My Day As A Montessori Student

“It was the Olmecs! The Mayans were incorrectly credited for this!” In my first classroom observation since joining the staff at Post Oak, this was a conversation I found myself part of between two Upper Elementary students. 

I couldn’t tell you the full context, all I knew was they were having an impassioned (yet respectful) debate about the origin of chocolate—which, as I learned, the Olmecs apparently called the “divine drink.” I recall doing research like this when I was their age. What I don’t recall, however, is having such confidence and maturity so as to communicate with care as effectively as these fourth and fifth graders.

This, I believe, will continue to be a pleasant surprise for me during my tenure at Post Oak.

Maria Montessori believed young learners are naturally eager to learn and develop in a prepared environment—one that supports their curiosity, independence, and intrinsic motivations. And, in this way, each young learner is respected as an individual. I see this in the hallways of both of our campuses. I also see this in the four walls of my own home, as our toddler boy is a proud YCC student at Post Oak. (I say proud because, every morning on our commute from home to school, he gleefully shouts the names of his teachers and friends from the backseat.)

My observational journey continued to a Lower Elementary class where I experienced even younger learners doing math. (Hard math!) Language skills. (Complicated language skills!) Music. (Wonderfully played and tempered music!) And within all that I saw what I see from my own son: happiness—and agency.

Another notable thing I saw was students being fully collaborative in a most mature way. One was tasked with ensuring each of her student peers had a chance to eat their snack. From the other corner of the room I heard another student, firmly but kindly, “Here is a warning, you are encroaching on my personal space.” Throughout all this, the teacher and assistant played the masterful role of guides, not “indoctrinaires.” Behind them, in bold letters, “This classroom is better with you in it.” You could tell the students felt that in their bones.

Maria Montessori said, “Children do not learn by listening to words, but by active experiences in the environment.”

For those who’ve been in and around Post Oak for some time, there will be no shock as you read that line. You see it in your own child/ren every day, as I do with my own. And as a parent of an emerging young human, I want nothing more than for him to be ready for the world—whatever version of it he commences into after his time at Post Oak.

And in this world, where hard skills used to last the entirety of a career, now they expire in fewer than six years. By virtue of what I saw in only this one day of observations, Post Oak students will be ready, willing, and able. 

These will be adults who put their shopping carts back at H-E-B. And those are the kinds of adults with whom I want to be in the community.