I'm Going Back to the Start...

I was just guessin' at numbers and figures,
Pulling the puzzles apart.
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart.

Nobody said it was easy,
Oh it's such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be so hard.

I'm going back the start.

-The Scientist by Coldplay

I officially began my re-calibration process today with 6 other people in a Montessori Master's Program at Xavier University. I will spend the next two weeks taking a deeper look at the Montessori method and soak in the reminders of why this is such an amazing way to educate the future. I'd like to post daily, or every couple of days if I can, as a log of my experience, not only for myself, but for others who may read and want to consider this experience for themselves.

We started things off focusing on the transformation of the teacher. Whether we want to admit it or not, teachers teach who they are. If we are not healthy, or whole, or able to spiritually center ourselves, we will pass on our "stuff" to our students. Do we teach from a place of selfishness, exhaustion, co-dependency, irritation, frustration, insecurity? We pass these things on to our students. We teach who we are.

Maria Montessori said, "The first essential is that the teacher should go through an inner, spiritual preparation, cultivate certain aptitudes in the moral order. This is the most difficult part of training, but if it does not happen, all the rest is to no avail."

Montessori is not just a pedagogy. It is a way of being.