http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckyC53sOcpg

http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto2.html

Proud mom of an unschooled kid….unschooled doesn’t mean uneducated!

A grade is an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite amount of material. Montessori….no tests + no grades + no homework = more time to self-educate and more time to just be a kid.

The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence. Hands on learning materials will lead mastery. Rote memorization will lead to boredom.
“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.” My hope is that all children can experience and education like this one….

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=d7635e0e078a5e68a236dd&skin_id=1703&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faYco1b-IJI

A group of 8 public high school students in western Massachusetts designed and ran their own school within a school. The results highlight the importance of providing all students a voice and choice. Consider the potential impact of students choosing their curriculum and allowing them to participate in a more innovative approach to education. (This isn’t a new idea…..let’s credit Dr. Montessori for this one)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/opinion/15engel.html?_r=1

http://www.chicagoparent.com/community/the-self-aware-parent/2011/march/let’s-be-clear—what-do-we-really-want-for-our-children

Our attempts to prepare our children for the future are limited by our own imaginations of what the future will be like. We’re apprehensive, but our children are not. The high-tech, rapidly changing world that seems so mind-bending to us is normal to them. “Preparing” our children for this new world by turning them into supercompetitive generalists is useless because we can’t second-guess the skills they will need 10 years from now. The only things that are certain to be valuable are character traits such as honesty, tenacity, flexibility, optimism, and compassion—the same traits that have served people well for centuries.  Montessori educates the whole child.

Try to see your child as a seed that came in a packet without a label. Your job is to provide the right environment and nutrients and to pull the weeds. You can’t decide what kind of flower you’ll get or in which season it will bloom.  When we are open to the differences in our children, we’ll give them the soil they need to flourish.

“Montessori….the surest route to joining the creative elite, which are so overrepresented by the schools’ alumni that one might suspect a Montessori Mafia.” (Wall Street Journal 2011)

Conventional education is based on external motivators. Montessori (brain based, scientifically proven education) is based on internal motivators. Rewards are a slavery of the spirit and grades are external rewards. 21st century organizations are looking for employees that are internally motivated   Watch the video here:  Intrinsic Motivation