QUOTE - Montessori
My Question is about how and how much the teacher "steers the ship" of the curriculum in different approaches/schools. I think I really get the many positive benefits of setting up an environment where children use real tools and have real jobs, and I want to teach in a place where that is encouraged. I'm not really phased by the idea of showing children how to use hammers or other things like that, and I value an integrated approach in school where children look at real-life situations, projects or problems. But I'm much less confident of my own ability as a teacher to approach "how to multiply fractions" or progress through reading skills without anyone falling through the cracks. I'm kind of puzzled around the intersection of my interest in emergent curriculum and child-led learning and my belief that a guiding structure for learning basic skills and processes is important too. For me the most interesting new Understanding is around equity; I remember knowing that Maria Montessori worked with children in poverty but I didn't really make the connection between "equity" (equal access to learning) and progressive/constructivist methods until this past week in math class, when we talked about allowing kids different ways to approach or access learning is very much linked to equity. My Observation around this is that it seems especially ironic, then, that title 1 schools seem to have to use more traditional methods, and higher SES neighborhoods tend to have more options for alternative/progressive schools, even within PPS. The Treasure I want to remember from this week is the image of the children weaving and building things from the movie about "Why these kids love school." I just love how engaged and happy the children were; they seemed to have ownership of their learning--they didn't have that look of kids who are being herded through school like recalcitrant sheep. I would like the kids I work with to have that feeling of being respected and trusted to learn. An Easy application for me will be to work with my own children, and later my students, to have responsibility for their tools and environment in a more organized way because it will benefit them (with my own kids this might make grad school a teeny bit easier on me too).