Head-Long into Life

This shows how I feel about my latest venture.

The girl in this Norman Rockwell painting has determination written all over her face. She is running 'head-long' to her art class, I assume, and she may be a little late.

This is how I describe how I feel about finishing something I started in 2003--my Master's Degree.

• I am determined to get it done--soon, I hope
• I am in a hurry to get started--Jan. if all goes well
• delayed BUT never too late

We all need determination when we face a challenge.  It helps us through the tough times and gives us what we need to rise to the difficult task in front of us.  Without determination we would wither and fade when facing the first bump in the road.

Sometimes a sense of urgency can get us off the 'slow track' and help us simply "get-er-done".  As long as we go 'head-long' into something that we have thoughtfully and carefully discerned to be what we are meant to be--or do--or become. 

• It is never to late to learn.  
• It is never to late to make a difference.  
• It is never to late to make positive changes to ones self or ones community.

  

• It is a waste of time to regret what we have not learned.
•  It is a waste of time and energy to complain about  our lives--whatever the complaint is
• It is a waste of time to worry about things we do not like about our life and community.

We must be willing to be part of the process of change, to reap the reward of that change.

MONTESSORI

• Determination
• Diving head-long into a project
• Sense of urgency

I often see 'determination' on the face of the children I am privileged to work with.  Whether it be to in learning a new song about Venezuela or to place the smallest cube on top of the Pink Tower, just so.  This is a beautiful thing to watch.  We give the children a safe, rich environment to bring that determination and accomplish amazing things.

Children frequently dive 'head-long' into a project and get consumed with finishing that task and accomplish so much more in the process.  Think about a child that finishes all of the Cube Chains.  He/she has counted, organized, laid out and put away, so much work, rugs, counters, number arrows, over several months time.  The child can be truly proud of work well done.

The sense of 'urgency' can be good and not so good.  If it come from the child and he/she is following that voice inside that tells us all when we need to "get-er-done, then that is the voice to listen to.  If the sense of urgency is an impatient parent or teacher, that can be a negative influence on the child's natural development and growth.  This is the delicate balance we contently have to maintain. 

But it is so rewarding and FUN to be a part of the kind of educational system that cares about the child at this basic and unchanging level.  

I am proud to be a Montessorian!

Live Your Own Life

Steve Jobs’ death saddens me as I know it does many, many people. He died of the same type of cancer my dad fought for 18 months, before he left us 20 years ago—very few people get 6 years, as Mr. Jobs did.

We are hearing a lot about his life in the media this week.  I enjoyed hearing part of his commencement address to Stanford University from 2005.  He had successfully completed treatment for the cancer and had some very inspirational thoughts to share to the young, eager audience (and all of us, as it turns out).

The best quote for me was when he said this: ….stop wasting time living someone else’s life.  Find something you are passionate about and do it.

I am paraphrasing—but I think I caught the meaning, if not the exact words.  This is such good advice for young and old alike.  We are daughters, sisters, wives, mothers; or sons, brothers, etc.  It is so easy to loose sight of what makes us want to “change the world”, or at least make a small impact on our world.

Life tends to get very busy and we get caught up in living up to the expectations of daily life and forget the BIG picture. I enjoyed taking time this week to think about the BIG picture.  Thank you Steve Jobs, for reminding me that we each have a life to live that is unique and worthwhile.  Whether one is building a multi-billion dollar company that impacts the lives of people all over the world or making a few preschool children learn to love music a little more, we all have a life to live and I am happy with the SMALL (but important) life I have.

MONTESSORI

Anyone that works with children is privileged and also responsible to live up to the task.  What we do may seem SMALL and unimportant to the world (and ourself at times). It is neither. It is BIG and important to each and every child in our care.


I think Steve Jobs' advice is very appropriate for Montessorians. We build an environment and step out of the way so that children can learn and grow.  It is a wonderful preparation for the so-called, ‘real world’. In fact, it is the real world, or at least it is supposed to be as close to that real world as possible in a school setting.

The Montessori philosophy tells us to help each child develop into the person they are meant to be.  Like Mr. Jobs was saying, to ‘live their own life’ and rise to the highest form of themself.

 When you prepare a safe learning environment full of color, and sound Montessori philosophy and materials, it is a beautiful sight to behold.  Preschool children want to live their own life. They have not been here long enough to know anything else.

I am privileged to be living my dream.  I get to play games and sing my own songs for a living! 

A time for everything

There is a time for everything.

There is a time to live,

and a time it die,

a time to reap,

a time to sow,

a time to celebrate,

and I time to refrain from celebration.

Autumn is a time for plants in the Midwest to complete their life cycle. Many go out in a blaze of glory by changing from a more ordinary green to brilliant red, orange or yellow. Others just fade to an earthy brown. The grass in front of my house, pictured above, gets heavy with seeds. The blades strain and bend under the weight heavy heads.

The weeds out back are eagerly sending out seeds attached to small clouds of white; they take flight in an effort to keep their life cycle going another year. Just as eagerly, we try to cut them down to prevent them from taking over the more desirable bluestem grass and wild flowers we prefer.

I so enjoy the changing seasons!

Montessori

There is a time for everything. This is so true in the Montessori environment. We like to have a predictable schedule that helps the children normalize. A consistent routine makes for a classroom that runs smoothly and children that work happily. Lots of interruptions can make it hard for a child to get into that beautiful zone of concentration we like to see in our classrooms.

Early in the fall we may think that normalization will never come. The young three year olds may be missing home, they may cry when mom or dad drop them off. The work cycle may be shorter than we like, leading to more frequent and longer group activities than we are striving for.

We must be patient and observe. Montessorians know how important observation is. We step back, and look at the whole picture the classroom gives us. It is easy to get ‘too close to the forest to see the trees’ when working with children. We are trained to see beyond that. We look for signs of restlessness and discord. We become good at ringing the bell that brings everything to a halt. Slowly through out the fall the work cycle becomes longer, children begin to concentrate, and normalization sneaks up on the classroom.

Like the grass in front of my house, the children’s heads become slightly heavy, they bend a little, and they do beautiful work.

Bad News

What do you do when bad news is given to you?

I like to "talk it out" with a close friend or family member.

I process better--out loud, I guess.

Bad news can come in lots of forms. It can be about yourself--a friend--your child--or spouse. It is never easy to get bad news. The person delivering the news is often hurting themselves, so I often try to push back my own feelings and deal with their sadness or pain.

It is good to step back and "look" at the situation when bad news is around. Sometimes I think that I just can not "handle" taking it in all at once. When we step back we gain perspective. That can be a very valuable thing to have is a stressful situation.

I always wonder what people without a good support system do with bad news. It must be awful to deal with overwhelming things by yourself. It is at times like this when I am made acutely aware of how truly luck I am to have a supportive husband, loving children, family and friends to lean on for comfort.

I wish for each of you reading this--good health--good relationships--and good memories.

Montessori

'Bad News' can come in many forms in a Montessori classroom. It can be anything from a tussle on the playground to the death of a grandparent. We must be ready to deal with the small pitfalls and the big, life changing events as well.

What can prepare us as Montessorians to deal with small and big tragedies? Well, it is as hard and as simple as this---have a good heart and you will know what to do. Sometimes it will be in the form of a hug--or a sympathetic ear--or an understanding attitude. We are called to be understanding and loving adults in the lives of the children entrusted to us. This is not hard--but it does tend to be heart breaking on occasion.

The rewards are many thought. To help a child deal with pain at an early age is to help that child deal with pain for a life time. If we teachers can remember that--it looks like a great opportunity to do well.

Learn from Everyone and Everything

Teachers and a country school

in the 1940's .

A child that loves life in the 1940's--some things never changes!

I hope I will keep learning my whole life. I feel that people that think they "know it all" usually have a lot to learn. I have had the opportunity to substitute teach in a preschool the past few weeks. I have learned new things from the other teachers and staff, the children, the challenges and great features of the physical building as well as the inspirational CDs I listen to on the 35 minute commute.

Life is like that. I seem to experience this more and more as I grow as a person and a long time Montessorian. At seems the more we know, the more there is to know.

In this blog I want to address those times I see people miss the opportunity to learn. Miss the opportunity to understand one another. Miss the opportunity to help themselves and others grow, be happy, or just feel part of something.

The inspirational CDs I mentioned challenge me to make positive changes in my life. They are, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Mind, by Wayne Dyer. It is a commentary on the ancient teachings of an Asian philosopher, Lout Sue. He wrote the book of 81 verses on how to live a happy life called the Tao Te Ching. This famous book on living a God realized life is the inspiration for several of Dyer's books and CDs. In Change Your Thoughts he says we need to raise our thoughts to the level of how God thinks to be truly happy. I know that sounds a little 'heavy' or 'out-there', but I think it makes a lot of sense and it does not conflict with my own religious beliefs, in fact it dovetails very well with my own life long beliefs.

Now we can get back to the topic of this post. I see people very often miss great opportunities to learn from each other, lend support, or just be nice. Each one of these things are easy to do if you just open your mind to the possibility that ordinary people and experiences have something to teach us.

Learning happens in small and big was very often. Let me give you an example. When I substitute teach I get lots of opportunities to learn. I try very hard to help support the head teacher and step in to help without having to be told every little thing to do. Most of the time teachers accept the help and appreciate what I have to offer. On rare occasions a teacher or staff member will feel threatened by my experience and see my willingness to help as something else, like my trying to upstage her or as being critical of how she does things. When I feel that is happening I back off and let go of the situation. A person that feels that way does not want to learn, so, in my way of thinking, it is best to just back off.

If we can learn to learn from everyday, ordinary events just think of the number of learning opportunities we would have daily. This adjustment in attitude has helped me be a happier person. It changes my focus. Instead of thinking, "why is he doing that?" or, "what is she thinking?!", I try to glean a lesson from a frustrating situation. Give it a try; it makes life much more interesting and enjoyable.

Montessori

I have already mentions an example that can happen in the classroom so I would like the give another Montessori example.

In my 30 or so years of being a Montessorian I have been supported and I have learned from so many people. For the most part we are very good at being life long learners and we love to be supportive of each other. What I am about to talk about is not the rule--but the exception to the rule.

Like all people we "Montessori people" sometimes miss opportunities to learn from each other and especially to support each other. A big reason for this happening is that we are all busy with our own classrooms, administrative duties, billing parents, cleaning, and updating our classrooms, etc...to see the opportunity to share with each other. Often we are not aware of another teacher or school that needs our support. I hope we all take time to really look for opportunities to do just that.

I live in a city that is very fortunate to have many Montessori schools. For it's size Omaha has a lot of good Montessori environments that provide quality child care and education for children and an their families from the age of six weeks through sixth grade. We are very fortunate to have both public and private Montessori schools. Not many communities can boast these facts.

Many of the schools are well established, well organized and running smoothly because of committed administrators, parents, communities and children. Others are young schools that are just getting a foothold in the community. My hope is that the we look at each other less as competitors (which we are) and more like members of one Montessori Community. I do not have research to back this up, but it seems that there is room for all of the schools that I have visited (around 12 in the past year) to thrive in Omaha. I challenge all of my fellow Montessorians to reach out to a fellow teach, school, or administrator, and offer support and a sprit of sharing ideas to make us all stronger and therefore able to help more children learn to love learning. I feel that we can all help each child that is enrolled in a Montessori school in this city develop into the best person they can be. Isn't that why we became Montessorians in the first place? I sincerely hope that is the case.

“Kids these days…”?

Good Morning Blog Readers

I appreciate your time and effort to visit this Blog. Thank you so much for dropping in to share a little bit of your life with me. Hope you enjoy this entry.

I am on the second day of a Road Trip with my daughter. We are having some great mom/daughter bonding time. It is such a gift to me that I get to spend this one on one time with her. Young people like her have such a fresh and non-corrupted view of the world and what people and activities have to offer. I always learn great lessons when I spend time with someone much younger than myself. Really, that is true of people much older than myself too.

I think we get stuck sometime in our own ‘dramas’ or ‘life circumstances’ that it is refreshing to spend time with people that are in a different stage of life than ourselves. I have to say something here; I have always disagreed with the statements that start with,

“kids these days….”! They usually are disparaging remarks about younger people. I feel that people are people and that our perspective changes as we age—as it should. I find that now that I am in my 50’s I have a much different perspective on life than young people—not that young people these days are less or more respectful, or more or less driven—it is just that my focus and tolerance level has increased or decreased as the case may be—therefore it ‘seems’ like young people have changed a lot. This all makes perfect sense to me—I have no idea if it will to any of my readers—let me know please?

Montessori:

The above statements are so true in the Montessori environment. How else could we be following the principles laid out for us by a women from Italy, many decades ago. I believe that children are children and child development is child development. The basics of how children behave, learn and develop are the same now as they have always been. The basics of what a child needs to grow up happy, independent and productive are the same now as they have always been. The world however is changing all the time and it is up to us to stay vigilant to how the outside world affects our children. Good principles and common sense is always a good idea—in so much of what life sends our way.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Life Long Learning

Thought for the day:

Be a life long learner. Most particularly, be a life long learner in your field of work, career, expertise.

How boring life gets if you think you have all the answers and have nothing left to learn. I went to a lecture last night about the Montessori Philosophy. I have been living and working with that philosophy since 1976. Why would I want or need to go to a lecture about something I should know very well by now? Well, because it was GREAT! It was so fun to see the trainees who 'have to' attend the lectures learning all of what, I think I know so well, for the first time.

The trainees were, some of them, tentative, some confident, and some quietly, taking "first steps" in a journey I have been on for a long time. It is nice to be reminded that my life's work is not a destination but a journey. We do not arrive to what we are and stay their (hopefully). We are always on the journey and hopefully always taking strides--some may be back and forth--towards new and exciting goals.

I sat in the "student" seat last night. My teacher, the same woman I started with over 30 years ago, stood up and "did her thing" so well. It was very heartening to see a woman of her maturity (age) still excited about the same concepts, philosophy, etc...that all Montessorians know so well. It was good to be reminded that no matter how well you think you know a subject--there is always something to learn new or in a different way. She spoke to her students with respect and got them to reach down to what they know and share that with the class. IT WAS FUN!

Keep on Learn'en,
Take care,
MissT