The School of the Future

May 19, 2020 Jesse McCarthy

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JESSE MCCARTHY | MONTESSORIEDUCATION.COM

When schools finally reopen, which one will you be sending your child to?

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TRANSCRIPT

Hi everyone,

There’s a public debate going on right now among politicians about when to reopen traditional schools, but what I find a little troubling is there’s not much personal questioning, by parents, about if they should even be sending their children back to those schools at all?

I mean, I no doubt understand the desire — even the need — of parents to get their children out of the house again. But why just knee-jerkingly send them back to the classrooms they were in pre-Covid?

I want to share something related, a few words by Anne Sullivan, the radical teacher of Helen Keller. She said: “He is compelled to defy his teachers in order to save his soul.”

Miss Sullivan was speaking of the traditional school child, so that means still today a huge percentage of children in the world, most definitely in America. And she is saying that for these children to actually flourish, to enjoy this good life, they have to rebel.

That is a pretty damning statement about school. And I take it pretty seriously, especially because it comes from the individual who helped a young Helen Keller — literally deaf and blind — transform into one of the brightest minds of the last century!

That is an insane accomplishment, for Helen and for her teacher Miss Sullivan — and I’ll tell you, both of these women believed there is something very wrong with traditional school, and they weren’t the type to be quiet about their views.

So with their outspokenness as a model, I want to ask parents out there a question that they might not have asked if all this Corona craziness hadn’t occurred. And that is: ‘Are there possibly better options out there in education for your child?’ Or put simply and a bit more personally, for you to ask yourself if you’re a mom or dad: ‘Should I be sending my child back to the same school he (or she) was in before the closures?’

I think this is both an exciting question for parents, and a potentially terrifying one for them. Exciting because you might do some research and realize that, ‘Wow, my child could be learning, and growing, so much more than I ever imagined before! This is awesome!’ But it also could be terrifying because, depending on how long your child has been in traditional school, you might look back and be like, ‘Oh my god, my son (or daughter) has missed out on soooo much learning, so much growth! And I can’t get that back!’

But my goal here is not to scare you.

Parents don’t need any more stress in their lives right now. So instead of being doomsday scenario here, I hope what I’m going to share today is motivating, in that it gets even just a few moms and dads to imagine what’s possible outside your average traditional, bubble-testing school box — and to also maybe take a small step toward researching those possibilities.

Now to give you a sense of what’s out there, the following are few more words by Miss Sullivan. They come form a speech she gave at a world fair, which, not incidentally, the educator Dr. Maria Montessori was also attending. Ok, here we go:

I could wish that this were a silent meeting. The inspiration and purpose that have brought you here are above the triviality of words. In honoring Helen Keller and her teacher you declare your faith that in every child born into the world there are latent capacities for the development of an individual that shall be an honor to the human race, to attest your belief that every teacher worthy of that exalted name is able and willing to share in building the school of the future — the school of freedom. This vast assemblage bears eloquent testimony to the profound interest men and women everywhere are taking in the education of the child — the most vital problem of our day. This great Exposition that has brought together the finest works of all the nations of the earth has set aside this day, not to honor any individual, but to celebrate an achievement in education. Here is no dazzling personage, no startling circumstance. A young woman, deaf and blind from infancy, has, through the kind of education that is the right of every child, won her way out of darkness and silence, has found speech and brought a message of cheer to the world. Men and women have listened and rejoiced, have learned to love the brave woman. They love her partly for her sweetness and courage, for the lesson she has taught. What she has accomplished without sight or hearing suggests the reserve forces that lie dormant [or sleeping] in every human being. A wonderful revolution is awakening the minds of men to new visions. A force stronger than tradition is driving us to new points of view. … Mankind is learning to know itself. … A vast number of thinking men and women are awake to the conviction that there is something wrong with an education that obviously does not educate. Helen Keller is the living example of the new education. She is perhaps the first pupil of the School of the Future. As Dr. Montessori has said in her preface to ‘The Montessori Method’: “If only one of the senses sufficed to make of Helen Keller a woman of exceptional culture and a writer, who better than she proves the potency of this method of education? If Helen Keller attained through exquisite natural gifts to an elevated conception of the world, who better than she proves that in the inmost self of man lies the spirit ready to reveal itself?"

Now Miss Sullivan continues, in her own words:

When I went to Helen Keller twenty-eight years ago, and saw her standing in the door of her home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, with her hands reaching out like an-ten-ee, I sensed within the imprisoning walls of flesh a child's eager mind. A nightingale was shut up in that little heart, one could almost feel its wings beating against the bars of deafness and blindness. If I had not known that the mind — the nightingale — was there waiting to be released, my task would indeed have been, humanly speaking, impossible. But in the light of that knowledge, that certainty, the first step was possible and easy. The insurmountable obstacle may be the easiest way in disguise; for in this case it prevented me from using paralyzing methods of the schools. My own education, even in the accepted sense of the word, had been very limited. At the age of fourteen I entered the Institution for the Blind in Massachusetts. My sight was deficient from childhood. I could not attend the public schools for this reason. The system creates in the child’s mind the concept that high grades are more important than knowledge, and he goes from school and college into his life-work believing always that the score is more important than the game, that success is more important than achievement. Every normal child begins as an eager, active little creature, always doing something, always trying to get something he wants. Even before he can utter a word, he succeeds in making his desires known by means of cries, grimaces and kicks. As his wants increase his exertions increase also. He invents and devises ways and means to get the things he desires. He is the star performer in his little world. He is the horse, the coachman, the policemen, the robber, the chauffeur, and even the smell that follows the automobile. He will be anything that requires initiative, action. The one thing he does not voluntary choose to be is the grown up personage that sits in the car and does nothing. Our educational system spoils this fine enthusiasm. We impose the role of passenger upon the child, having no opportunities to exercise his inborn creative faculties. He becomes mischievous and difficult to manage. He is compelled to defy his teachers in order to save his soul. The school attempts to do everything for the child that he should do for himself. The alluring joy of creation is not for him. He is deluged with accomplished facts. We teach him things before he has any curiosity about them. We compel him to accept a ready-made world that he neither enjoys or understands. The game we expect him to play is all ours. He does not like it — why should he? We try to model our children after the pattern we have in our own minds. We read and talk a great deal of evolution, individuality, natural tendencies, but we seem unable to fit these ideas into our methods of education. We continue to impose our will upon the child, we deny him any right to a will and nature of his own.

The next part is where Miss Sullivan finds the goodness and promise in education, and it’s notable who she praises in relation to this:

To that wonderful woman, Dr. Maria Montessori, belongs the honor and everlasting gratitude of mankind for having systematized these ideas of education and recorded them in her book, a book that is at once a thrilling human document, a scientific text book, a prophecy and a torch unto all those whose work it is to teach little children. Dr. Montessori learned, as I learned, and as every teacher must learn, that only through freedom can individuals develop self-control, self-dependence, will power and initiative. There is no education except discipline; there is no effective discipline except self-discipline. All that parents and teachers can do for the child is to surround him with right conditions. He will do the rest, and the things he will do for himself are the only things that really count in education. I am convinced that restraint arises from ignorance. Every teacher worthy of the name obtains results through the spontaneous response of the child, whose desires and idiosyncrasies are given wise and sympathetic direction. The new education will permit the child to grow in the environment in which he lives. Real impressions and observations will take the place of book learning. If we get no further than this we shall have prepared the way for the child's deliverance. Our battle for the freedom of the child is a part of the age-long battle of mankind upward from serfdom to freedom. A battle that began in dim and dateless past and will continue as long as new hopes and new visions arise in human minds. I am aware that the freedom of the child can not be obtained without a hard struggle. But when we have seen the light we shall be encouraged in our task by the knowledge that brave men and women everywhere are struggling for human liberation from institutions, traditions and dogmas. The hope of the future lies in the right education of the child. He must be given a new outlook on life. We must awaken in his soul the will toward emancipation. Let us begin now and apply all that we know, and progressively all that we shall learn to awaken and develop in his soul the will to be free. In the school of the future the child must grow naturally and freely, according to his own tendencies. This is the lesson that Helen Keller's education has for the world.

So as Miss Sullivan repeatedly says, Helen Keller’s education was an education based in freedom, not tradition. And this education was in principle, as she also notes, a Montessori education.

Now I know Montessori scares some people off. It can sound loosey goosey, or maybe even hippie-ish. But freedom here, for Miss Sullivan and for Dr. Montessori, does not mean children just ‘doing whatever they want.’ For instance, if you’ve ever read about Helen Keller’s early development, you know how unruly and spoiled she was, and how Miss Sullivan had to use many restrictions at first with her, although caring ones, for she believed that obedience “is the gateway through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of the child.” So Miss Sullivan didn’t just give in to the random desires and whims of an undisciplined child. No, she used freedom within limits to help Helen develop real discipline. That is, self-discipline.

And the same kind of approach is true of Montessori education. Here is Dr. Montessori on the point: “When we speak in education of the freedom of the child, it is often forgotten that it is not the same thing as leaving the child to his or her own devices. Simply freeing children from restraint, so that they do what they like, does not mean giving them freedom. Freedom is always a great positive achievement; it is not easily attained. It is not gained simply by eliminating tyranny or breaking chains. Freedom has to be built; it has to be created both in the inner and outer world. This is our true task and the only help we can proffer to the child.”

Also, in response to the idea of letting children merely ‘run about and play,’ Dr. Montessori said, “That is the kind of freedom we give to cats and lizards.”

I’m highlighting this nuanced point about freedom because one of the biggest fear-factors I’ve found of parents around Montessori is that it’s too wishy washy; you know, finger-painting all day or something. That is just not the case, at lease not in great Montessori schools.

But all schools are not created equal.

And that’s why although I personally champion Montessori — The School of the Future, according to Miss Sullivan — I always advise parents to do your research into particular Montessori schools near you. Because all of them are not the same; Montessori, the name, was never trademarked, so for some, the only thing “Montessori” about them is the sign on their building; beyond that, they’re just a traditional school in disguise.

So finding a real Montessori program might not be easy. But that’s life. You have to drop the stale idea that your child’s school will be, you know, ’whatever one is closest to my home,’ or ‘the school the district assigned us.’ No. Screw that! Don’t let a few miles, or some bureaucrat, tell you where your child is going to school. Take a freakin’ stand. Use your own eyes and ears and and your own mind and go out there and do some research.

And if it’s money that’s an issue, know that many Montessori schools offer financial aid. And more, there are A LOT of good people with extra savings out there who are happy to invest in education; for if your children fail, ultimately we all fail. As an example of this kind of meaningful private charity, Jeff Bezos of Amazon is literally spending a billion dollars to build new schools in under-served communities. And I should note, he is making them “Montessori-inspired.” (If you’re not aware, Bezos was a Montessori child himself, as were also the founders of Google.)

So one message I’m trying to get out here is, if you’re a mom or dad with a child in traditional school, you just have no excuse not to at the least look into other options.

I’m usually not this tough on parents. I’m often actually focused on empathy. But something about the state of our culture today makes me want to be super blunt here. Traditional school sucks. It sucks the life out of children. As Miss Sullivan would say, it makes them defy their teachers in order to save their souls.

And that might sound like strange language to some, or maybe kind of an exaggeration. But it isn’t. Life is not just about physically living, doing as you’re told, like the other children in the seats next to your child, or maybe like the other workers in the cubicles next to you. It’s about constantly learning, and growing, as unique individual human beings — body, mind, and spirit.

I mean, what do you think happens to those children who don’t rebel, who don’t ask questions but instead just become good at answering them? You know, 'a Yes Boy’ is going to become a ‘Yes Man,’ and a ‘Yes Girl’ is going to become a ‘Yes Women’. They keep going out there as they get older, they’re technically alive in the world, but at what cost to their spirit, their joy? As Dr. Montessori put it, during the same international fair Miss Sullivan spoke at: “all know how to die, but few know how to live.” She sounds a little like William Wallace there, if you know him from the movie Braveheart.

So what I’m getting at here is, don’t just fall back on what your average neighbor is doing. Who wants to be average? who wants their child to be average??

And again, this is not about rich or poor. And it surely has nothing to do with politics. I’m talking about all traditional schooling, public and private. It all sucks. I have visited super-rich Liberal traditional private schools, as well as super-rich Conservative ones. And I’m talking $40,000-a-year rich. And I’m telling you, they all suck. These affluent parents are paying money to make their children less-prepared for the real world, less-capable human beings. Again, I know I’m being blunt here, but that is the truth.

Of course there are always standout teachers, or the stars. I know I had a couple in my traditional schooling. But clearly they are the exception, not the rule. And I know this from being a relatively traditional school teacher myself years ago: you’re fighting the system. So that’s not the norm. No disrespect to them. Keep at it. But, maybe it’s time to jump the heck out of that system?

So what I’m saying is, the future belongs not to that rare teacher in the system. But those that are getting out and doing something on a grander scale, on a systematic scale. And also the future doesn’t belong to the rich or to the poor, and not to Democrats or Republicans — it belongs to those who are challenging the norm, whether you live in a hut in Africa but are getting your child a Montessori education (which is actually happening in some countries there), or you live in a mansion in who knows where, Bel Air, maybe, and are doing the same. (For those who don’t know, one awesome thing about Montessori is that its benefit is universal, and this has been shown in practice around the world for over a century now, and it’s also starting to be proven in scholarly research studies, too, which is pretty cool.)

Ok, I think that’s enough of me here. I get the sense I’m starting to be preachy, and I definitely don’t want that, as it’s exactly the kind of thing I’m trying to guard against: you know, your child being lectured at all day.

So I will leave you with the only thing that matters to me right now in this context. Along with the sensible question every parent is asking about when schools are going to reopen, please, please ask yourself if, between now and then, you think it is possible to find a different and better school for your child? Maybe there isn’t one near you, I don’t know for sure. But if you haven’t done the research — if you haven’t looked into those possibilities — then you haven’t done your job as a parent.

Again, I’m rarely this blunt. But there is a lot riding on your decision. And it pains me to think that millions and millions and millions of parents are just going to send their children back into the same crappy education they were getting before Covid hit. I mean, let us, let us gain something positive and good out of this whole crazy situation we’re all facing together.

If you want a little help in the search, I’ll put some in the episode notes, I’ll link to a video, it’s a YouTube video called ‘What is Montessori?’ And that has some insights for parents who are unfamiliar with Montessori.

Well, that is it, that’s all I got. Take care everybody, and adiós for now.

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