Oh man, so much has happened. And I'm exhausted. Need sleep.
So here's the executive summary:
Drove cross country, Iowa through New Mexico to San Diego. Stopped in New Mexico and enjoyed the amazing presence of Amma, (the hugging, humanitarian saint) for a few days, and then in one long day made it all the way to La Jolla, San Diego, so I could sleep a little in preparation for class the next day, today.
The drive was fantastic. I had good audio books, and the scenery was beautiful. desolate flat desert, baking the car at 104 degrees. so very flat, the road going straight as far as the eye could see. Mesa country, red rocky mountains, beautiful feathery desert trees, a patch of sand dunes that was mesmerizing with a sparkling river bounded by concrete running through it, alongside the road. Bouldery mountains and a road threading it's way through them, like a ricochet tennis ball, blasting through the sides of mountains, out into the air for hundreds of feet, ridge to ridge. Watching the sun set and rise and set again as I wove through mountains. The plants turning more lush and numerous, still pale blue-green desert colors against the red rock.
And then finally landing, exhausted, head-achy, a little sick, and going to school today. slightly exhausted especially during the sleepy-time of 2-3pm (I"ve been reading a book about circadian cycles and such. so I know I should really be napping right around then, for about 15-20 minutes.)
How is school? It's just he first day, too soon to tell. The teachers seem to know there stuff and be passionate. I was at first off-put by the severity of the rules, but in actual practice it's much more reasonable. I feel like Montessori is like every other system ever, where, though it may be good, what gives it life, the blood in it's veins, are the people. Good teachers equal good teaching. And when the teacher isn't giving it their dedication, with love, it doesn't matter the brilliance of the system, they'll find a way to make it not work. But these teachers are good. My preliminary read, which may just be my bias speaking is: there are some excellent skills (like very careful objective observation) that I will learn, and a system that can be very conductive to intrinsic motivation for students and good learning, but it's not like this system is the only system in the world that works. That's no different than Christians saying their religion is the only right one. It smacks of... what's the word...dogmatism and hubris and ego. It creates infighting and bickering and putting each other down. Religions should realize they all have the same goal: Nearness to God, and they should join hands in that path, respecting the different roads each are taking to the same destination. Teachers should realize they have the same goal: the culturing of wise, successful, and kind people, and respect the different roads they are taking to get there. Obviously there are some things that just shouldn't be done, like removing recess or getting angry at kids. Just like there are certain things done in the name of religion, like murder, that shouldn't be done.
Montessori is a system that holds many values as intrinsically important, that I also hold intrinsically important. I strongly agree with pretty much everything I've read of Montessori's writings and speeches so far, and have lots of respect for her as an educator and an intellect and a doer. So going under the Montessori label will mean that anyone who signs up for it with me, is interested in the things I'm interested in, with children. Is expecting them.
But I feel like it's important to remain system agnostic. As soon as I have emotionally vested myself in a system, that's when I start justifying things that aren't necessarily true, or smack-talking other systems, or turning a blind eye to my own experience or strong scientific evidence. My God is Truth, as Gandhi said. That is my almighty. I will adhere to that, no matter what, and that is my touchstone, for whatever I choose to do. That is my love, my passion, my life-breath. Anything that goes against that is not something I want a part in. And some of the worst, most destructive untruth is self-deception.
There's a book I want to read called, "Mistakes were made, but not by me." about cognitive dissonance. Basically, we have stories we tell ourselves, and when the evidence that the world presents us goes against those stories, we tend to keep believing the stories, anyways. We are really good at that, at justifying our selfs, our beliefs, our actions, and sometimes really bad at accepting that deep-held beliefs we have are wrong. We must have this for some evolutionary purpose, but it sometimes gets us in trouble, and makes it difficult for us to accept some truths.
In any case, I haven't run into much of that yet, except the unexplained and to me inexplicable rule that we are not allowed to take audio recordings of the lectures. It's a rule of AMI, not the specific teachers, so they are forgiven, but AMI is not. I hate being given rules without explanation or flexibility. I think that's one of the reasons I always try to explain the true and real reason for rules to my students, when I enforce them, if they may not know. It's just respectful. You shouldn't do something just because I dictatorially say so, you should do it because it's the right thing and you know it. (unless you're too young to understand, then there is some benevolent dictatorship.)
In any case, everything seems very intelligently done so far, and I look forward to experiencing more of it. I'm curious how much of my own thoughts on teacher education that I brainstormed during my masters, they are implementing.
It's a huge class, so there are several shortcuts they are taking, less hands-on experience, less help from the teachers, by necessity, because we are nearly 150 strong, with all the different programs going on simultaneously. That is enormous for them. They are at capacity, with a waiting list.
In any case, we'll see how things go. I'm withholding any final judgment, but my guess is that it will be excellent, with a few issues and non-ideal things due to the size, a few things that are like vestigial tails, done because of tradition rather than efficacy, a symptom of having a system around for too long, but in general very high quality. I don't think it will rock my world down to it's foundations, as some rare things do, but it doesn't need to. It just needs to train me well. Hopefully I'm wrong and it's mind-blowing and life changing in a really good way.
OK, that's all for now. Sleeeeep.
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