The Meaning of Achievement and What It's Worth

Another article I recently read reminded me once again of one of the details of Montessori I may have never succeeded without. The idea that EVERY advancement of ANY kind was celebrated as a breakthrough.

Everyone keeps preaching about making school be more like the adult world. Adults have good days and bad days, why should schools be any different? We shouldn't coddle kids from the occasional bad day, but neither should we expose them to harsh judgement and doom them to a constant stream of bad days.

Montessori allowed the students, outright encouraged them, to willingly help each other out. Here you saw the kiddy version of forming work associations, here you saw little colleagues willingly grouping up to complete these little projects, and whole little groups doing these little projects to form little corporations, with little staffs.

While maybe a little idealized, the essential for future work in the business office was all provided there. And for that kid who was struggling with a particular skill, most of the day was already devoted to work time. It was during those times that the teacher could take aside 'special interest' students and help them with whatever they were struggling on. 

The people who will benefit most from education are the students. It is one of the responsibilities of the teacher to make school interesting and fun. Those are the types of teachers we need.