zero-gravity environment when he crawled into the nose cone of the rocket that propelled him into space.  He also showed confidence in his ability to take on the physical, mental, and intellectual challenges to accomplish his mission.

Who has shown faith in you? 

• Who believed that you could do something, maybe before you knew that you could do it yourself? 
• Who had faith in your friendship?  Maybe this is someone who trusted you enough to share something with you that they didn’t want everyone to know.  Maybe it is someone who asked you for help, trusting in your kindness.
• Who trusted you with a new responsibility before you proved yourself?

How did that faith in you make you feel?  Is there someone in your life who needs your faith and trust right now?

Image by skeeze from Pixabay 

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

Rabindranth Tangore