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1969. That year feels like a touchstone in my life. The Moon landing. The Beatles broke up. Simon and Garfunkel sang about troubled waters. Riots over school integration filled the evening news. Vietnam War protests. The draft lottery. Murdered movie stars. And more—much more. From my 13-year-old perspective, the world seemed to be in total […]
Each morning my email inbox overflows with offers promising that AI technology will propel me to new heights. How to become a better writer. A better parent. A better businessperson. And on and on. The message is almost always the same: faster, cheaper, better. Yet the intensity of this discourse pulls me in another direction. […]
It seems like such a simple safety tip to learn. In today’s world, where parents are constantly worried about their children’s safety, one important precaution seems to have been pushed aside. What is it? Having a three-year-old memorize important information in case they become lost and separated from their family. A few years ago, my […]
As I look at what my grandchildren, now 7 and 4, are learning from their life—home, school, and experiences in their larger community—a whisper that nagged me as a parent echoes, “Are they learning what is important?” Parents today are trying to prepare children not just to succeed, but to navigate a complex, fast-changing world—and that tension […]
As I’ve come to a different stage of my life–as a grandparent–and I observe my grandchildren and their peers, I’ve seen the skills of practical life as key to living a happy life. These articles came out of my realization, too, that among my peers–fellow grandparents–the ones that were the healthiest and happiest practiced practical […]
What should our children learn? Over the past posts I’ve tried to show that children need to learn, as a life-long foundation, the practical life skills that include care of the self, care of the environment, care of others, and care of community. The skills of practical life offer the child a way to build […]
Over the past few posts, we’ve been looking at the foundational lessons of practical life skills that are offered in a Montessori classroom for three-to-six-year-olds, but in reality these lessons should be offered in all classrooms and homes. The practical life skills of caring for oneself, caring for one’s environment, caring for others and caring […]
As we consider the different areas of practical life exercises, we might see that care of others follows a natural expansion from the child’s activities in care for the self and care of the environment. Before we can truly take care of others, we need to know how to take care of ourselves, and at […]
One of the many universal learning and teaching principles used in Montessori education is the idea of the prepared environment. Created and maintained by the adults in that space, a prepared environment consists of four components: people, tools and objects, ideas and nature. What does a prepared environment look like? Let’s start with an example […]
The importance of letter writing? In my life, letter writing may be the thing that made the difference. In 1971, for more than a year, and almost 200 letters, I corresponded with a young man I met briefly in Germany. What did we write about? Mainly, we wrote about the books we were reading and […]
