I am so excited to announce that Developing Education has a brand new website! You’ll be able to see all of our offerings where we take the ideas in this podcast and bring them to life. Go check it out at www.developingeducation.org - we can’t wait to see you there!
There’s a single part of a teacher or leaders practice that (in my opinion) makes or breaks whether they will succeed in creating truly transformational experiences for their students.
It’s not their credentials, years of experience, or where they went to school.
It’s their ability to be a reflective practitioner- to do their spiritual preparation.
In Montessori settings, spiritual preparation doesn’t refer to adhering to religious beliefs; rather, it is an invitation to look inward, reflect on who we are in relation to our students, and consider how we might continue to change ourselves to best serve the needs of our students.
Without continuously engaging in our spiritual preparation, we fail to see the students in front of us, and we fail to understand how our behavior impacts them. I’ve seen guides with graduate degrees and AMI credentials that were ineffective because of their lack of spiritual preparation, and guides at the start of their careers be incredibly effective simply by constantly engaging in spiritual preparation and reflection.
Over the past few years, I’ve given workshops on spiritual preparation at conferences at schools, and each time I hear the same comment: “This is the thing we most need - and also the thing that gets pushed to the side first.”
This mini-episode is the “first period” of the most recent iteration of one of my workshops on spiritual preparation. It’s evolved as I’ve evolved- indeed, my own spiritual preparation is still ongoing.
I hope that, if you are at the start of your school year, that this is your sign to focus on your spiritual preparation this year. In a time of chaos and contradiction, we need it more than ever.
And if you want to bring this workshop to your school, reply to this email or fill out the Custom PD form on our website!
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The conventional education system had its chance.
Now it’s our turn.
