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.

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

learn from the old and the young

First Day of A New School Year---POTENTIAL!!!!

We start out and slowly come to the end of our life with limitations. We have a lot of needs that cannot be met by ourselves. Babies have many needs--to be fed, changed, loved, and played with. A baby will not grow and thrive if all of these needs are not met. The same goes for the precious elderly members of our family, neighborhood, community. If you do not contribute to the care of one or more of these members, who will. Think about that. It is rare to see a family with more than 3 or 4 children.
I came form a time when 7, 8 or even 12 children in a family was considered normal. The care of the elderly (as well as the infants) in those families was spread out among the 9, 10 or even 14 members of the immediate family. How do we fill the gap left when children live in 2 or 3 different states and mom and dad live in a 4th. I suggest that we celebrate each generation and what that particular generation has to contribute right now, at this time. In doing that--getting members from all 3 (or 4 if you are lucky enough to have 'great-grandma' around) generations. Share a simple meal, but more importantly, share your stories. Both old and new stories have a great potential to raise the spirits of all those diverse attendees.
Earlier this summer, I had an inner-generational Brunch. We eat sweet breads made from old family recipes, I served a rich egg, cheese, and hash brown casserole, we partook in wonderful summer fruits. But the food, decorations, candles, and all those thing one does to make an event special were overshadowed (in a big way) by the conversations that took place.
The spontaneous conversations that accrued were wonderful in nature but I also invited each attendee to finish the following statement: "Because I am in my --20s-40s--or 50s to 60s--70s to 80s or over 80--I know this to be true:
Well, the responses were gathered up anonymously and then passed out again--the idea is that you do not read you own response and you do not know who wrote the statement.
I was so happy with the results of my little experiment. I intend on doing this event many time in the future--sometimes with the same collection of wonderful women that attended my first "inner-generational brunch" and some with different people from my life. The experience was far more inspirational and uplifting than I could have imagined.
I encourage anyone that reads this and thinks it sound like fun to not 'put it off'. Live is short and each thing that we 'put off', is one less experience we will get to have in this wonderful, high potential, world we live in.