Challenging our "Monte-Assumptions" with Jonathan Wolff

Which of these have you heard before?

• “My teacher trainer told me to do X when I did my Montessori diploma, and that’s how I’ve been doing it ever since”

• “I presented this lesson the same way for 15 years and it’s “worked” every time”

• “If a child is not becoming adapted to my environment, it must be that they’re not a good fit for it.”

I would wager a guess that any Montessori guide, and perhaps most educators, have said, thought, or heard these, and many more, over the course of their careers. Yet these phrases, of “Monte-assumptions” as my guest Jon Wolff calls them, are things we must be diligent to look out for.

Montessori called upon educators to study “until death,” meaning that we must always be looking to better understand human development and how to support it. In order to do this, we must make sure we don’t go on “autopilot” in our practice. We must continue to challenge ever our most basic “Monte-assumptions.”

In this provocative episode, Jon and I dig into some of the worst offenders of “Monte-assumptions” and how we can reframe our own practice to truly live Montessori’s ideal of enacting the scientific pedagogy.

Thanks, Jon, for an incredible conversation!

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Breaking the Paradigm is a division of Developing Education, which is on a mission to transform education globally to foster human development and flourishing for all people.

First Intention: Curriculum and pedagogy support for Montessori adolescent practitioners, specifically with math and language across the prepared environment.

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