The Montessori Advisor

Develop Leaders the Montessori Way

2012-01-26T11:36:00.002-05:00

Excellent blog about how turning a workplace environment into a Montessori environment benefits all! Even adults thrive best in a Montessori environment!

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/develop_leaders_the_montessori.html

Violent Video Games Alter Brain Function

2011-11-29T11:46:00.001-05:00

http://gma.yahoo.com/violent-video-games-may-alter-brain-function-study-170211292.html

What we see everyday!

2011-11-21T18:05:00.001-05:00

Little Girl, Big Brain | Montessori At Home!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.1

My Child has Stolen! and a word about parasite lessons

2011-11-09T14:29:00.005-05:00

Inspired by true events:

My cousin's ten year old son recently stole a pack of erasers (he has been collecting them) from a Wal-Mart. My cousin's initial response was to donate all of his Christmas toys to Toys for Tots, or to make him do community service. I applaud my cousin for wanted to do something about this problem. Many times I have witnessed parents do nothing because the event seemed to not matter. His mother caught the theft and went back and paid for the erasers (then donated them to Toys for Tots so he did not get them). So, in many parent's eyes, no problem. The problem though is that if this is not addressed now then it becomes a more serious problem later. Bigger things are stolen, maybe mom doesn't catch it. Or maybe he assumes that his parents are always going to bail him out of tough situations.

However, the problem with this punishment is that you wouldn't want him to associate charity with punishment. In Montessori, we do not have punishments at all (nor do we have external rewards). As Dr. Montessori said "the prize and punishments are incentives toward unnatural or forced effort, and, therefore we certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them." However, if we allow children to face the consequences of their choices, that then becomes a learning experience for the child. One that can be built upon. Punishment also comes with what we call "parasite lessons." This parasite lesson would be that helping others out is something we do when we have done something society deems wrong. If children lose "television time" because of bad behavior you've made television something to be coveted because when the child is behaving properly television is permitted.

In this case, I would first have a serious talk with him about how this was illegal and he could go to jail. His uncle is a police officer and could even take him to the jail and show him where people go when they steal. The talk needs to be framed with why it is wrong to steal. The learning experience should include having him examine himself to assess how he would feel if someone had stole from him. And how, in our society, we must earn what we receive. Then have him earn the money to pay for the erasers (by doing chores that he would not normally be required to do) and repay his mom. Additionally, he should write a letter to the Wal-mart about what he's learned and how he would do things differently next time. Which he needs to present to the manage Wal-mart of the in person.

And then going forward, parents should think about what parasite lesson is being learned from giving children everything they want, when they want it. Is that a life lesson you want your children to have? I know my cousin suspects that the theft happened because his son generally gets everything he wants. My cousin suspects that he wanted it and assumed he could have it. At a young age have your children start paying for items, even better if they pay for it with money they have earned. And earning should be for something that he or she should not be responsible for. Making the bed, cleaning their own dishes, and putting their own laundry away are all jobs that your child should already be doing as care of himself or herself. My daughter earns money by folding her dad's socks. It is a job he doesn't like, so it saves him work, and it isn't something she should normally be responsible for.

Join us for a live event!

2011-05-16T11:29:00.000-04:00

We are joining Governor John Kasich and former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee on Thursday, May 19th for a statewide event to watch the film 'Waiting for Superman' and participate in a live webcast and discussion about education in Ohio.

The movie begins the discussion about how public education must change in Ohio and the US, and begins the discussion about how we can bring Montessori and other alternative education to the rest of the public. We know that Montessori is the best, and ONLY scientifically crafted, way to educate children. We need a plan to bring this method of education to public schools in meaningful numbers. With the systems currently in place this is not possible. We should be MAD, as Trevor Eissler says, that Montessori is not even known as an option. We should be MAD that even if parents know about Montessori, there is often no nearby and affordable Montessori education for most families. Montessori should not be an education for only those that can afford to pay for a private school AND pay taxes to their local public school. It is shameful that public school children, even in suburban districts as the movie will show, do not have access to the best method of education.

The screening will take place at Jane's Montessori Academy, 1375 Francisco Rd, Columbus, OH 43220. Please email contact@janesacademy.com to RSVP. We will provide pizza for dinner during the screening. There will be a babysitter for children who attend.

You can watch a short video message from Governor Kasich here.

Governor Kasich and Michelle Rhee will be participating in a live screening of the movie hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
How will it work?
• At 6:00pm, we will tune in for a live online webcast with the Governor to make introductory remarks.
• At 6:10pm, the webcast will take a break for the movie and we’ll watch the Waiting for Superman movie at your house party.
• At 8:00pm, the movie will end and we will tune in again online for the second half of the live webcast and watch a discussion about the film with Gov. Kasich and Michelle Rhee. Questions can be submitted online through Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you for your support and we hope that you can join us on May 19th!

Sincerely,

Tammy Chabria
Principal and Owner
Jane's Montessori Academy

- Please click here to learn more about Michelle Rhee
- Please click here to watch the official trailer for Waiting for Superman

Grades, Success and Tiger Mothers

2011-01-25T16:16:00.002-05:00

“Once we have accepted and established our principles, the abolition of prizes and external forms of punishment will follow naturally. Man, disciplined through liberty, begins to desire the true and only prize which will never belittle or disappoint him,- the birth of human power and liberty within that inner life of his from which his activities must spring.”
-- Dr. Maria Montessori
My System of Education

(A Montessori quick bite from The Center for Guided Montessori Studies: http://www.guidedstudies.com/)

On January 8th The Wall Street Journal published an upsetting article by author Amy Chua titled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”. An excerpt from her new book, the article claims that the secret to academic success is tyrannical control over the child. Ms. Chua proudly explains that her two daughters were never allowed to have play dates, choose their own extracurricular activities, or receive any grade other than an A.

Furthermore, she explains what she calls her “Chinese” negative motivation technique – insulting her children by calling them “garbage” and threatening them with the loss of meals, presents, toys and birthday parties. Ms. Chua says, “the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child.” In one particularly abusive example, she recounts denying her daughter the right to eat or use the bathroom for hours until she mastered a piano piece.

Ms. Chua calls this technique of parenting through physical and emotional domination the “Chinese mother” style. In recent television appearances she has defiantly shown an appalling lack of self awareness of the cruelty she has wrought on her children. She will, she says, leave it for “Western” mothers to raise the “losers”.

The invidious stereotypes of Ms. Chua’s article have caused some controversy to be sure. Like many others, I can say that her characterization of Asian families is certainly not backed up in my experience – and I’m married into one. I suspect that Ms. Chua has rationalized her abusive behavior by cloaking it in the generalization that she is, somehow, normal.

Ah, but only if she were that rare! There are many parents of all ethnicities who think any behavior should be excused in the name of raising grades. Children hate working, goes the thinking, therefore the only way to get them to excel is to subjugate their will to their wiser elders.

As Montessorians, we know that cultivating intrinsic motivation is the most effective way to increase the productivity of both children and adults. Ms. Chua was correct in that she could, for a time, force her children to do better in school by dominating and emotionally abusing them. But in her memoir, Ms. Chua herself recounts the dramatic rebellion of her younger daughter.

But perhaps the weakest element of Amy Chua’s reasoning is the assumption that grades will themselves lead to success in life. Even many of the arguments made against her accept the axiom that a high GPA promises wealth, prosperity and happiness. In fact, this is not the case. The tragedy is that she traumatized her daughters for nothing.

What is success? If measured by income, grades at best weakly correlate with success. Persons who get A’s and B’s generally earn a bit more over their lifetimes than those who received C’s and D’s in high school and college. On the other hand, many studies paint a very different picture. For example, a longitudinal study of valedictorians show that they are no more – and perhaps less – likely than their peers to be successful in any measureable way. This study was described by Sheila Tobias as “An important corrective to the notion that success in high school inevitably prefigures success in college, in life, or in careers.” Another study of success by Richard St. John also concluded that grading does not lead to success and identified 8 traits that were strongly correlated.

“ Learning is a result of listening, which in turn leads to even better listening and attentiveness to the other person. In other words, to learn from the child, we must have empathy, and empathy grows as we learn. ”
-- Dr. Alice Miller

In other words, good grades mean something but not a lot. Richard Branson, Thomas Edison and Isaac Newton were all undistinguished students, and Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade. Both Charles Darwin and Carl Jung were called “stupid” by their teachers, and Louis Pasteur was near the bottom of his class in college. Leo Tolstoy flunked right out. Werner Von Braun failed algebra and Louisa May Alcott was told she would never succeed as a writer.

Academic success is at best an imperfect predictor of success if measured by either income or notoriety.

So, what is the best predictor of success? New York Times science writer Daniel Goleman makes a convincing argument for emotional intelligence (EI) – the ability to understand and cooperate well with other human beings. In a study of the outcomes of students who attended Harvard in the 1940s, Goleman found that those “with the highest test scores in college were not particularly successful compared to their lower-scoring peers in terms of salary, productivity or status in their field, nor did they have the greatest life satisfaction, nor the most happiness with friendships, family and romantic relationships."

On the other hand, Goleman identified a clear connection between emotional intelligence and every other measure of success that he measured. People with a high EI are the ones “who truly succeed in work as well as play, building flourishing careers and lasting, meaningful relationships.” Is it a coincidence that peaceful, cooperative work is at the heart of the Montessori method, rather than grades? Once again, modern science catches up with Dr. Montessori’s prescience.

Certainly doing well in school doesn’t necessitate the abandonment of individuality, nor does it follow that if you receive good marks in school that you must be an unoriginal thinker.

But three things are readily apparent:

The traditional school system rewards rote memorization more than creativity, yet the workplace requires creativity more often than rote memorization.
The traditional school system pits students against each other in class rankings and measures each child’s work in isolation, yet it is success in navigating the dynamics of group projects that plays a more essential role in the modern workplace.
By pressuring a child to do better in school, a parent also pressures a child to become that thing which the school most rewards – a rote memorizer pitted against other rote memorizers.

Integral to the Montessori method is respect for the child. The child is neither a tabula rasa, nor a willful opponent, but a unique and marvelous creation. Dr. Montessori built her method on the bedrock of mutual understanding, cooperative projects and conflict resolution. We hold in our hearts the faith that a more peaceful and joyful world is found in the secrets of childhood Dr. Montessori studied a century ago.

Science now suggests that the very same method could unlock a more productive and wealthier world as well. In economically uncertain times, what are our leaders waiting for?

Thoughts for the day:

If there is so much evidence that grades don’t matter, why are they still used for assessment?
What role does assessment and progress reports play in a Montessori environment? How do you personally support children’s natural motivation to learn without imposing predetermined goals and standards?
In Montessori we consider observation to be our main method of assessment. What systems have you put in place to help you perform this most important part of our job?

Come see Trevor Eissler!

2011-01-13T11:21:00.003-05:00

Trevor Eissler, author of Montessori Madness, will be visiting Columbus, OH on February 10th, 2011 from 7-9 pm at Ohio Dominican University. We encourage all families interested in Montessori, school-choice, and non-traditional education to attend.

JMA Blogs!

2010-12-06T17:40:00.002-05:00

If you get a chance, please stop by to see our teacher's blogs, some good reading!

Children's House 1 (Ms. Tina and Ms. Julie)

http://jtclass.wordpress.com/

Children's House 2 (Ms. Megan)

http://www.windowfromhome.blogspot.com/

Outdoor Classroom (Mr. Mat):

http://yellowslide.wordpress.com/

Have a great winter day!

Why do children lie?

2010-11-18T15:19:00.003-05:00

A question I get from parents often is "Why is my child lying?"

So here are some reasons why children make up stories (which is not unordinary):

1) They will fabricate a fantasy world if they are unsatisfied with something in their world. Make up stories, even believing them to be true. Typically, these result in stories about things they wish they could do or have done. They are a means of escape. Dr. Montessori calls these fugues.

2) Another reason for a fugue like this may be something he or she has seen on television. They will play out or live out stories from television or movies. Sometimes so much that being in reality is difficult or boring.

4) To relay a story they want to tell but remove themselves from the story so they do not have consequences. For instance, if a child got hit at school and he or she wants to tell the parents, conveniently leaving out the part that he or she hit first.

5) To get someone else that they are holding a grudge against in trouble. For instance, if another student accidentally ruined his or her work, or if a teacher stopped him or her from doing something he or she wanted to do a story is made up to get the offending person in trouble.

6) Sometimes stories are fabricated out of laziness. I do not want to think of the answer, so I'll just make something up.

7) Sometimes constant accusations of the adult drive the child to lie, and therefore not to expose his or her inferiority.

8) She or he is having very vivid dreams, so vivid that in the daytime it is believed that they have actually happened. This can begin suddenly because of a dietary change, medication, life circumstances, or maybe she just is coming into a cognitive ability to remember dreams.

9) We lie to them. All the time. Santa, Easter Bunny, I just do not have time to look up the real answer, oh that story is so cute I'll tell you that as if that is a real answer, a misplaced need to "protect" children from the truth, a mistaken assumption that they would not understanding the truth or are not ready for it, marketing, and a number of other reasons that we do not tell them facts. Really, adults lie to them so often, why would it NOT be all right for them to lie to us?

If your child is lying, look deeply to see why they might be doing this. And then fix their environment to remove the reason they are lying. If it is television, turn it off. If it is our constant badgering or nagging, try to stop. And, most importantly we need to stop lying to them. I am not saying lay out the world and all of its uglies in one fell swoop. But, if they ask a question, answer it. Honestly. Or, say "I don't know, but I will find out the answer." (and then actually find out the answer and tell them).

Remember, you only have to answer the question they ask. A question about where babies grow does not need to be a whole birds and bees conversation, just say "they grow in the uterus of the mommy, here is a picture of the uterus, it is here in the body." Notice, I didn't say to tell them that they grow in a flower field and then a stork picks them up and delivers them.

Because of You

2010-09-10T15:36:00.003-04:00

I went to a Reba McEntire concert last night and she was singing the Kelly Clarkson song Because of You, which is on her Duets album (sung with Kelly Clarkson). As I was listening to the song, which I knew but had never really thought about, I realized what a Montessori song this is. It expresses the dangers of an adult getting in the way of child development, and therefore passing on their adult hang-ups. We often do not realize how we can set up children for failure by our own risk avoidance. We pass our fears, our wishes for what we wanted our lives to be like, all onto our children, leaving them unable to blossom as their spirit should. Take it as a lesson when you are interacting with your children, let them explore, live THEIR lives (not yours).

Because of You by Kelly Clarkson

I will not make the same mistakes that you did

I will not let myself cause my heart so much misery

I will not break the way you did, You fell so hard

I've learned the hard way, to never let it get that far

Because of you I'll never stray too far from the sidewalk

Because of you I learned to play on the safe side

So I don't get hurt Because of you I find it hard to trust

Not only me, but everyone around me

Because of you I am afraid I lose my way

And it's not too long before you point it out I cannot cry

Because I know that's weakness in your eyes

I'm forced to fake, a smile, a laugh

Every day of my life

My heart can't possibly break When it wasn't even whole to start with

Because of you I'll never stray too far from the sidewalk

Because of you I learned to play on the safe side

So I don't get hurt Because of you I find it hard to trust

Not only me, but everyone around me

Because of you I am afraid I watched you die

I heard you cry

Every night in your sleep

I was so young

You should have known better than to lean on me

You never thought of anyone else

You just saw your pain

And now I cry

In the middle of the night

For the same damn thing

Because of you

I'll never stray too far from the sidewalk

Because of you I learned to play on the safe side

So I don't get hurt

Because of you I tried my hardest just to forget everything

Because of you I don't know how to let anyone else in

Because of you I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty

Because of you I am afraid

Because of you Because of you

Amazing Valedictorian Speech

2010-09-03T15:27:00.003-04:00

Let's start an education revolution!

The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School in NY on June 25, 2010:

Here I Stand
Erica Goldson

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ."  The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast -- How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?"  Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I'm scared.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not

to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)

To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about the idea of “critical thinking.” Is there really such a thing as “uncritically thinking?” To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren't we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don't have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can't run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, “You have to learn this for the test” is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.

For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn't have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a “see you later” when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let's go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we're smart enough to do so!

Early Reading and Writing in Children

2010-07-30T11:12:00.006-04:00

Dr. Montessori wrote about how children learn to read over a hundred years ago, and today brain research backs up her findings.

Published in Psychology Today:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers-expert-guide-parents/201007/human-behavior-the-brain-based

As mentioned in the article, children write BEFORE reading. Writing is a way for them to communicate their ideas, which they are more interested in at first. When they realize, "Hey, I need to read what I wrote!" that is when reading happens. In the classroom, we begin with tracing metal insets. At home, any tracing or free drawing will build hand strength in preparation for writing. Also, activities such as play dough, using tongs and tweezers, pinching clothespins, using a pincher grasp to move materials from one bowl to another will all help build hand strength for writing. When writing doesn't happen, it is typically not a cognitive problem, but a strength issue. Imagine, in our computer world, if we as adults have to sit down and handwrite a ten page paper. Our hands would be tired! The same holds true for young children. Writing makes their hands tired. We can give them activities that they enjoy doing, that will strengthen their hands in preparation for writing. Then, the reading will come...

Dissecting a Cow's Eye

2010-05-04T18:56:00.007-04:00

A little snippet from a cow's eye dissection our after school teacher, Mr. Mat, led. Cool and gross all at the same time...

Book Review of Parenting, Inc.

2010-02-22T11:37:00.003-05:00

Here is a book review of the book Parenting, Inc by Pamela Paul. I have not read the book, but it is on my reading list. I do agree with the author of the review about the direction our society has gone with media and toys, and I think this is a good refutation of marketing ploys by companies.

http://montessorimatters.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/book-review-parenting-inc-part-ii/

Technology and Media in the 3-6 classroom and Home

2010-01-25T11:05:00.003-05:00

In our society, we hear so much about media and its evils or overuse. Some think the solution is to never expose a child to media. Some use media as a virtual babysitter. And then there is everything in between. This is just how we use media in our school, and we do, and how I personally use media at home.

We do not use television daily, weekly, or even monthly, but we do use it if a documentary or a staged production fits in with a particular theme the students are working with. For example when studying poetry we were led to TS Eliot's Book of Practical Cats and then those interested watched the London production of Cats. I have a student who is now in 6th grade and he still talks about this musical with his parents and he remembers watching it in class. We at this point do not use TV shows or movies in school. However, I would not be opposed to a fitting Sid, the Science Kid show (PBS) or another carefully screened show if it met the schools values and what we are studying at that time. And we would certainly do experiments or investigations along with it, it would just be one piece of exposure in our web of experiences.

We use computers in the classroom for research resources, for example, we are having an international fair and one class chose China so they watched the Dragon Dance on YouTube and then made a dragon and tried the dance. Ideally we would rather have live performers in, but most times that is impossible (cost, time, space, impromptuness of what they want to learn about). I would like to find computer programming to actually teach students computer/typing skills, because in our society it is important for them to learn and it is something they are interested in. However, I have not yet found software I would like to be in the classroom. Therefore, we do not have computers in the classroom for student use. The Montessori software available that I have found is just our apparatus in computer form and I personally do not feel like that is as beneficial at this age as actually manipulating the apparatus.

We use recorded music at all age levels. Sometimes as sing alongs, sometimes nap music, sometimes fun dance music, and definitely to introduce composers, instruments, and their work. Sometimes the whole class can hear the music being played, sometimes a student uses headphones to listen to Vivaldi's Four Seasons privately.

I feel that there are good points to media, used properly. A thing cannot be fundamentally evil, all is dependent on use.

Responding Correctly to Inappropriate Behavior

2009-12-23T06:20:00.003-05:00

Author's note: This is a response to a question, which I have included, from a homeschooler. The answer; however, can apply to any inappropriate behavior, at home, a playground, a restaurant, etc.

"Though I am not up on much of the theory yet, I have created a few works of pouring, spooning, sorting, etc and put them out for the kids. I did a presentation for each work, demonstrating how the work should be done. The first day went pretty good. They would get the work from the shelf and do fine with it. I did have to gently remind sometimes to put things away before getting something new, but they were pretty much on task.

Today was a different story. Today they wanted to test the boundaries of this new system. They tried to use the work items inappropriately. Pouring instead of spooning, spooning into the tray instead of the dish, etc. They would also run to get a work, get it all set up, do about two or three motions, and then declare themselves finished and want to put it up.

What is an appropriate response to these issues? Do I insist that they finish a work before putting it away? What is the Montessori approach to doing that to avoid a battle of wills (and in our house, a time out). What is the response when they don't use the materials as designed and presented?

In addition, my daughter wanted to take the sorting beads and lay them out in a pattern instead of sorting them? What would be the response to that? To me, she is doing something wonderful, but is not doing the work as presented."

There are several things that are important to be remembered here. You can of course choose to be more open ended with the works, but then you are not practicing Montessori. If you are not practicing it as fully as you can, you cannot expect the same outcomes (self-direction, self-control, normalization, concentration, independence, etc) that goes along with a Montessori education. I'm not saying that this is a good or bad thing for your family, every family must do what they feel is correct. This is just a a statement so you are aware of what to expect or not expect.

There are a few things that could be at work in your setting. The first day they may have worked properly because it was new and interesting. The second day, not as much. This could indicate that these activities are below/above their working levels. The works could also just not be interesting to them. The first month or so the key is to observe, observe, and then observe some more. This will help you to see their working levels, so you can keep appropriate materials out. They could also be testing out boundaries as you said, and if that if the case, you must make sure to keep your boundaries firm. Montessori is "freedom of choice with limits." They can choose any of the works available to them at any time, but those works must be done properly.

So, to answer how to handle this. If they have had a demonstration and are working improperly on purpose, a redirection is what is in order. They can work properly, or they can put it away and get a new work. I usually give three chances to a student. First, I gently put my hand on their should and quietly say "You can work on this properly, or you can put this work away and choose new work." If they are still working improperly: "You can put this work away, or I will put it away for you." And finally if they do not put the work away: "I am going to put this work away now, you can return to it tomorrow if you are ready to work on it properly."

I know in one reply someone said a teacher would not allow a student to work on something without a demonstration first, and they thought that was too controlling. I would agree with that. Sometimes a student can pick up work without a demonstration and do the work correctly. Sometimes they cannot. If you are observing you can see that the work is not being done correctly and then you can do a demonstration of the work. A correction of work that has never been demonstrated; however, should not be done at the time of notice, but rather wait until the child is fresh. It is a blow to their confidence to think that someone is always waiting to correct them and this impedes their confidence. Also, do not mention that they were doing it incorrectly, a redemonstration (maybe several) will correct that. This is also the protocol if they are not doing the work correctly because it is too difficult (instead, demonstrate a work that is more at their level but will help them to work on the activity they tried at some point in the future) or if it is just an honest mistake in the work. She also said another teacher allowed them to do what they wanted to with the materials. This is too liberal. Certainly students can make extensions with the materials if they are expanding their skills, but just "playing" with the materials as if they are a toy is not what they are in school for and is a waste of time. If a student is doing extension work, they should have mastered the original material and then be getting be getting something useful out of the extension.

If a misuse is occurring, it may be the students way of telling you they would like a different work. For example, if the student is pouring dish to dish, create a work that allows they to do this. If spooning to a plate is what is desired, make an activity to do this. In the case of the beads, you may want to add a work that allows her to make designs using beads (not your sorting beads, but craft beads or the like), as well as a study of artists that have done just that. You may also want to remove the works that they are not using properly/are uninterested in. Redirect the misuse, but the next day the new works should be awaiting them.

I was disturbed by something in your post. You said that you use time-outs. I just want to emphasize that time-outs are a form of punishment and are NOT Montessori at all. A child learns nothing from a time-out (or any form of punishment or reward) except that they will be punished for not complying to an adult's wish. Instead, a Montessorian would use a combination of redirection and then understanding the root cause of the behavior (through constant observation) and then adjusting the environment of the child appropriately. Natural consequences are key here. If something is used improperly, they may not use it (a natural consequence). If something is broken, they must fix it or it is lost (not to be replaced). Again, a natural consequence. A time-out is an artificial consequence and no learning comes from it, other than to know that they do not want to get caught for fear of punishment. It does not actually curb behaviors, only curbs behaviors when the punishment could occur.

The Neurology of Montessori

2009-10-29T10:35:00.001-04:00

This is a wonderful article on why the Montessori method works so well for children, according to brain research.

http://sn.im/svggf

Thank you Lori Bourne at Montessori for Everyone for putting this together!

Playdate altercations

2009-10-13T10:21:00.003-04:00

How would you all have handled this situation - during a playdate near the end (lunch, tired and hungry kids) one child starts yelling at another to let go of a toy. kids age range form 3-7; child yelling is 5. child being yelled at is 3.

If the child yelling is trying to take the toy from the 3yo, I would gently put my hand on the child's shoulder and say "Would you like a turn with toy? You can ask so and so, so that he/she know that you want the toy. Yelling so loudly is hurting my ears, but if you ask nicely perhaps so and so will give you a turn." Generally children respond to a request like this. If the 5yo refuses to stop yelling, I would ask him or her to go to a place where he or she can yell and not disturb others (this may mean requesting the parent remove the child from the playgroup until he or she is calm, to their car, a restroom, perhaps take the child home.) If the child does calm down and is polite I would say "I love the way that you were using such polite words. That makes my ears feel much better." Even if he or she does become calm and politely requests a turn,there is the possibility that the 3yo says no the child cannot take a turn (in the 3yo eyes taking a turn means immediately giving up the toy) so in that case I would tell the 5yo "He/She is still using the toy. When he/she is finished it can be your turn. While you are waiting you can use this toy (giving a substitute), or you can just wait until he/she is finished." It is important that you do not force the child that has the toy to give it up to make the other one happy, or require sharing. One child's time with an activity is just as important as another child's. If the 3yo does share or immediately give the other child a turn I would say "I bet that made so and so very happy." This way the 3yo knows that his or her actions had a positive impact on someone. Sharing should be something spontaneous, not forced because good or nice children share.

If the 3yo took something from the 5yo and the 5yo was yelling trying to recover said item, there is legitimacy in his or her yelling. I would gently put my hand on his or her shoulder and say "Is there a more polite way that you could ask for your toy back?" Then see what happens. Generally, a child can calm down when snapped out of the fit of rage by a gentle voice. If the 3yo does not comply with the polite request of the 5yo to return the toy, then I would step in and say to the 3yo "So and so was still using that. If you would like a turn you could ask him or her for a turn when he or she is finished. Right now, though, you must give it back to so and so." If the 3yo complies (and they usually do, the taking of a toy is generally an impulse and after the impulse they realize they were wrong), I would say to the 3yo "Thank you for returning the toy to so and so, I bet the made him or her feel much better. Would you like to ask for a turn with it when he or she is finished?" If the 3yo does not return the item I would say further "You can give the item to him or her or you can give me the item (then I would give the item back to the injured party)." and if still no compliance you may need to request the parent takes the child home, as he or she is not cooperatively playing. In a school situation or if my child were the one that was not being cooperative I would say "You can give me the toy now and you may not use anything else until you are ready to be polite." If it is my own child I may say I was taking her home because she was not being polite.

I would also request to the playdate organizers that the playdate either not be quite so long or not run into lunch time, because that is a brewing grounds for trouble. A parent meeting for regular playdate groups to lay down ground rules for when you should take a child home is often helpful. I would step in even if the parent is there and not responding (I even do at the mall playground and such) because I am trained to handle these situations and many parents feel ill equipped to handle them and are often thankful. Even if the parent is not, it is still a learning opportunity for the other children/parents in the group.

Brain research supports Montessori education

2009-09-30T11:22:00.002-04:00

From Parenting Works (www.parenting-works.com)

Brain Research Supports Montessori Method
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By Eileen Lian

“Spotlight the good and the good will grow”

According to Phyllis Wallbank, this was one of Maria Montessori’s most profound ideas. Children need positive remarks and attention and if parents are too busy to provide these in sufficient quantities, they will resort to behaving badly in order to get the attention that they need.

Founder of the first Montessori school in England in 1948, Mrs Wallbank says that brain research has shown that it is the frontal lobes that are active when a person is happy, thinking or speaking positively—the left side—and also when the person is depressed—the right side.

The frontal lobes are also that part of the brain that is active from the time we are born to the time we turn six. During this first stage of development as defined by Montessori, there are more brain cells there, than at any other time in our lives.

These cells absorb the child’s surroundings like a sponge, ensuring that he becomes part of his larger nationality and culture. They also mould him into the man that he will become, in accordance to the messages of love and attention, or neglect, that he receives as a result of his personal circumstances.

Children learn what they live. And later on in life, live what they have learnt.

Mrs Wallbank was speaking in Kuala Lumpur two years ago as part of her Montessori Centenary Lecture World Tour. She was already in her nineties at the time but decided to go on the tour to pass along her first-hand knowledge about the Montessori method of education in light of recent brain research.

The Montessori method is based on Maria Montessori’s observation that there are four very distinct stages of development that we all go through:

• Stage 1: from fertilisation to six years
• Stage 2: from seven to 12 years
• Stage 3: from 12 to 18
• Stage 4: from 18 to 24

Movement plays a critical role in brain development during the first stage—the absorbent mind stage. Intelligence is developed through movement and children need to have freedom of movement at this age.

Sitting down to lessons just won’t do; rather, young children should be allowed to move around freely, on their own volition, and explore the objects and the world around them. Montessori suggests providing them with a variety of sensorial materials.

When children are between seven and 12 years of age, many of the brain cells in their frontal lobes die off as the early absorbent way of learning diminishes. Suddenly a larger world than their immediate environment opens up.

This is the age when children consciously want to learn and to have their questions answered. They thrive on the opportunity for occasional talks with people who are experts in their fields.

Repetition is very important at this age and the materials used should incorporate the childrens’ own interests. At Mrs Wallbank’s Gatehouse Learning Centre, subjects were not separated but were linked so that they became part of the whole.

Stage 2 is also the action age for children, in terms of gaining physical skills and playing team games. They enjoy making up secret languages, laughing at jokes and telling riddles.

Adolescents from 12 to 18—Montessori’s Stage 3—struggle to cope with the intense emotional, behavioural and physical changes that are going on in their lives. This is a time when they feel especially vulnerable.

Latest brain research shows that the circuits that coordinate our behaviours are being remodelled during the teen years in preparation for adulthood. This is a period of great adjustment, with many of the cells that were active during the earlier years now dead, which explains why these previously polite and delightful children no longer seem to be so.

Montessori believes that children this age should do practical tasks for money and have plenty of opportunities for self-expression in occupations. They should study literature, have choral singing and play instruments, among other things.

This is the time that adolescents have to ask questions and discover for themselves what they really believe and who they really are. The main stages of development during this period are divided into two halves: 12, 13 and 14; 15, 16 and 17.

In these later years of the child, language is no longer learnt by absorbing but rather by conscious work in parts of the brain other than the frontal lobes.

Cool Talk by Will Wright...

2009-09-14T19:23:00.003-04:00

...creator of Sims, about how Montessori education inspired him and how his games are Montessori-like.

Toddler Temper Tantrums

2009-09-09T22:17:00.003-04:00

I get asked this question all of the time, what do I do about toddler temper tantrums? One thing to be sure of, these tantrum usually pass with age. I say usually because they will not go away if they are rewarded. The first thing about a temper tantrum is to understand the root cause, it is generally not caused by the obvious trigger. Children are generally not throwing a temper tantrum because they are truly sad or angry they are not getting their way. Usually he or she is tired, hungry, overstimulated, bored, or any other host of reasons that cause this behavior. However, and this is important, just because the underlying reason is primarily not the child's fault, you still can never give in. If you are at home the best solution is to, in a gentle voice, tell your child "I understand that you are unhappy, but I will talk to you about this when you have calmed down." And then walk away and ignore the tantrum. Of course make sure the area is clear of hazards if your child is a flailing sort of tantrummer. When he or she calms down, return and say "Thank you for calming down, now we can talk." And discuss your reasons. Even a very young child can be reasoned with, or at the very least understand a gentle voice. Sometimes explaining a reason causes the tantrum to begin again, in which case you repeat the process. Then, as soon as you can, try to relieve the root cause of the problem, a nap or bed, a snack or meal, some quiet time or rocking, an activity to occupy, etc.

You should try to avoid making going to bed, even if the child is tired, seem like a punishment for a tantrum. This is sometimes difficult, especially when you know that is what is really needed. In this case, try to follow the tantrum with a linking activity to sleep like rocking or reading a bedtime story. If sleep is made to seem like a punishment for a behavior, regular naps and bedtimes may become difficult.

For public temper tantrum, which are of course much more embarrassing for the parents, try to remove the child from the situation as quickly as you can. Going back to the car, a restroom, a quiet area away from people all work. Then, follow the same protocol as when home. Decide if they should return to the activity, or if he or she really just needs to go home. Even if something wonderful is to be missed, sometimes this is the best option.

The main keys to are to avoid giving the tantrum attention and to at all costs not ever give the child what they are throwing the tantrum for. The biggest mistake I see parents make is to give the child what they want after calming down. So, in the child's mind "I throw a tantrum, I calm down, I get what I want." It is actually a very logical progression on their part. Once the child sees that the tantrums do not work and have the verbage and ability to control their emotions, the tantrums will end. Light at the end of the toddler tunnel.

A Battle over Dressing

2009-09-03T22:08:00.004-04:00

This blog entry was inspired by a high school friend whose facebook status update was asking for advice for her son (I think he is around two years old) who refuses to get dressed in the morning. Was it OK to allow him to choose to wear his pajamas out?

Many said yes, just let him go out in PJs, choose your battles. I respond to this with a resounding "NO!" While I agree that as parents we should choose our battles, this one is not a choice. One of the many jobs of a parent is to teach societal norms. Can we go out in our PJs? Certainly, most days I would love to, but no, we cannot. Nor should your child, past the infancy stage.

Another responded with a sticker chart. Reward his "good" behavior of getting dressed. But any reward or punishment system denies the child to do the most important thing, the very work of the child. And that is to learn. Rewards/punishments serve only to produce a desired outcome for an adult, not to teach the child about anything. Instead, the purpose of getting dressed in the morning should be for no other reason than to master this very important skill, gain self-confidence that he can perform these skills, and being proud of his appearance when he does get dressed. A child has a great amount of dignity, and they do like looking very nice and taking pride in their appearance.

So, how to stop the battles? As a Montessori teacher, I would try to find out the root cause of the battle. Is he lacking in self-confidence that he cannot do certain tasks involved with getting dressed? Most children at the age want to do things for themselves, and do not want help from an adult. However, they can quickly become frustrated when tasks do not come easily to them. If this is the case, make sure the clothes are easy for him to put on. Lots of elastic waistbands, no buttons and zippers, etc. Lay the shirt out on a bed face down so he can "dive" into it. To help him prepare for more difficult clothing, have things that he can practice with at other times of the day. In our classrooms we have dressing frames, but bears, dolls, etc are easily found at toystores that allow practice with buttons, snaps, zippers, etc.

Or, do you dress him and he is ready to move on from that and be more independent? By all means, at this age he certainly has the capabilities to do this himself. You may need to allow for more dressing time in the morning. Adjust your morning prep time accordingly.

Are the battles because he doesn't feel he has control over the situation? The control might stem from a few different places. What is going on when he is asked to get dressed? If he is playing with his favorite toy, he probably does not want to stop and get dressed. Try either waiting for a break in his activity or giving him warning about when he will need to stop playing and get ready. Adults do not like to be interrupted when we are busy with something, and neither do children.

Is the control centered around the clothing choice? In this instance you can either let him choose his own: "Which pants are you choosing today?" This is the choosing battles time. It is OK that the outfit does not match, his pants are on backwards, etc. Just be joyous that he did this himself.

Sometimes, the whole choice of a closet is too overwhelming, or maybe it is a special occasion when unmatched clothes are not appropriate. In these cases you can limit the choices for him: "Would you like to wear these pants or these pants?" He will still be happy that he got to have a choice in the matter.

Another reason for not wanting to put on his clothes could be that they are uncomfortable. Do they have tags or something that are itchy? Are they too big or small? If this is the problem try to help him remedy the situation by making the clothes more comfortable. Some children have certain things they are very sensitive about, such as socks aligned just right. Help them learn to get the clothes the way they like, and where possible help them learn that it is also all right when things are not just perfect.

In the end though it may come down to: "You can choose to get dressed, or I can dress you." If the response is negative (or a refusal to respond, which is also a negative response): "OK, I am going to put your clothes on." Period.

Montessori and Ayn Rand

2009-05-30T15:11:00.000-04:00

A vote for Montessori by philosophist Ayn Rand: http://sn.im/izi7t

Montessori and Objectivism

2009-05-06T11:52:00.002-04:00

Note: this is not my post, but one I found very good, so I wanted to pass it along.

A Tribute To Maria Montessori

“The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own efforts.”

Ayn Rand, “The Comprachicos”

The state of education in New Zealand is a shambles. Parents who are concerned about the future well-being of their children are searching desperately for educational alternatives. The increased demand for private schooling and the dramatic rise in the number of home-schooled children provide an accurate measure of the growing degree of parental dissatisfaction with the current situation.

But unless responsible and well-meaning parents are armed with the philosophical knowledge to be able to choose a rational educational method for their children i.e., a type of educational method that will fully prepare their children for successful adult life then it is quite likely that the results will be just as disappointing for them as for those parents who have left their children’s education in the hands of the state.

There is no guarantee whatsoever that private or home-schooling per se will produce satisfactory results. It is one thing to opt out of a state system that not only stunts, but positively perverts a child’s intellectual and moral growth (see Editorial, Turning Minds to Mush, TFR #9); it is quite another to choose a rational alternative. This is why philosophical knowledge, because of its specially close ties to education, goes a long way in helping parents make the right choice.

The objective of this article, therefore, is to provide not only the knowledge, but also an introduction to a particular educational method that produces exceptional results.

The important thing for parents to be aware of is that all educational methods rest upon underlying philosophies. A type of education system that derives its methods and goals from a philosophy that is steeped in irrationality and collectivism will produce a certain type of individual (and society); conversely, a type of education system that derives its methods and goals from a philosophy that advocates and upholds reason and individualism will produce a completely different type of individual (and society).

It follows that in order to choose a rational education for your child, it is first necessary to identify an education method’s philosophical underpinnings if you want him to have every opportunity of fulfilling his potential as a human being.

To begin with and this cannot be stressed enough you must know that, ultimately, in order to allow your child to fully develop the potential power of his mind, you first have to know what potential power needs developing. It is only once this power has been correctly identified, and its function properly understood, that it will be possible to go about aiding its development. The power in question, the power that man uses to grasp the world around him, the power that is at the central core of his very nature, is reason.

Unlike the other animals, man is a conceptual being. It is his rational faculty, his ability to reason, that sets him apart. To possess the power of reason is to possess the ability to conceptualise; it is to possess the ability to build, hierarchically, beginning with the perceptual evidence, progressively higher-level concepts that presuppose earlier concepts. Reason is man’s sole means of cognition, his only means of knowledge. It is this power which has enabled man not only to survive, but also to progress. It is man’s capacity to reason that has taken him out of the caves and put him on the moon.

To grasp this point fully, imagine for a moment what it would be like if you lost your ability to reason i.e., to think. How would you take care of yourself? How would you perform a simple task such as tying your shoes? How would you structure your day? The answer to all these questions is that without the power of reason you wouldn’t be able to. You would be in exactly the same position as a new-born baby helpless, totally dependent on others to look after you.

It is the purpose of education, therefore, to ensure that the helpless, dependent new-born baby makes the successful transition to becoming an independent, mature adult, fully confident of being able to master the world in which he lives. The only way to do that is to provide him with an educational method whose explicit goal is to assist him in such an achievement by developing his power of reason.

The good news for parents is that there IS such a rational educational method. It is known as the Montessori Method, named after Maria Montessori, the Italian Doctor of Medicine who developed her methods while working with mentally retarded children at the turn of this century. Her results with those children were so spectacular that they caused her to wonder what was holding so-called normal children back to the levels she was attaining with her retarded children.

In 1907, she founded the first Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) where she applied her methods to children of normal intelligence. Her successes led to the opening of other Montessori schools, and although many intellectuals were (and still are) vehemently opposed to her approach and even more so to the underlying philosophy of her approach (as they are to anything that provides a foundation for, or aspires to, individual excellence and achievement) her radical methods were widely acclaimed by the general public.

The reason the Montessori Method is so successful is that it is based on the true nature of Man. Dr Montessori did not have a preconceived theory of education into which she attempted to fit the child (unlike other educationalists such as John Dewey); she did not project a type of individual she wanted to create. Instead, she followed the “inner dictates of the child” to guide her in aiding the child’s natural development to his full potential.

She was fully aware that Man’s nature is that of conceptual being, and that the nature of the young child is such that he actively strives to perfect his conceptual faculty as it evolves. Her method works because it advocates and upholds the advancement of a child’s reasoning power as its foundational and philosophical cornerstone.

Specifically, it is Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, which upholds reason as Man’s only means of knowledge, that can provide the theoretical foundation for the Montessori Method. Rand herself paid tribute many times to Maria Montessori’s genius in the field of education.

Both Maria Montessori and Ayn Rand saw man as, to quote Aristotle’s definition, the “rational animal.” In his book Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, E. M. Standing eloquently encapsulates Maria Montessori’s view of reason: “In the first place it is the intellect or reason which sets us free from the never ending prison of the present moment in which animals live, dominated entirely from moment to moment by their instincts.”

In an almost identical reference to reason in her major work on education, “The Comprachicos,” Ayn Rand states: “Deprived of the ability to reason, man becomes a docile, pliant, impotent chunk of clay, to be shaped into any subhuman form and used for any purpose by anyone who wants to bother.”

Both Maria Montessori and Ayn Rand clearly recognised the central role of reason in Man’s life. Whereas the genius of Ayn Rand was to construct a fully integrated philosophy with reason as one of its central tenets, the genius of Dr Montessori lay in the fact that she devised a systematic, integrated educational method which all but guarantees the child’s proper conceptual growth.

Although Dr Montessori’s personal philosophy was a mix of Western religion and Eastern mysticism, her methods automatise in the child thinking methodology entirely consistent with Ayn Rand’s theory of concept-formation. Those who are interested in the more technical aspects of concept-formation are strongly urged to read Ayn Rand’s ground-breaking work, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. This book has major implications for education, as it provides the key to understanding how a rational mind functions, and therefore how a forming mind should be guided as it goes through the various developmental stages.

Through scientific observations of children (conducted in an environment where the children were free to act spontaneously), Maria Montessori gained first-hand knowledge of the developing stages of the conceptual faculty; specifically, she observed how the children acquired conceptual knowledge.

She recognised their intense interest in the qualities of things; she recognised their capacity to isolate qualities or ideas and their ability to form abstractions of such things. She was well aware “of this tendency of the child?s mind to draw off from material objects their intangible essences, thus building up a store of abstract ideas. These ideas reflect the ESSENTIAL nature of the confused flux of merely sensorial impressions that ‘big, booming, buzzing confusion’ of which Professor (William) James spoke” (E. M. Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work).

It needs to be pointed out that “the first five or six years of a child’s life are crucial to a child’s cognitive development. They determine, not the content of his mind but its method of functioning…” (Ayn Rand, “The Comprachicos”). Also like Rand, Dr Montessori understood well the importance to the child of these crucially formative years. In a quote which mirrors Ayn Rand’s thoughts she said, “There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For this is the time when man’s intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed.”

To that end, and by way of an introduction, this article will be restricted to dealing with those aspects of the Montessori Method as they apply to the child of 2 6 years of age. (It should be noted that Maria Montessori devised her system to educate the child from birth through to twelve years of age.

Montessorians have since expanded on her work to include the teenage years for which, before her death in 1952, Dr Montessori left only a basic outline.)
Dr Montessori’s Aristotelian view of reason (and her in-depth studies of the educational methods of Seguin and Itard) led to the development of her specially designed SENSORIAL MATERIALS which are a feature of all Montessori classrooms. She believed in Aristotle’s dictum that “there is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses,” and knew that the refinement of the child’s senses and clarity and precision of his perceptions would affect his ability to conceptualise. By means of a sensorial education she sought to provide the child with the means to exercise his ability to compare, contrast and discriminate, to classify the goal being the child’s acquisition of what she referred to as an “ordered mind.”

Designed to encourage individual rather than co-operative effort (reason is an attribute of the individual), the sensorial material takes the young child step by cognitive step from the perceptual (concrete) to the conceptual (abstract) level, allowing the “child’s mind to draw off their (the materials’) intangible essence.”

This process is imposed on him by the self-correcting nature of the material its inbuilt “control of error,” which only ever allows for one correct answer, making it evident to the child if he makes a mistake (teaching him in the process that reality is not malleable, that things have identity); this demands from him absolute cognitive precision, and rewards him with absolute cognitive certainty. These materials are deliberately designed so that all their attributes are the same except for the single attribute that the child is to focus on.

For example, in teaching a child the concept “colour,” the child is introduced to the “colour tablets.” These tablets are all the same size, weight, shape etc.; they differ in one aspect only colour. Because of the elimination of non-essentials as well as isolation of the quality (concept) being taught, the child must focus on the particular quality being isolated. The child quickly learns to pair colours of the same hue, and in so doing, makes it possible for the Montessori “directress” to label each quality for him.

Later, shades of each colour are introduced, and concepts such as light, lighter, lightest, and dark, darker, and darkest become readily apparent to the child so that “when the child has recognised the differences between the qualities of the objects, the teacher fixes the idea of this quality with a word” (Maria Montessori, Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook).

The wide range of sensorial materials, which teach concepts such as length, size, musical pitch etc., are placed in the classroom on child-height shelves where the child can reach them without adult assistance (promoting independence).

Within certain limits, the child is then free to work with the material as he chooses. I say “within limits” as (and this is a point of which certain critics of a Montessori classroom should take careful note) the child is free neither to take material from another child who will be working with it on his private mat nor to insist that the other child share the material with him (which has obvious ethical implications).

He may not interfere in any way with the work of another child; instead, he must wait until the material is returned to its assigned place on the shelves. The child is also prohibited from selecting materials from the shelves which are too advanced for his level of cognitive development.

In a Montessori classroom the child works at his own pace with the teacher keeping detailed notes of individual progress. This is done to ensure that intellectual progression is based on certainty not layers upon layers of mental fog; it ensures that the child is not introduced to material demanding higher levels of abstractions before he has a firm grasp of the lower levels abstractions which they rest upon.

For example, the child would never be given shades of colour to grade before being able to match hues; he would never be given a word to read before being able to sound out each individual letter. Why not? Because like Ayn Rand, Maria Montessori grasped the hierarchical nature of knowledge, the obvious implication being that any knowledge presented to the child should follow such logical progression. Instead of ending up as a head full of scrambled and disparate facts, the child’s mind becomes ordered. “The little child, who carries within him a heavy chaos, is like a man who has accumulated an immense quantity of books, piled up without any order, and who asks himself: ‘What shall I do with them?’ When will he be able to arrange them in such a fashion as to enable him to say: ‘I possess a library.’?” (Maria Montessori, The Advanced Montessori Method 1). He will be able to arrange them when he develops, to use Dr Montessori’s words, an “ordered mind.”

The sensorial materials, with their sequential and hierarchical presentation, are but one aspect, albeit a crucial one, of the Montessori classroom. Like every other feature of the classroom, which Maria Montessori referred to as “the prepared environment,” they serve a specific purpose. At the central core of that purpose is the attempt to assist and guide the child in the formation of his rational faculty.

And while it is certainly true that the primary motive of a Montessori education is to develop the child’s rational faculty, that is not to say, as so many of the system’s critics do, that other aspects of the child’s education are neglected or overlooked.

In fact it is precisely because of the development of the rational faculty that these other aspects become possible. For example imagination and creativity, which, contrary to conventional wisdom, are a direct extension of the fact that “imaginative creation has no mere vague sensory support; that is to say, it is not the unbridled divagation of the fancy among images of light and colour, sounds and impressions; but it is a construction firmly allied to reality… The creative imagination cannot work in vacuo. The mind that works by itself, independently of truth, works in a void” (Maria Montessori, Advanced Montessori Method).

A Montessori education also teaches the child to take responsibility for his action. This is achieved by giving him clearly defined and reasonable rules to follow where the consequences for breaking them are both known in advance and consistently upheld (objective law). He is taught not only to make full use of his time but also always to complete work that is begun (instilling in him the virtue of productivity). He is taught to respect the rights of other children by never interfering with their work unless it is at the express invitation of another child (teaching him that all interaction between people should be of a voluntary nature).

Insofar as the classroom is a microcosm of society, one of the most striking features to any observer of a Montessori classroom is how well the children get along with one another. A typical scene in the classroom is the sight of a number of industrious children happily going about their work, independently or together, in a spirit of real benevolence towards one another.

It is therefore both surprising to and frustrating for Montessorians that by far the most frequent criticism of Montessori education is that not enough emphasis is placed on the “socialisation” of the child. At the deepest root, these critics are philosophically opposed to the Montessori method because they are philosophically opposed to reason. This criticism manifests itself, on an ethical level, in a profound hostility towards independence and individualism. It manifests itself in the attitude of those who love to accuse someone of being “too sure of himself who does he think he is?!”

Yet this is one of the many positive hallmarks of a Montessori educated child; he is “sure of himself.” It is precisely because he is so sure of himself that he has no desire to succumb to group pressure or obey its whims. Of course, critics then label him “anti-social.” “He needs to be socialised,” they say knowing full well that what they really mean is, “he won’t sacrifice himself to my (or our) desires.”

John Dewey, the founder of the school of philosophy known as Pragmatism and the father of modern education (known as progressive education), was one such critic openly hostile to reason and independent thought. “The mere absorbing of facts and truths is so exclusively individual an affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat” (John Dewey, The School and Society).

The progressive schools, which follow in Dewey’s philosophical footsteps (and whose strands of philosophical thought are heavily entwined in New Zealand’s education system) socialise the child by discouraging individual effort and immersing him in the group, or, to use Ayn Rand’s words, by “throwing him to the pack.”

Montessori helps the child develop socially by aiding each child’s personal development primarily, by encouraging independence and self-reliance, knowing that these lead to a high level of self-confidence and self-esteem. The progressives, in direct contrast to the Montessorian emphasis on reason and individualism, promote anti-reason and collectivism.

They do so by such methods as only having materials in the classroom which are too heavy for any one child to carry by himself, or by insisting that all learning is done as part of a group project. Or, to use a particularly vicious home-grown example of the application of such monstrous methods, by implying that a cow’s stomach is wherever the group deems it to be. (Don’t laugh, this sort of thing really happens.)

Unlike Montessorians, the progressives don’t teach respect for another’s property; instead, the child is taught that property is communal. In a progressive school, instead of being taught to think for himself, the child is encouraged, in true democratic fashion, to conform to the dictates of the majority. In such an environment it is only a matter of time before truth, to the child, becomes whatever the group decides that it is.

The inevitable result of such socialisation is not a society of capable and productive individuals who think for themselves, but a society of dependents who, to repeat Ayn Rand, are ready “to be shaped into any subhuman form and used for any purpose by anyone who wants to bother.” It does not require much imagination to project the future shape of any society made up of such types. In fact, one need look no further than at most of the current local crop of near-illiterate high-school and university students to get the picture.
But before rushing off to sign your child up at the nearest Montessori school, a strong word of caution. There is no legal way to stop anybody from calling his school a Montessori school. Consequently, there are a number of so-called Montessori schools without trained teachers, without Montessori materials, or without teachers who have even the faintest idea of the Montessori methods.

It is imperative, therefore, that you thoroughly familiarise yourself with both the Montessori Method itself as well as the Montessori school you have in mind for your child.
That aside, a Montessori education comes with our highest recommendation.

Copyright 2006 — A parent of three young children who are homeschooled according to Montessori principles, Chris Lewis is a former Number 1 ranked junior tennis player in the world (1975) and Wimbledon finalist (1983). When not discussing children’s education, you will find him on a tennis court in Southern California, where he now resides. You can read more of Chris’s articles and tennis tips at his website, Expert Tennis Tips.

What age should we start school?

2009-04-16T14:20:00.003-04:00

A question from a prospective parent:

When do I feel children should begin school?

How I feel about when children enter school is very dependent upon the home life and the quality of the school. If children are exposed to a Montessori home life (children are self-directed, independence is encouraged, etc), then waiting until they are older, two and a half or so, to enter a true Montessori program is fine. If the home life is not structured in a Montessori way they should begin in a Montessori program earlier, at 18 months or so. This is not a judge of the home life, but children of this age acheive more in life when they are stimulated in the Montessori way at any early age. Montessori is the only scientifically studied method of education. If they are to be going into traditional preschools or daycares, studies have shown that these do not benefit children in the long run (throughout their school years) and the benefits when they enter Kindergarten are slight. Of course, having them in some social settings before Kindergarten is helpful, whether it is playgroups, workshops at museums or zoos, provided that proper social learning/encouragement is provided (which in these types of settings generally needs to be provided by the parents, the workshop facilitators usually do not run this type of interference).

Socialization difficulties

2009-04-10T14:52:00.000-04:00

A question from a parent about socialization...

Socialization is one of the hardest things for parents to help with, just because of the nature of the relationship. As parents, we do not want to see our children upset so to ostracize them for inappropriate behavior is difficult for us, even though in a social setting that is what naturally occurs when inappropriate behavior occurs. Also, parents have a relationship with children that is very different from that of peers.

He will naturally pick up social cues from other classmates and with the teachers guiding him. You can help with this. Instead of time-outs, which we do not use in Montessori because it fails to teach any lessons but is a punishment, try asking of him that he treat you and everyone else he comes in contact with the respect that they deserve. When he does not, use an approach that would be more of a natural consequence of that action. For instance, if he spits on you, you refuse to speak to him until he can show better manners. Do not ignore the action, address it and the fact that it is extremely rude and if he is going to do things like that then others will not want to be around him. When he has calmed down you can ask him why he has spat, and help him think of alternatives to the behavior. Did he spit to get your attention? Then suggest he calmly place his hand of your leg to get your attention. If he is spitting just because he thinks it is cool, he can always do appropriate spitting (in the bathroom sink). He may come out of the bathroom when he is done spitting.

He seems to not understand how to enter situations where he wants to interact or wants attention. Instead he is disturbing work or doing inappropriate things to catch attention. This is not a skill children instinctively have, it is a learned skill. Up to this point, these things have gotten the desired attention so he is continuing to do them. He must be taught how to enter these situations. For instance, at home if he wants yours or your husband's attention, he must gain it properly. When he does, may sure you let him know how much you appreciate that. Always model proper behavior for him as well. If you want his attention (or your husband's and vice versa) make sure it is gained in a way that would be appropriate if he was doing the same things.

My child is stealing!

2009-04-10T14:43:00.002-04:00

We had a student that was taking things off of the shelves at stores, opening and eating them before purchasing. This was a strategy I suggested to the family, who wanted to do a coupon system for good behavior:

I know you are thinking to do a coupon reward system, and I congratulate you for wanting to see her progression. I would stay away from extrinsic rewards; however, as all the Montessori research (and traditional education research as well) shows that rewards programs actually impede true learning of behaviors. Rather, the children are doing what they need to do for the rewards, without true understanding about the reasons they need to have the proper behavior. Also, behaviors usually revert when the reward is no longer given. Instead, I would suggest a system to help her learn why she needs to have proper behavior. Her reward is the benefit that you find going to the store with her a joyful and fun experience, and she will see that.

Before going to the store, remind her of the expected behavior and why you expect that behavior ("We haven't paid for it yet, and that was not on our shopping list today. Maybe we can put it on the list for next time" (or "that isn't something on our shopping list because it isn't healthy for us"). That way she knows her expectations ahead of time. Eventually she won't need reminded, but while she is still learning the reminders help.

If she does take something off of the shelf, and if you catch that before she opens it, have her return it to the shelf and explain why she has to return it. Say the same things you said before you went into the store to keep consistency in your message.

If she does open it, then you can give her the money to buy it (or you can take money out of her savings from birthday money, etc) and she has to go to the front of the store purchase the item and then she has to give it to the store to throw away. She MUST admit her wrongdoing to the clerk. When she goes home she forfeits a snack because she helped herself to snack at the store.

There seems to be a misunderstanding in her concept of ownership. You can work to explain to her that only things the she buys or are given to her by another are hers. To pay for things she takes she can do chores around the house. This should come before any play time. This should not be things that she should responsible for herself (like making her bed, it is her bed, she should be responsible for making that herself as she is the one sleeping in it, dishes, because she also uses dishes, etc), but things such as making your bed. Things that have nothing to do with the care of herself, but would help you out. Essentially, you would hire her and she can earn the money to pay for her habit.

Outside of the actual occurrences of the behavior, perhaps setting up a "grocery store" at home. She can practice how to take things off of the shelf and then "pay for it" then take it home. Then she can reset and play again. You can also work with her and real money, learning first the different monies (penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar) and when that is mastered the values of the monies. This is a pre-kindergarten skill. Allow her to pay when you go shopping, so she can become familiar with the fact that money has to exchange hands before they belong to her.

Finally, be very wary of purchasing treats or gifts when you go to the store. She will then feel entitled to receive something when she goes and this may lead to her taking matters into her own hands when she doesn't (then returning to taking things again, because she feels she should have them).

Baby questions on sleep and other...

2009-04-10T14:38:00.004-04:00

I was answering a parent's (5 month old child) question and though I would post the answers I gave her. One was about sleep problems and the other was about just general developmental guidelines. Hope this helps others...

We coslept with our baby from when she was 2 weeks old until just this past Christmas, but I know not every family is up for that. I had never intended to, at birth we had her in a bassinet by our bed but we couldn't get her to sleep for more than an hour at a time. Then one night I had pulled her in bed to feed her and I accidentally fell asleep. She slept through that whole night! Voila, a family bed was born! There is a great book about sleeping, Elizabeth Pantley's The No-Cry Sleep Solution (she has a for babies version and a for toddlers and preschoolers version). I would suggest reading through that to find the solution that fits your family best. It coveres almost every sleep problem that is not medically related. It also covers naptimes. If you decide to cosleep there is a great book, Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent's Guide to Cosleeping. It goes over all of the dos and dont's. I used both of these. Good luck! One thing to keep in mind is that at this age you still can't spoil him, so I would go ahead and provide the comfort he needs.

At five months they are starting to do such cool things! Definitely provide him with an abundance of the things he is interested in, whether it is looking in boxes, balls, whatever (not necessarily store bought things, they usually prefer things that are already in their environment). Try to have him be as much a part of your lives as possible. By this I mean keeping him at conversation level, or bringing conversation level down to him. Social skills and vocabulary develops much more quickly when they are "incuded" in the conversation. You could be talking about nuclear physics, but if you look at him and let him have turns babbling back to you it teaches him how conversations happens. It is much better for them than looking at adults' feet all day. Dr. Montessori discovered this when she was with a baby who was crying while the adults were conversing. As an experiment she "included" him in the discussion and he was instantly soothed. Because the warm weather is coming it is great to try and get him outside as much as possible. Dr. Montessori found that when children are connected with the natural world learning comes at a faster rate, she surmised because they are fasinated about what is in their world and want to explore and discover what is happening there.

Forcing the apology

2009-03-06T01:08:00.003-05:00

It never ceases to amaze me. A child hits another and the adult makes the child go up to the victim (either at the time or hours later when the incident was reported to them), and says "Tell them you are sorry." And then waits until the child apologizes. I even read a discipline guide for toddlers that said to make them apologize. What does the forced apology do? Number one: it says, you can do anything you want as long as you apologize for it afterward. Number two: it is never sincere. A spontaneous apology is different. If a child does something and honestly feels sorry for doing that and apologizes, that is to be commended "That made me feel much better that you apologized to me." But to force an apology is never warranted and really only serves to make an embarrassed parent feel better.

The better alternative is to have the child ask the other child what would make him or her feel better. This teaches the aggressor to empathize with the victim and also teaches him or her responsibility for his or her actions. Then, help the aggressor follow through. If the victim requests an ice pack, the aggressor gets the ice pack and holds it on the hurt body part until the victim says it feels better. Let the victim be the guide. Until he or she says it is OK, the aggressor must tend to him or her.

Teaching the lesson of apology is better left to times when an incident has not occurred. Through books and by modeling apologetic behavior when appropriate. This way the child learns that saying I'm sorry comes from within, when he or she is truly feeling bad for their actions.

One day at school we had this situation happen. A student had hit the teacher. The parent told him that they could not leave school until he apologized. He promptly apologized. We pulled the parent aside and explained that we do not force apologies and told her why. She went over to her son and said "Are you really sorry, or did you say it just because I told you to?" He said, "I said it because you told me to." Vindication...

Ending the Drama

2009-01-29T13:52:00.003-05:00

A parent recently asked me about the crying bouts of her Kindergartener. "Is this normal for this age? It's getting to be a bit much..." My answer, whether or not it was the desired answer, was yes. If a child has been positively rewarded by attention, sympathy, or receiving a gift to make him or her feel better than the child will continue crying fits and temper tantrums for a long time, even into adulthood if it continues to work. No parent wants to hear her child cry, or think that her child is sad about something. However, it serves the child much better to learn the difference between being truly sad and being sad because she or he has not gotten their way. Crying is a way that babies can communicates their feelings of discomfort because the baby cannot use words or communicate in any other way. Once the child is able to communicate, the child should learn how to communicate with words. A good tactic to teach this to children (no matter what the age), is to ask them when why they are crying. What are they sad about? If it is truly something to be sad about, comfort him or her and ask what would make them feel better. It is important for the parent not to ask them how the parent can solve the problem. Children need to learn how to cope with situations, even sad situations. You can offer suggestions, such as "You're sad your friend had to go home? Maybe you can draw a picture to give to him next time to see him, so he knows you were thinking about him." It should not be your goal to make their hurt go away, as much as we want to. We want our children to grow up to be happy adults that can cope with the things that life throws at them, and sometimes life doesn't throw the greatest pitches. If their tears are because of something that is not really sad, such as they are not getting their way, then those are tears to ignore, after explaining to them that it is not appropriate to cry in that situation. Ask them to save their tears for times when they are really sad (What defines really sad? That is different for each child, some are more sensitive than others. A good test is asking yourself if the tears are being used for attention or to manipulate, if so those are not truly sad tears.). Explain to them briefly why things must happen the way they are "Mommy has to go to work, and I will be back later, just like always. I love you." And then you do what you need to do. Parents must resist the urge to give just one more hug, a treat to make them feel better, have a long drawn out discussion, or make a deal to do something wonderful or special when you return. If you do so, the child's tears have done their job. They have gotten their way, even if only for a few more minutes, and the tears will continue every time you are in that same situation. If you do not indulge them, the tears quickly end after a week or so. The child then becomes able to cope with that situation, and has another tool in their emotional toolbox.

Important tips for raising infants

2009-01-09T23:48:00.005-05:00

A prospective parent recently emailed me, asking what the most important things she could do in raising her new baby so she is ready to come to school. The advice I give to new parents sounds very easy, but in practice it is much more difficult. The most important thing is to not underestimate your child, ever. Allow your child the chance to do things on his or her own, even if our society typically thinks that it is things that the child is too young to be able to do. Speak to your child often and reason with him or her. Even if he or she doesn't understand right then, eventually it will work and at a much younger age than you might realize. Always present your child with the option of doing things independently, which is difficult because our society is so hurry, hurry and children do take time, especially when learning something new. That means as parents we may need to wake up earlier to allow enough time to walk down the stairs and out to the car themselves instead of carrying them, or put their shoes on themselves, or dress themselves. We also need to be willing to allow for messes. Instead of sippy cups--which allow for no learning to take place--allow your child to drink from a regular cup and spill on themselves and the table. Your child is smart enough to be able to figure out how the cup needs to be held so this does not happen in the future. There is no reason that your baby cannot do everything you do. There is no need for baby DVDs to occupy him or her while you get housework or officework done. Set up a play space on the floor and let him play while you work. Exposure to life is how your child will learn, not the latest "educational" DVDs.

Christmas Gift Giving and Opening

2008-12-25T20:41:00.003-05:00

Christmas morning, or any holiday that gifts are involved, is a great learning time for children. Remember, learning is not a mundane activity for children (or, at least it shouldn't be!), but it is how they take in the messages from the world around them. I'm often asked what presents are appropriate to give, and here is my general response. Don't believe the marketing hype! Children do not need bells and whistles for them to enjoy a gift, in fact, children often tire of those gifts quickly because they not using their skills to play with them. Try choosing gifts that are kid-powered instead of battery powered. They will work on using their own creativity and imagination skills, not the preset stories or games that are being fed to them. I also advise to stay away from commercialized gifts, not to stick it to the man necessarily, but to allow the child to take that toy wherever his or her own imagination takes them instead of scripts that have been seen in the movies or television programs. Also, limit gifts to just a few special ones (and retire an equal number to charity) to avoid neglected toys that could be put to good use by another child. Children easily become overwhelmed with holiday gifts and the WOW factor wears off as more and more gifts are opened. A few gifts will be more meaningful than many. Ask yourself how many holiday gifts you remember. When your children are opening gifts, allow them to use each gift for as long as they like. This is how they explore and appreciate, when they are going at their own pace, rather than an assembly line of open, put aside, open next one.

Most importantly, let your child be very excited about giving gifts to someone else, whether it is a homemade gift or a gift they help you pick out at the store. Show them how special it is to give. This year my daughter made coasters to give to her family, and delighted in telling them that she painted them. Next year, we will begin charitable gifts as well.

Enjoy your time with your family and your traditions. It is one of the most special gifts you can give your children.

To Santa or not to Santa?

2008-12-24T22:34:00.003-05:00

At this time of year, especially because this is my daughter's first Christmas that she is aware of the season, parents often ask my views on Santa Claus. Most children have difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction. For most, this does not happen until about age seven. So the path I am choosing is to let my daughter know who Santa is (right now that he is a man with a white beard and he wears a red suit), but I won't ever tell her that he brings her gifts, comes down our chimney, or is a real person. Eventually I will share the myth of Santa Claus and what nice stories they are. There are several reasons for this. First, and most importantly, I do not believe that it is all right to lie to your child. They do eventually find out that there is no Santa and wonder why you have lied to them, for years no less. Will they get over this hurt? Yes, but why cause it? It may lead them to wonder what else you are lying about, especially important if you are a religious family because they cannot see god either. I want to respect my daughter and her intelligence. There are so many wonderful, beautiful realities in the world to learn about. Especially during the holiday season. I would much rather her concentration on those. Secondly, how unsettling to know that a strange man can come into your house through the chimney, or however else someone might say Santa comes in. This can lead to a variety of fears in the night. As for my students, I know that this is not a view many families share, so we talk about the cultural significance of Santa and if they ask questions about whether he is real or not I tell them that that is something excellent to ask their parents. My daughter is 21 months old, so I do not need to worry yet about her telling another child that Santa isn't real, at this point she is just identifying the character of Santa. When she does reach that age, we'll talk about how some people like to pretend that he is real and that we should be respectful of that. We'll also talk about how the spirit of Santa is real and is inside people. When she's old enough to understand that. For now, he's the guy that rode the fire truck in our hometown.