Montessori 101
Parenting with Intention by Cindy Acker
“One love, one heart. Let’s get together and feel all right.”
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o you recall that Bob Marley song? When I visit my daughter ( Jenn) and son-inlaw (Patrick), it is typical that I hear some version of reggae or Bob Marley playing before I go home (even perhaps in his chiropractic office). It is with intention that they move in life, down to the music they listen to. Pat even renamed his chiropractic office in Seattle to reflect being intentional in life—it is called Conscious Chiropractic. I often tell myself that I want to grow up to be like Jenn and Pat, being so intentional about everything that I do. I have found myself of late, borrowing the words from Bob Marley’s song, when the information on the news or on The Rachel Maddow Show is just more than the heart needs to bear: “One love, one heart … Let’s get together and feel all right.” Montessori education is respected in research for its strength in the sciences, including social sciences and mathematics. Montessori is a science-based method of responding to the developmental and educational needs, challenges, and abilities of children. Compatible with brain-based, multi-sensory teaching, Montessori education maintains more focus on critical thinking and mastery of skills, and less focus on test-outcome teaching. And it is a method of education in which the arts and sciences are not diametrically opposed. There
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The miraculous thing is that Montessori education combines this science-based educational methodology with—of all things, peace education. One would think they have no connection. However, if one can be so creative as to design solutions to complex math and science problems, one can create solutions to environmental challenges, disease, and war. TOMORROW'S CHILD © § MARCH 2021 § WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG
