MONTESSORI HITS THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS ...
Prince George's first day at school
Most of you will have probably seen Montessori mentioned in the news last month. Prince George’s first day a local Norfolk Montessori school was at the beginning of the term and this milestone was covered by the international press.
It is great that awareness is brought to Montessori and any coverage is very helpful in sparking interest in the Montessori method and hopefully bringing Montessori to a wider audience.
But Montessori was in the news for another reason recently, and this was perhaps slightly over shadowed by the future King of England’s first day toddling off to nursery - and that was a very public endorsement from Sir Ken Robinson.
Sir Ken Robinson’s public endorsement
Sir Ken Robinson is the British education expert and author, whose 2006 TED Talk ‘Do schools kill creativity?”, is the most watched in TED’s history with over 27 million views. Sir Ken gave the keynote speech at EDShift 2016 in Texas a few weeks ago. This conference aims to come up with better ways to make education more engaging. When asked if he knew what good teaching looks like, this was his reply, “I think so … we know what solutions look like … there are good schools everywhere that are achieving great results … If you want just one example, the Montessori system, which has been around for what – a hundred years? – was evolved in a context of kids not doing well at school, often working class kids who are disaffected, disenfranchised.” Sir Ken has always been a great supporter of Montessori but an endorsement like this to such a wide audience is very inspiring. It also reminds people of the origins of the Montessori teaching. One of the many common misconceptions is that Montessori schools are for gifted or privileged children. This could not be further from the truth . Maria Montessori started off working with children with special needs as a doctor. When she established her first school, it was for the disadvantaged children of working parents in Rome and she approached their education as a scientist, observing the children and finding ways to help them achieve their full potential. At Casa Montessori we welcome a diverse range of children and treat them all individually.
That is perhaps why Sir Ken is a big fan of Montessori education in an era where all too often success is assessment based. We need to go back to basics and start with a holistic approach that aims to develop the whole child at an early age. With these strong foundations, anything is possible! At Casa Montessori, each child has an individual learning plan and is able to complete tasks at their own pace.
Montessori is on Ryan Gosling’s radar
Finally, we cannot omit to mention that Montessori was also mentioned in January by none other than actor Ryan Gosling. Whilst presenting an award at the Golden Globes with Brad Pitt, and realising he was not presenting an award but just clips from a film he grumbled, “Is this like a Montessori-type thing, everyone gets a trophy, no one's feelings are hurt?” So although Mr Gosling got the ethos of Montessori completing wrong, it was still nice to get the acknowledgement. And we have let his agent know that should he wish to attend one of our future Casa Montessori workshops, he is more than welcome.
Remember we are here to answer any Montessori related questions, just get in touch