| @ NAMTA
The Montessori
Parent Commitment |
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WHAT IS NAMTA?
The North American Montessori
Teachers… |
| THE MONTESSORI
PARENT COMMITMENT
Of Roots and Wings
by David Kahn… |
| OF ROOTS AND WINGS
by David Kahn
A philosophical outlook on the parent's role in Montessm-i, educa-
tion, this article… |
| If we go back to the womb, we see the infant almost entirely human
by six months. The baby can hear the mother's heart… |
| Mother and infant communicate love through the interplay of the senses
through taste, touch, smell, sight, sound, through the… |
| hold you in the office it made me sad for the first time. I stopped
thinking how happy you made us and felt for you having had… |
| breast and look to the world out there. Montessori describes this so
well. She calls it "an irresistible urge which… |
| table in the deliberate and human way in which the child shows some-
thing to us. When we show something to a child, we are… |
| Total concentration is a dual process. There is the concentration of
the child; lips pursed, back curved, eyes unrelentingly… |
| children's learning better if they are generalists learning about the
nitrogen cycle, or the change of the seasons, or… |
| just intellectual ones. For example, the social relations of the school
are like little prairie fires flaring up and dying… |
| the house are handled by paid staff. The cleaning lady does the interi-
or; a handyman may do the outside-responsible demands… |
| love, patience, and individual bonding with the children needed to be
there because the adolescent was in a sense… |
| these are values of the home reinforced in the school setting. Inciden-
tally, the Curriculum for Caring was conceived and… |
| PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN A
MONTESSORI PROGRAM:
THE DENVER
PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
by Ana Maria Villegas and Paula Biwer
The… |
| Biwer
Parent Night at Mitchell Montessori School
14 |
| Review of the Literature
There are different opinions as to what constitutes parent involve-
ment in education. Gordon,… |
| issues. Comer (1984) showed that this involvement reduces parents'
misunderstanding about and distrust of school programs… |
| instructional activities that will help children develop the learning-to-
learn skills and behaviors associated with school… |
| Parent Night at Mitchell School.
18 |
| Classroom Observations
Parents were invited to spend an hour observing in their child's
classroom during the Fall… |
| School Information Night
This meeting was a review of the accomplishments of the Montessori
p1·ogram during the first year… |
| Ethnic Group
Total
Black Hispanic Anglo Asian (n=175)
Activity
(n=41)
(n=47)
(n=84) (n=3)
Montessori and
traditional… |
| stability to the school and continuity of instruction for many of its
students.
Table 3
Attrition in the Denver Montessori… |
| Summary and Conclusion
During its first year of implementation, the Montessori program in
the Denver Public Schools made… |
| Comer, J. Home-School Relationships as They Affect the Academic Success of Children. Educn/io11
a11d U1·bnn Society, 16, 1984… |
| ELEMENTARY MONTESSORI AND
PARENT EDUCATION
by John McNamara
Mr. McNamara's poignant description of children and parents… |
| their parent's characteristics. For better or worse, children walk, talk
and even complain the way their parents do. I… |
| retw·ned to school to see me about what happened. As we were talk-
ing, trying to discover the problem (I had no idea what it… |
| Maria Montessori observed many times that a family's children are
often not treated as well as their guests. Yet our… |
| I want students to be able to answer the question-What is a Mon-
tessori school?-and to be very much conscious of what we are… |
| What about a new student? I can use the following comment from a
new sixth grade girl.
To me a Montessori school is a very… |
| I strongly urge Montessori directors and directresses to collect com-
ments by their students on Montessori education. I began… |
| final point. It is the passages that characterize the Montessori Method.
If we say the passages are not the important thing we… |
| Maria Montessori l'ecognized that the only valid impulse to learning
is the self-motivation of the child. Children move… |
| 34 |
| THE ROOTS OF DISCIPLINE
by Lili E. Peller
Ms. Peller begins with a Montessori definition of discipline, and
then shows a… |
| The very young child has no inner guide for his behavior. That we
are all born without a conscience is as true for the futw·e… |
| dislike for the adults close to him are wrong, and thus he suffers from
a deep sense of guilt. Thjs feeling will be his… |
| they fail to see is that this overleniency leaves the children with noth-
ing to go by. Weak parental control, as well as too… |
| young age most children show a desire to be useful. They love to help.
The child who has mastered walking enough to be able to… |
| many parents display in thinking that they finally have succeeded in
teaching their children the meaning of duty and… |
| ready. With the same reasoning we could say that an infant should live
on beefsteak, as this is the kind of fare he'll… |
| The little child is driven by his primitive desires, on one hand, and by
his wish to win our affection and to become grown up… |
| A GUIDE TO PARENT OBSERVATION
IN THE PRIMARY CLASS
by Judy Shepps Battle
Ms. Battle's insight into the parent's… |
| If yow· own child cries or clings or is silly or ignores you completely
do not be surprised-we are not. Children respond… |
| Audio Perspective
Listen to the noise level as it rises and falls and try to see which
groups or individual children are… |
| Sociability
Watch the ways in which the children offer asistance to one
another-with the materials and with everyday tasks-… |
| are not disappointed in yourself or in us when you find that all aspects
of the classroom have either not been present during… |
| CHECKLIST FOR CLASSROOM
OBSERVATION
Visual Perspective
Have you remembered to alternate between a wide-angle view of
the… |
| Sociability
Where are the pockets of sociabiljty in the classroom? Have you
remembered to look at the snack table? Are the… |
| NATURE, MOTHER AND TEACHER:
HER NORMS
by Herbert Ratner, M.D.
Herbert Ratner is a physician, and like Montessori he derives… |
| Because of his mind, nature, to man, is a readable book. When he
reads it well, it helps him to understand nature and his… |
| Nature and Religion
Further, it must be seen that the natural order is the foundation
upon which the supernatural builds.… |
| where the physician's intervention makes a critical difference since the
nature of nature is that she can only work for… |
| and laboratories and extraordina1·y amounts of money-research activ-
ity that has no foreseeable encl. Moreover, our so-called… |
| A 1956 Nobel Laureate in internal medicine, Professor Dickinson W.
Richards says it well:
... there is increasing evidence… |
| by producing dysfunction in the very delicately interrelated hormonal
system of the body that The Pill accomplishes its task.… |
| To best illustrate the centrality of nature, not only for the physician,
but for the ethicist and theologian as well, the rest… |
| The norm, then, in exact usage, refers to the correspondence of acts
or functions to the design or nature of a thing. Ships… |
| affective cognition (both of which lead to coupling), and despite classi-
fication as a continuous-contact species, is the… |
| supplements-2=11' The pul'pose of discussing breastfeeding at length is to
illustl'ate the pel'manency of… |
| Holmes' timeless truth only refers to breast milk, not breastfeeding.
But nature's mechanisms, for the most part,… |
| The most peneti-ating statement of this universal driving force found
in all living things is that of Aristotle, the father of… |
| species of birds. The family is the microcosm that readies children for
the macrocosm of society. It is the cradle that rears… |
| specialists. And in their differences lie the roots of their cooperation. In
their cooperation lie the roots of our… |
| It was their premise that the institution of marriage was changing, and
with good 1·eason.
Jn the "old closed… |
| That deity, of course, is none other than Mother Nature, whose
domain, the universe, is intended for the happiness of its… |
| syndrome may take months, even years, to develop), and, until symp-
toms are present, one can never be certain whethel'… |
| with whom they can identify. In the small family, there is frequently an
absence of a sibling of the opposite sex to grow up… |
| in things, and impose different relationships upon them, even those
which do violence to nature, by contradicting the ends and… |
| 'Aquinas, T. $1<1111110 Theologica. Thinl Part (Suppl.) Q. 4!l, a.:{. Reprinted in Ci,il<l a11d Frrmily.
16… |
| c) S11111u 2, Chap. :J. Cunents and Countel' Curl'ents in Medical Sdencc. Rep1·intecl in Cltild mul
F11111i/!f. 1:~:… |
| Reprinted as The Duty Of Nu,·sin,g Chilch-en in Child (Ill(/ Fa111i/y Reprint Booklet, The Nm":<ing
Mother:… |
| WHEN THE KIDS FIGHT
HOW TO INTERVENE HELPFULLY
By Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish have written… |
| The woman who had opened our session was not satisfied with my
summary. "I'm not talking about a little… |
| weeks befol"e I found out what was happening. They finally admitted to
me that they were banging on the wall between… |
| BROTHER: No you can't. Give it back!
SISTER: Yes I can. It's mine!
BROTHER: I had it first!
SISTER:
BROTHER:… |
| UNHELPFUL RESPONSES TO KIDS
WHO ARE FIGHTING.
Si-o~ \-\-~ou. -\-1..uO_ I S-top
·1-\--\-n\ $ rn\ nu tt.. /
Sho.m~ Cl&… |
| UNHELPFUL RESPONSES TO KIDS
WHO ARE FIGHTING.
Wh'j c.on·t ~ou bo+n sna("'e. ?'
You'\\ see.,… |
| 4. Express faith in their ability to work out a mutually agreeable
solution.
5. Leave the room.
Here again, using the same… |
| KIDS WORKING IT OUT.
I don·+ \0<:lnt an'j ~Ip .
Can \ 'Ke~p
~ z.e'oco. ?
You·~ a \>e.s… |
| When our exercise was over, I asked the "children" to tell me more
about their reactions to my intervention… |
| THE PURE WONDER OF YOUNG LIVES
By Carol Dittberner
Carol Dittberner utilizes her wealth of personal understanding as
parent… |
| many advances in child care and eal'ly childhood education aimed at the
preschool child, and even infants, in order to… |
| wonder is sometimes filled with exclamation, but it is as often silent.
Children are led into contemplation of what is before… |
| Children are observed spontaneously praying to the Good Shepherd.
A child suffering from leukemia told me, "He helps… |
| Ii is difficult to leach children about God by only using words. God is
abslracL, but Christ is concrete. And what is around… |
| questions and the answel's in the scl'iµtul'e. We can re:;pond that "One
time Jesus said 'I am… |
| We begin the elementary years with a time line of creation, which is
also introduced in a visual way with a ribbon fifty… |
| "Found Sheep," which is not scolded by the Good Shepherd but car-
ried happily on his shoulders. With great… |
| pray every day for weeks, and then for some time they will say noth-
ing. They should not be forced to speak. But our actions… |
| A TIME TO READ
By Peggy Kahn
All children have to start at the beginning, exploring first what they
can reach out and touch… |
| Bequest of Wings, passing on a part of themselves to the next genera-
tion, while they themselves are enriched and renewed by… |
| sudden seriousness when those in thrall to the Wicked Witch of the
West are freed from bondage. While in The Final Alice, a… |
| \ 1111,.1n < ,,
I
,I."
( uanc~
People around our world wear different clothes-
or none at all.
Peter… |
| A SELECTION OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS
FOR MONTESSORIANS
By Charlene S. Trochta
Twenty-Five Favorites: Some New, Some Old… |