When my husband and I travel, we love to wrap ourselves in some aspect of the local culture. We see the sights, of course, but we also scour the hometown papers and watch for flyers advertising celebrations or festivals – – things typically attended only by locals. And so, last weekend, we found our way to a hula festival: a 2-day competition and a concert benefitting the preservation of authentic, traditional hula.
We were excited to learn that the headliner of the concert was a well-known group of 5 Hawaiian recording artists. However, at the last minute, the band couldn’t make it. Rather than cancel the concert, organizers decided to put the show on themselves. They pulled together a half-dozen musicians, mostly from the governing council, and set up folding chairs and mics. What ensued was nothing short of other-worldly.
The Hula Festival
The Elder of the group, Frank, began recounting tales about life lessons learned by performing and teaching hula. His homespun wisdom was punctuated by traditional Hawaiian songs, beautifully accompanied by the pick-up band, often with no more discussion than, “Let’s do this in C”. When he began singing, his resonant voice surrounded us like a warm embrace and his face shone with pure radiant joy. But perhaps the most moving aspect of the night happened when he invited anyone who knew a particular song to join him. A dozen or so women of all ages and sizes drifted forward from different parts of the venue to dance the song’s story. Together, this spontaneously gathered group moved with such grace and synchronicity that it looked as though they were one. It was impossible to not be swept up in the beauty of the moment. We were witnessing their oral tradition come to life, just as it has been passed down through the generations.
Aunties and Uncles
Frank’s tales were often about the “Aunties and Uncles”, co-keepers of the culture from the current and newly passed generations, and about pearls of wisdom that these elders had passed on through a combination of tough love and gentle humor. As I reflected on the beauty of this tradition, I couldn’t help but think of our own Montessori “Aunties and Uncles” – those who passed on our tradition to us. We are blessed to have the writings of Maria Montessori to sustain her vision, but it is our Aunties and Uncles who, through their instruction and modeling, keep us anchored.
When I think of our traditional educator brothers and sisters being tossed about by the whims of current teaching fashion, it makes my heart ache. They are destined to whip from one new idea to another in an unending quest to stay one step ahead of obsolescence. As a Montessori teacher-trainer, I have seen the sometimes-disastrous effects of these educational trends. I remember the years when adults came to our training program who had been taught “new math”, who struggled to pass any assessment involving the hierarchy of numbers; I also remember the years when students who had poor grammar instruction as children could not write a cohesive paragraph.
It makes me so grateful for my Montessori “Aunties and Uncles” who model having faith in learning as a natural process rather than as something that children had to be made to do. How blessed are we to have an educational Method and a curriculum that our collective experience – as well as modern neuroscience – tells us is consistent with the way that children naturally learn? Our “Aunties and Uncles” help us stay anchored in first principles even as we stay abreast of current learning theory. They remind us that we are “scientist and saint”, hypothesizing, experimenting, observing every day. Like the Hawaiian Aunties and Uncles, they help us distinguish ideas that are consistent with our culture, that can actually further our work, from those that are shiny new distractions, likely to pull us off-center first in one direction and then another.
There are so many new developments in the field of education every year. Some, like whole language reading, have glittery appeal at the beginning, but in time prove to be helpful only for a narrow range of learners and disastrously confusing for the majority. The Montessori Method, especially with our training as observers and scientists, gives us the power to evaluate promising new ideas against what we know works for children. If we decide to try something new, we know through observation whether it is helpful to the child. We needn’t wait for a generation of children to matriculate to determine the outcome of the glittery new idea.
The Critical Question
Which brings me to a critical question: who are the “Aunties and Uncles” for the upcoming generation of Montessorians? There can be only one answer. It is us.
What an awesome responsibility. When we decide what to include or omit from our practice, as Aunties and Uncles, we are in some ways filtering our culture. We can only pass on what we practice. When we dismiss some aspect of Montessori philosophy as being no longer relevant, when it leaves our consciousness, it becomes something that we do not pass on to the next generation. We are, in essence, gatekeepers of the culture.
If we were given the opportunity to speak directly to new Montessorians, what would we Aunties and Uncles say to fortify them and their Montessori practice?
- Have faith in the child –in all ages and times?
- Trust the materials – they will prevail?
- Be patient – deep learning takes time?
- Something else? What have you learned that fortifies you?
Reflection for Adults on Passing on Our Culture:
- What would be my most emphatic admonition for new Montessorians?
- What aspect of our culture to I most often see being overlooked?
Reflection for Adults on Practicing our Culture:
- What aspects of Montessori culture have I brushed aside that I might want to revisit?
- What well-intended supplemental practices have I instituted and forgotten to observe, to determine if the adaptation is still needed or if it filled the need in the first place?
- What lessons or materials I have used to replace or duplicate Montessori lessons or materials without considering whether they appropriately isolate the difficulty and lead seamlessly to the next difficulty?
Reflection for Children:
We are now well into the school year. At the beginning of the year, 1/3 – 1/2 of you were new to the classroom. At times, it might have felt as though you were more a visitor or a guest than a member of our community. At this point in the year, that is not true for anyone – we have established habits, routines, attitudes, and beliefs. While we may still continue to have Grace and Courtesy lessons to help us revisit what is important and remember how we interact with respect and compassion, our culture is pretty well established. This is a good time to think about how far we have come, what we want to continue, and maybe what we want to adjust.
- What do you love about our class? What things make you feel at home? Proud?
- As experienced members of our class, what would you tell children moving up to join us next fall? What do you wish that you had known then, that you know now?
- Are there things that you would share with someone who is new to Montessori?
I believe that when an elder dies, a library is burned: vast sums of wisdom and knowledge are lost. Throughout the world libraries are ablaze with scant attention.
Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey, the first Polynesian explorer and the first female Fellow of the National Geographic Society.