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Another great piece by @_samantha_joy . She appropriately cites @mbateman 's talk on "Normalization."
When I post on the extraordinary self-direction of children who have been raised appropriately, I often receive extreme skepticism. But Montessori created a way of understanding the child, along with a system of education, within which it becomes normal for children to be self-directed. Millions of homeschoolers have discovered something similar, and @actonacademy and @AlphaSchoolATX are deploying their own version of such an approach.
Montessori was VERY clear that it is not simply a matter of letting the child doing whatever they want. It is a matter of creating a curated environment, including a human environment, that supports the child's self development. Many schools and homes do not do this, such that top down control becomes seemingly necessary.
I look forward to a time, perhaps decades from now, in which people look at the top down control model that dominated the past century as a terrible statist mistake with vast unrecognized costs with respect to human potential.
Samantha Watkins@_samantha_joy
If you think of Montessori and imagine aesthetic playrooms, wooden toys, and free children, you're not alone. But Montessori would argue this all misses the point. Her most important contribution is not a new pedagogy, but a new and higher standard for childhood wellbeing.
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