One of the most beloved verses in all of scripture appears in Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans: "We know all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."
This little snatch of counsel from the great Apostle has been on my mind as I have walked around in this corner of the vineyard we call Renaissance Montessori School and watched the students get settled into our very first full five day week of school. Last week I wrote how all we experience is forming us; that everything is pedagogical. In the classroom, there are things that are planned and things that are unplanned. Some of these surprises are heartwarming and photogenic. Many of the stories shared in this space certainly fit in that category. There is even a monthly feature in Montessori Life magazine with charming anecdotes such as these. Some of them, I think, might even be true. There is another type of surprise, though, the unpleasant sort. Sometimes it is something as morally neutral as the weather. Sometimes a teacher or student makes a mistake requiring an apology. As you can imagine, I have some interesting stories about this kind of situation in my memory. One thing we pledge, however, is to be as discreet as possible when it comes to discipline and your child. This could mean walking out of earshot of others or waiting for an opportune moment to speak. It means not using your child's name while meeting with another student's parents. We are not here to shame. We are here to turn mistakes big and large into decisive events of personal growth.
One surprise from this week was that our beloved bearded dragon, Lady, has a mouth infection that led to a small abscess on her scaly lower lip. After some research at my house and some help from some friendly bearded dragon enthusiasts on the internet, I learned about the proper medicine. My wife purchased some, diluted it to the proper concentration, and prepared a mason jar with some scary warning messages on it, lest anyone think it was water. This year we have found it helpful to assign a single student to be the point person for each species of animal in our classroom. A fourth year is in charge of our guinea pigs, though the hardest part of her job is to corral the 6 and 7 year olds who think Catherine and Joan are the two most adorable animals they have ever seen and are more than willing to give them more attention than any rodent needs or wants. The care of our recovering lizard is entrusted to one of our fifth years, who was initiated into this role last spring, when she learned at the elbow of one of our 6th years. She already knew the basics: drop one live worm into the calcium powder, and put it in the cage for Lady to catch it. Give her a bath every now and then. Wash her cage frequently. She has a great love for this funny little lizard and was ready to pitch in when she learned what was going on. Twice a day, she has been dipping a Q-tip into the medicine and spreading it on Lady's lips. The lizard now also gets a cockroach to hunt. It seems that the worms and dried food she has been eating have not given her teeth the right kind of workout. The hard exoskeleton of these dubia cockroaches is just the thing for her. (You will be interested to know that the rising popularity of this roach among reptile enthusiasts is incredibly well thought out. They are unable to reproduce in a cool, dry place like Virginia, and so are not the escape risk of crickets or other roach species.) Lady is already looking a lot better. She also loves hunting the cockroaches we feed her. I am happiest, though, about our 5th year. She is doing important work in collaboration with supervising adults and seeing the results. I wonder if she has thought of how similar this is to the work her mother does in the medical field. Much will happen this year that will be foundational, and much she will forget. I bet, though, that she will long remember a small crowd of young students gathered behind her and watching her intently dip her tool into a jar marked "DANGER" and with gentleness and care lightly touch the cotton tip onto the lips of a small animal.
My other example of good coming out of bad is a more everyday occurrence in the classroom. On Monday, two first year students went into some work with the golden beads at a bit of a low ebb. The golden beads are a math work which is used both in our primary classrooms and by our younger elementary students. On this day, neither was excited by the work. It was late in a long school day. It was Monday. It wasn't the students' choice, to do math, to use this material, or even work together! (It is simply untrue that students do whatever they want in a Montessori classroom. Sometimes for one reason or another, the guide in the classroom may know what a child needs before they know.) It took them a little while to get started with the four addition problems I gave them. They wanted help from a friend who they imagine is a math whiz. I shooed him away with a smile and an encouraging remark and settled down about 15 feet away to see how they did. What am I watching when I watch something like this? I am watching how they cooperate. I watch who does the work and who is content to let others do the work. I watch their focus: where their eyes rest when they are thinking. I listen to what they say. Some students softly sing to themselves when they work on their math. In the end, none of the four problems was exactly right. So much went well, however. Each problem was very close--often off by only one digit. It was great data. That 15 minutes of work gave me all I need to be a better guide to them as they continue practicing their addition. I also saw that their morale rose as they worked. This fact excites me even now as I type this. Few of us relish the idea of settling down into hard work, but how many of us feel so much better while we concentrate on our task and can truly earn the satisfaction of a difficulty surmounted. The children are like this too. Just like us, they often want to stick with the familiar and the easy. They sometimes need to be pushed into the struggle of deep work. This is why it is so important for you to cultivate the virtue of obedience to valid authority in your children. Like giving a lizard medicine, the effect is not instant when we practice math. Our enthusiasm for the task waxes and wanes. Obedience allows children to be more docile when we guide them into activities which are for their future good. Next week I will focus on the vital but oft ignored role repetition plays in our pedagogy. For now, though, let us rest in the knowledge that while mishaps and errors will occur, they are the grist that we at RMS can grind into pure bread. In elementary, this is exactly what "following the child" often looks like.
