Insight into the unique and exacting methods and materials unlocking your child’s innate yearning for autonomy and knowledge.
Why don’t we permit our staff to carry cell phones? Occasionally, a parent will ask us if their child’s teacher can receive or send a text or phone call during the day. It’s important to understand why, with very few exceptions, we don’t permit this. Keen observation of minute details about children’s grasp of the concepts imbedded in classroom materials is absolutely central to a Montessori guide’s training and role. Even the way in which children handle those materials as well as interact with one another, including on the playground, are subject to her focus at all times. It is these heightened powers of observation that enable her to guide your child’s ongoing development, not only cognitively but socially and physically as well. Grace and courtesy, visual motor coordination, fine motor coordination, care for the classroom environment, attention to order and organization, care for self and countless other behavioral details combine with the arithmetic, language and sensorial capabilities being nurtured to inform the teacher’s insight into your child’s progress. As we all know, cell phones present an ongoing, indeed relentless distraction in our lives. Even the most disciplined among us is constantly tempted to check an incoming text, email, alert, etc. The seconds that might consume are seconds not allocated to the observation, care and safety of the children…seconds that might have been critically revealing had she not been otherwise distracted. Our staff are entitled to use their cell phones only in the teacher’s lounge during coffee and lunch breaks. We hope this provides insight into why our policies limit their use in this way.