Mentor Transcript: Elementary (Literature )

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Mentor Transcript: Primary (Attention/Repetition)

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Mentor Transcript: Elementary (Literature )

Elementary: Literature (October 22, 2009) Literature 10_22.pdf

What is Montessori?

By: Wendy Calise, Educational Director, Countryside Montessori School 

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I have been asked many times over the course of my life "Just what is Montessori anyway? I mean, in a few words or less." Seldom have I found a situation more personally frustrating. What are the few words that define and describe Montessori? I surely have not found them. In fact after attending a Montessori school for 9 years, taking two years of graduate study to teach it, and performing the task of teacher for an additional 6 years I still do not fully comprehend and appreciate Montessori in its enormity and entirety.

You Choose

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!” He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, “I don't get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Michael replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or...you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood.

Change

Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.

- King Whitney Jr.

Often when we experience change we manage to feel all of these things in a mixed and confusing mass. Few of us are able to see clearly the light at the end of the tunnel when we are in the throes of a difficult change. Consequently, change is hard and often somewhat frightening. So true for our children. Yet, hopefully we have enough experience to know that change is good and offers much promise.

Discovering Montessori

While some parents are perplexed that others spend large sums of money to educate their 3-year olds, a study conducted by the Carneigie Corporation ten years ago, concluded that earlier schooling is more effective than our traditional schedule, aids the development of the child, and underscores the importance of the preschool years.

Another Perspective

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be: