Reflections on Generations of Montessori

I've often blogged about how blessed I am, its a recurring theme. I haven't related it to school and education, and this week really highlighted how blessed we are in that regard.

I'm blessed that my parents made the choices they made for my education, that Olga introduced my parents to Montessori, that they took the leap of faith to send me to her school, that they sent me to great schools for my whole educational career. It has served me well - one of the biggest compliments I've gotten was when someone at work told me "you are a life-long learner, and you take us along with you on your learning journey". It captures who I am and hope to always be, and its roots are in my education.

I am blessed that Marc and I have been able to provide our kids with a Montessori education, and a Jewish Montessori one at that. We are blessed that we have jobs and family support that allow us to send the kids to a private school.  Seeing Matthew and Renee in their classrooms and Samuel in his Mesibah Siddur ceremony this week really brought it home.

Samuel learns at his own pace, all kids do, but his is more pronounced, he struggled with writing last year, letters were inverted, his focus wasn't there. His teachers guided but didn't expect him to conform, he got extra help and while it helped he just wasn't ready yet. And then September came and he was ready and his writing is beautiful, in cursive, in Hebrew. His OT from last year couldn't believe the change. he's always been that way - he didn't walk until 14 months and then he got it right away, he couldn't stand up in skating and then he skated across the arena, he didn't get swimming and one day he swam across the pool. Its like a switch turns on, he gets the skill and beams confidence and pride. I have wondered what it would be like for him to have to learn at the pace of a traditional school, and then I count my blessings that his foundation has been one where he's been able to develop and learn on his own schedule.

Matthew is a physical boy, boys are but him more so. I loved that he was doing his "100 Board" (a wood board with 10 rows and 10 columns and little wood squares with the numbers 1-100, the kids place the little squares in the correct order), he could move around, he could sit on the floor, shift from one side to the other, take the number squares from one side on the floor mat to the other. He can get up and move to get his work. I could see how he'd move and keep his focus. He needs reinforcement from his friends, we all do, and I love that when he finished a piece of work he could go get a friend to show them his work, even a friend or sibling in another class. He beamed. I'm not sure how he'd do in a class where he had to sit at a desk, and I count my blessings that his foundation in one where he can thrive socially, academically and physically.

Renee is prolific in her work. She's been wanting to write for a year, and so she learned. She writes most letters in cursive and she can put words together if someone helps her sound out the letters. She has a strong personality, it was great to watch her work and I loved watching her with the other kids. One boy asked her for help with the 4 long chain (a math material that forms the basis for multiplication, squaring and cubing), and she did, collaboratively. I wonder how restless she would get having to learn in a structured way, and with a personality as strong as hers, I wonder what her social interactions would be like in an environment without free-flowing collaboration and a peace corner for kids to talk out and resolve their own issues. So again, I count my blessings that she is in an environment where she is learning what she needs to learn, socially and academically.

Add to this the foundation of Jewish culture, history, religion, heritage, and Hebrew taught by Israeli teachers.

There's a prayer that stars with "L'dor va dor", usually translated as from generation to generation but really means to generation and generation in Hebrew. The prayer speaks to each generation's responsibility to pass on from those before to those that follow. A befitting way to end this post.
"L'dor va dor" and "shabbat shalom" (from generation to generation and a peaceful Sabbath).