Transcript
Speaker: Hey there, Nick here from the Human Restoration Project podcast. This summer, HRP is reading Pedagogies of Collapse, A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as We Know It by Genie Servant Miklos, and we're inviting you to join us.
Speaker: visit humanrestorationproject.org slash book dash club to sign up for our summer book club, where we'll meet to discuss the ideas and implications of pedagogies of collapse and be joined by the author for a Q&A on July 31st.
Speaker: I'll include a link to the book in the show notes, which is available on open access through the publisher. Hope to see you there.
Speaker: Spring Break has officially sprung for so many schools across the country. Whether you're a teacher, a parent, a student, or any combination of the three, we hope you have a well-deserved and restful break.
Speaker: We'll be taking a break this week, too, and be back on April 18th with a deep dive into Montessori education with an incredible team of Montessori educators. Andrew Falstich, Dr. Aize Sabater, and Kelly Janellis.
Speaker: Here's a quick preview, and we'll see you back here in two weeks for the full episode.
Speaker: to underscore the piece that it's based in human development. It's not based on what we think development is, it's based on what we know development is. you know And I think that sometimes we, when when you look at how conventional education is structured, you see a linear path of growth. In first grade, you learn this, in second grade, you learn this, in third grade, you learn this. That's not how development happens.
Speaker: And so when we base it on human development, that like that's where the power, I think of it is, we call it a scientific pedagogy because at its best, it's not about the materials.
Speaker: Sometimes people think, well, Montessori is about the pink tower or the you know the rods or whatever. And yes, those materials are important. But, you know, we could erase all of those materials tomorrow and the core of the scientific pedagogy would be the same. And we'd still be able to have developmentally appropriate environments because everything we're doing, we're basing off of our observation and our experimentation with young people and based on what we know and understand of their developmental needs. And I think that's Like that that to me is the point where, you know, I think that there's a lot, and I've said this, I think that there's a lot that, you know Montessori and progressive education can learn from each other. I think that's Montessori's core fundamental insight
Speaker: you know, one of the mantras within Montessori is follow the child. And you are allowing the child to be in the driver's seat of their learning process. And so you allow the child to follow the things that interest them. And so thereby, you don't have to twist their arm for them to learn 5.4, you know, that you don't have to twist their arm to say, well,
Speaker: Now this is you know March and we should be covering algebra. And so you have to study chapters two or three. No, the child is interested in the thing. So again, my son, seven years old, was interested in Greco-Roman culture and he's soaking up as much Greco-Roman culture as he, you know, so the teacher didn't have to force him to. He was the one saying, well, give me more and walking around with 400 page books of Greco-Roman culture.
Speaker: I would say that in a Montessori system, we are actively teaching young people how to be kind and contributing members of society, of a community. Every every age group, every mixed age class in a Montessori system is its own mini society. And students receive lessons in grace and courtesy, in how to interact with each other.
Speaker: And it it comes down to here's here's a little bit more Montessori vocabulary for you, but the idea of independence and interdependence and that a person needs to know their own merits, they're they're what what they are capable of as an independent individual. in order to then see how they as an individual contribute to an interdependent whole, and realize that as a group of people, we all rely on each other, which is true of society at large.
