Frustration!
So rather than comment on a Maria Montessori quote this week, I thought I'd vent. I am so tired of listening to people who have "new and improved" ideas on education....only to find that they are the same ideas Maria Montessori had one hundred years ago. I recently attended a webinar on 21st Century Learning. The focus of the webinar was this "new" theory that students should experience more via cross curriculum projects, to learn the practical applications of what they are actually learning. Focus should be placed more on curriculum that is relevant, and pressing students into a higher level of thinking is key. Well....that's what a Montessori classroom does beginning at age three!!! Yet no one ever goes back to the old educators to give them credit. These "new" methods are presented as some enlightening idea that has just been discovered. I'm not saying that every classroom should be a Montessori classroom - even I have issues with the model at the elementary level- but no one acknowledges that Maria Montessori recognized years ago that this is the type of learning that should be happening in all of our classrooms. Cross curriculum projects are the norm in a Montessori classroom. Practical application is always considered. Every day, I think about what I want my kids to learn from certain activities, and if I can't find any worthy skill or lesson from a certain activity - I won't present it to the kids. Many times the children will make discoveries, and take the work to a new level of learning. All of the work designed for Montessori classrooms begin with very concrete ideas, and move to the abstract. I could go on all night about this, and I fear I am rambling, but it is just frustrating to me that educators never recognize Montessori - many regard Montessori schools as "cult" schools, or schools where kids can do whatever they want. NOT SO!!!! Come visit my class any time, and you'll see 21st Century Learning happening today!

If you want a glimpse of some awesome Montessori materials check this video out. Click on the Trinomial Cube demonstration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2VHQAy1oAo (1:38 into the video.) Remember having to proof this equation in math? If someone had showed me this material then, I would have understood it completely! Of course, when showing this material to a preschool child, we would never introduct the equation - manipulating the material simply helps to set a foundation for the future. But can you imagine a group of high school freshmen, and what they could do with this????