4yo counting by 7s to 7^3, marking each 7^2 interval as she goes This is quite time consuming, so she picked up this morning when I dropped her off where she left it yesterday afternoon when we picked her up

1yo and 4yo doing Montessori things

I don’t think schools should teach this, exactly, but they should teach something adjacent to this that makes you aware that this is an important type of civilizational literacy, an awareness that the vast majority of people don’t know they don’t know

Montessori’s influence on the world is in some ways quite small and specific, and in other ways so utterly victorious that it is invisible by virtue of being taken for granted.

“We must not think that the material of education will always consist of pieces of wood. As the mind grows we need to multiply the forms infinitely, til little by little the stimuli take on the shape of the ordinary means of human culture.” Montessori

“…our marvelous civilization lacks today…the feeling that human life is triumphant over the cosmos: humankind should feel itself king of all that has been created, transformer of the earth, builder of a new nature, collaborator in the universal work of creation.” Montessori

A child “would rather dress himself than be dressed, even magnificently. He prefers washing himself to the pleasant feeling of being clean. He would rather build a house than own one. He is thus disposed because he must first form his own life before he can enjoy it.” Montessori

“Discipline is…attained indirectly, that is, by developing activity in spontaneous work. Everyone must learn how to control himself and how to engage in calm and silent activity, for no other purpose than that of keeping alive that inner flame on which life depends.” Montessori

Montessori is what it looks like when you approach education 1. holistically, viz. with intent to developmentally support a great many facets of life 2. with an strong, explicit set of moral values, used to rank and order these facets 3. as an engineering problem

Montessori's formal reading curriculum starts around 2.5yo. There are NO: > rote drills or workbooks > guessing games or 'sight words' But by ~5yo, children read, write, and study grammar at ~3rd grade level and they *love* every minute of learning. Here's HOW:

“…little by little civilization closes the social world to the child. Everything is overregulated, too narrow, too encumbered, too fast. Not only is the quick rhythm of the busy adult an obstacle to him, but the machine comes along…

4. Matt Bateman Matt Bateman is the co-founder and philosopher-in-residence at Guidepost Montessori Montessori. He writes about Montessori and education philosophy (plus shares endlessly wonderful anecdotes about his own two small kids, who you may come to know even better than Matt).

“To be contented with the imaginary, and to live as if what we imagine actually existed; to run after illusion, and ‘not to recognise’ reality, is a thing so common that scarcely is it apprehended.” Montessori

“Things are the first and best teachers.” Montessori

8. Matt Bateman Matt Bateman is the co-founder and philosopher-in-residence at Guidepost Montessori Montessori. He writes about Montessori and education philosophy (plus shares endlessly wonderful anecdotes about his own two small kids, who you may come to know even better than Matt).

“How then could it ever have come to pass that work, which should represent the supreme satisfaction, the center of health and regeneration, as it does for the child, should be rejected by the adult man?” Montessori

“If the child were one day to exclaim: ‘But it is you who prevent me from developing will and character; when I seem naughty, it is because I am trying to save myself; how can I help being awkward when I am sacrificed?’…

4yo doing Montessori flower arranging. She’s already trimmed the flowers; here you can see her fill a pitcher, fill the vase, put the flowers in the vase, mist them, place a doily, place the vase, roll up her apron, and dry/clean everything. Sped up segment of a 15 min process.

8. Matt Bateman Matt Bateman is the co-founder and philosopher-in-residence at Guidepost Montessori Montessori. He writes about Montessori and education philosophy (plus shares endlessly wonderful anecdotes about his own two small kids, who you may come to know even better than Matt).

“Ever so many moralists continually say that our error today lies in wanting to base everything on man’s reason, and as many others are convinced that progress cannot be based solely on man’s reason and its dictatorial claims to rule our entire lives. But each side is quite