Water

“We must be taught and we must be willing to accept guidance if we wish to become effective teachers.”
-Maria Montessori

Water is formed by the bond of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. This simple bond is needed for survival by every living thing on Earth. The human body is 66% water. 75% of the Earth’s surface is water. 75% of the human brain is water. 75% of a living tree is water. Water regulates the Earth’s temperature. It also regulates the temperature of the human body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, and removes wastes. A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
Just as the bond of water is key for our survival, so is the bond of our fellow Montessori teachers, and the parents of our students, key for our success as teachers.

“No school is perfect. No combination of imperfect humans muddling along their own uncharted routes will be without missteps. It is easier, sometimes, to focus on the faults of our colleagues than to pull the planks from our own eyes. We feel better about our mistakes by first acknowledging the seemingly larger ones around us. Who notices the chipped paint when the house is falling down?

How does it help though? We critique each other. We point fingers and pick each other apart. We complain to our administration or openly criticize each other. Do we find ourselves better heard for the hostility? Do we improve each other’s practice by first tearing it down? Hardly. We know better than to ridicule the children, yet we feel totally empowered to mock each other. How would you respond to a child who surprised you with this behavior? Would you jump first to conclusions, assume you understood his motivation or intent? Or would you ask gently, ”Tell me more about that?” Would you sit beside him, observe him, try to understand his behavior, which may seem so misguided to you, helps the child? Likewise, we can choose to gather together with our colleagues, to learn with and from them, and in turn to make them open to the support we might be able to offer.

When a single classroom is in crisis, so is the school. As members of a community, our obligation is not fulfilled when we have met the needs of the children within our own classrooms. Chaos spreads. When a cancer is in the body, the healthy organ cannot ignore the illness. But like the survivor who can value life because she has faced death, the learning community that brings itself through crisis so values the calm of collaboration and interreliance. It is when a classroom is in crisis that the support of the community is so dearly needed. We refortify by assuming that even those teachers with whom we disagree believe that they, too, are serving children well. We refortify by suspending disbelief, working with, instead of against the other adults in our communities. Ineffective teachers, even damaging ones, are loved by the children in their care. If for no other reason that the model it offers to the children who love us, we need first to seek the redeeming and redemptive qualities in each other. We chose between buildings bridges or throwing stones.”
(Pg. 35-36 “The Tao of Montessori”)

Earth

“Education demands, then, only this: the utilization of the Inner powers of the child for his own Instruction."
-Maria Montessori


Earth. It Is home to 6 billion people, from different cultures, religions, and perspectives. Each of these 6 billion people make choices everyday that Impact others. Like ripples in a pond, our choices have consequences. What Is the moral compass that guides our students In the choices they make? What Is the moral compass that guides us as their teachers?

There is a scene In the movie, "Family Man" starring Nicolas Cage, where he Is In a convenience store. The cashier, played by Don Cheadle, Is a reoccurring figure whose role Is to test the character of others. The scene opens with a teenage girl giving the cashier $1 for a $.99 Diet Coke. The cashier pretends the dollar Is actually a $10 bill, and gives her $9.01 In change. There Is a pause as the girl Is contemplating what just happened. The cashier looks at her and says, "Is everything all right?" She hesitates again, weighing her options. It Is a moment that defines who she Is. You can see her wrestling with what Is right, and what she wants to do. She looks at the cashier, smiles, and replies, "Yep!" She then walks out of the store. The cashier turns to Nicolas Cage and says, "You see that? Character! And for what, for nine bucks? I mean, that's just so disappointing."

Character Is one of the only things that we have that no one can take away from us. It Is In the end, the final definition of who we are. The only way to lose It, to compromise It, Is to give It away ourselves. The girl from the movie scene sold her character for $9. What do we sell our character for as teachers? What do we watch our students sell their character for?

In the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, the best, most successful companies had employees who, “…their moral code requires building excellence for its own sake, and you’re no more likely to change that with a compensation package than you’re likely to affect whether they breathe. The good-to-great companies understood a simple truth: The right people will do the right things and deliver the best results they’re capable of, regardless of the incentive system.” (pg. 50).



There can be so many perceived purposes behind a life changing moment, various reasons, motivations fueling the direction you choose. Often, after that moment has passed, the reasons can be stripped down, or combined together and summarized by one word or phrase. I guess that is why they say hindsight is 20/20.

Character.

Although we lived in Nashville for three years, a city where everyone is an expert at least in their own minds, I never developed a music critic's ear. On key or off key, overly produced, or too simple. A song could have the cheesiest lyrics, or an overused formula, and it wouldn't matter to me, as long as it connected. My favorite songs, the ones I enjoy listening to over and over, somehow relate to my story, they connect with my soul. I might not always know exactly why or how, but they put words or a rhythm to something that maybe I didn't know how to communicate.

Viva la Vida from Coldplay's new album by the same name, has been spinning constantly this summer. I love it and I haven't exaclty been sure why. Until this morning.

There are moments when a book I am reading, a song I am listening to, a movie I am watching or a conversation with a friend, or something my daughters or wife will do or say, come together to reveal a truth or unlock a little mystery. Those moments are magical and I experienced one this morning. I have been reading "Uprising" by Erwin McManus. It is a book about what our personal character should be as Jesus followers. I've read it before and picked it up again this summer, as I've been interested in teaching the value of character to my students. Of course I could plan out a whole curriculum on good character, which would mean very little without it being modeled for them by their teacher. This morning's chapter was on humility. I came across this:

"Certainly a great deal of the conflict that exists in churches is a result of individuals being moved to prominence for reasons irrelevant to character. Instead of raising up leaders, churches hire by resume. We prostitute ourselves in the name of Christ. Isn't that exactly what we are doing when we receive payment for our skills regardless of our character?"

Now Viva La Vida...

I used to rule the world,
seas would rise when I gave the word.
Now in the morning I sleep alone.
Sweep the streets that I used to own.
One minute I held the key.
Next the walls were closed on me.
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand.

The seas never actually rose when I gave the word, but in my mind they did. The excerpt from Uprising was me, and Chris Martin is singing my story. Pride and humility. I was seeking promotion and power in the ministry, prostituting myself in the name of Christ. It didn't satisfy, and we left it all behind. My first job after moving to Nashville was washing dishes. I used to scrape half eaten breakfast burritos off of plates into a trashcan filled with other once edible remains. I used to wipe down tables and clean up other people's trash. And I made some amazing friends. No one liked me because of my prominence. I had none. And I wasn't stepping on others to climb a ladder. There was no ladder to climb. All pretensions were gone. It was just me, and my scraper, hot soapy water, and the amazing people who liked me anyway.

Erwin McManus goes on to say this:

"Humility's closest attribute is honesty. Humility doesn't require us to be self-deprecating. Humility is not about having a low self-image or poor self-esteem. Humility is about self awareness."

Wrinkly skin on my hands and salsa and coffee stains on my shirts left me with a new humility and started me on my way to becoming more self-aware, more able to be honest with myself about my motivations, my talents, my shortcomings, my character.

"For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter will call my name.
Never an honest word
but that was when I ruled the world."

In “Her Life and Work” E.M. Standing refers to the multi-age groupings, especially in the 9-12 cluster, as extremely important to the development of this moral compass, a key element of this sensitive period of development. “This organization of youth should take the form then of a “moral unions of boys or girls who have consented to form part of a society which has a moral aim, and which requires its members to live up to a certain moral level,” (pg. 357).

The Montessori Philosophy helps develop the moral compass of the student through it’s unique perspective on obedience and discipline, respect for order, and something called “going out.”

In her book, “From Childhood to Adolescence”, Maria Montessori defines going out not as field trips, but as “the goal sought is not an immediate one, not the hike, but rather to make the spiritual being which is being educated capable of finding his way by himself,” (pg. 13). She goes on to say, “In teaching him the necessity of preparation, we oblige him to reflect. He understands that to go out consists of an activity that requires first the acquisition of information and materials, (pg. 12). “The outing whose aim is neither purely that of personal hygiene nor that of a practical order, but which makes an experience live, will make the child conscious of realities. It is up to the teacher to arrange that the moral teachings of life emerge from social experiences. Morals have at the same time a practical side, which governs social relations, and a spiritual side, which presides over the awakening of conscience in the individual,” (pg. 13).


Character isn’t just the moral choices we make as teachers, or the moral compass we are helping our students to develop. It is also the unique talents of the students, their strengths, their special abilities that we are able to observe being developed in them right before our eyes. It is as if, in our very midst, we have the humbling opportunity to guide tomorrow’s super heroes in the development of their superpowers, and help them understand how to use those superpowers for good instead of evil. This places even more emphasis on the character that we model for our students. The future of the world depends upon it.