Secret Society

Friday mornings have changed. The last few Friday's I've started the weekend off by spending time with other parents and the DGM director talking about a variety of topics. It's starting to feel like being part of a really cool club. And the club IS really cool. I just found out the names of some interesting Alumni. The founders of Google and Wikipedia, Julia Child and to my big surprise Sean "Puffy" Combs. Maybe the lack of television means I get my information slower but I don't recall ever hearing about this fantastic news...Montessorian's fare tremendously well in the real world. Maybe it's because they belong to this well kept secret society.

I can remember hearing at different times that kids who attend Montessori school have a hard time if they leave that environment and go to traditional schools. I guess that means we (my husband and I) will have to do whatever we can to keep our children out of a traditional school. There's no going back now, and good for us. The thing is, life is very Montessori. We are all multidimensional individuals contributing to the multideminsions of our environments. Why shouldn't we be trained in that way and encouraged to be good at it. You might have a Montessori style if you

- work to the best of your ability
- take pride in your own achievements
- demonstrate self motivation
- put things back after you are done with them
- work well with others
- handle transitions well
- understand the meaning of community

How long did it take you to master these things? I know I'm still working on some of them but my 3 year old will have them mastered by the time he's in lower elementary. If people knew the true beauty of educating the entire person who wouldn't want to get their child in fast. When I say the entire child I don't mean Reading and Math. No. I mean an 8 page report card that let's the parent know about social development, self control, grace and courtesy, care of environment, self and others and more...and that's the secret.

Well the secret is out, just click on the title to check out the Wall Street Journal Blog and find out more. It's fascinating that these dynamic, trendsetting personalities mentioned above have their educational roots in Montessori. I'm thinking about what they have done and the following each of them inspired. They all have in common, the ability to create and re create. Puffy was so into recreating that he changed his nickname back to his original nickname after changing it to several other names that he tried on for a while before deciding he was fine with where he started. That's awesome...don't be afraid to try something on; If it doesn't fit or you don't like it you can always leave with what you came in wearing. It's also called the Thank you bite-I don't mind trying it because I know it's not for me I can forgo an further experience with it and still be comfortable and confident that I made the right choice, for me.

Salaam,
Joronda