Thoughts on Attention

Pause beside a busy playground on a sunny afternoon and listen.   “Look at me!” children shout as they run and swing, climb, slide, and hang from monkey bars.  For kids, knowing someone is watching is affirming, motivating, and restorative.  Observation is the foundation of Maria Montessori’s educational method, an essential habit of good teachers and parents. 

Why Wait?

Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.–Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child Anna Many years ago I had a student who was an unintentional and most unlikely source of great inspiration.  Where Anna is now, I couldn’t say.  I suppose she is in the midst of

Montessori’s Second Period

No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.  It could not be otherwise for she is impelled to know that the seeds of value sown in her have been winnowed.  She never outgrows the burden of love, and to the end she carries the weight of hope

Building a Pond

A few summers ago, we built a pond. Our sons were then 16 and 12, and our daughter was 10. They grew up in Montessori classrooms that were beautiful, carefully prepared communities where they learned to concentrate, read, collaborate, and master difficult tasks. Their teachers instilled a deep reverence for the natural world. They were

There is Always Time

Our neighbor Joe used to visit several times a week. Joe was eight years old, polite and respectful, happy, bright-eyed, a popular kid in our neighborhood.  When he stepped onto our front porch, he was usually looking for someone to play with.  Sometimes, his mother sent him to fetch his sister. Joe knew how to

Screen Time and Childhood

Years ago the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement addressing children’s screen time that created a media hubbub.  The statement was weak and ineffective. The ruckus was in grand disproportion to the Academy’s ho-hum recommendation that parents “avoid television for children under the age of two years”  (Brown 2011).  It generated no positive