Wow! It's been a long time since I last posted. Summer was relatively busy with summer school, travelling, and preparing for the next school year. Sometimes it seems like summer is more busy than the school year!
My friend Megan and I met for lunch last week. And, of course, one of the topics of discussion was education. She is always so passionate about each day, each subject, each student, and each school year. Her grade level is trying a new behavior initiative that does not promote consequences or rewards, but truly depends on students to take ownership and find meaning in their own learning. She is quite excited about it.
I let her know that I started reading the Montessori Method, by Maria Montessori. The Montessori method dates back to the early 1900s and is still to this day, in my eyes, rather controversial. Dr. Montessori's ideas of behavior management seem similar to what Megan's team is trying to accomplish. She did not believe in rewards or consequences. She compared giving children rewards and consequences to what jockeys do to increase the speed of their horses.
"The jockey offers a piece of sugar to his horse before jumping into the saddle, the coachman beats his horse that he may respond to the signs given by the reins; and, yet, neither of these runs so superbly as the free horse of the plains."
This discussion with Megan also reminded me of another part of the Montessori Method in which Dr. Montessori calls the school bench an "instrument of slavery".
Apparently, back in the early 1900s, scientists were busy created the most ergonomically perfect school bench. Dr. Montessori believed rather passionately that we were designed to stand. (And if you reflect on this thought, you may reach the same conclusion.) She also believed rather passionately that the school bench was an instrument of slavery confining students to positions that were unnatural and not conducive to student growth and development.
Now, I am not going to sit here and say that modern day school chairs are instruments of slavery. But what I will say is that it would do our students good if we got them up and moving around a little bit more. Our natural state of learning is in movement. Our brains are designed to move and think simultaneously.
Megan and I agreed: Our students definitely need to learn HOW to sit. But we should never assume they MUST be sitting to learn.
