This was our first ever live stream with Breaking the Paradigm, and Kelly and I tackled a question that keeps coming up in our work:
What are we really afraid adolescents will do when left unsupervised?
The answers people give, ranging from mischief to far more absurd fears, reveal something deeper about how we view adolescents: That there is a fundamental mistrust that erodes our ability to truly see them for who they are.
Kelly and I dug into why we feel the need to surveil adolescents constantly, even in prepared Montessori environments where we claim to trust development.
Here’s what we explored:
When we create environments of control and compliance, we get exactly what we’re afraid of: adolescents who will act outside of the tight boundaries we try to draw. But when we prepare environments rooted in trust and autonomy, adolescents rise to meet our highest expectations and demonstrate meaningful, positive, and engaged citizenship. The question isn’t what they’ll do, it’s what our need to watch them reveals about our own inner preparation and reflection.
We also talked about the impossibility of power struggles (spoiler: you (the adult) always lose) and what it actually means to be the prepared adult in relationship with adolescents.
This episode launches our new Montessori Adolescent Collaborative (MAC) Forum!
Bi-Weekly Dialogues for Practitioners and Leaders.
MAC Forum Purpose:
Realizing Montessori’s vision of a new world starting with how we, as adolescent practitioners, transform through dialogue and community.
Why join the MAC Forum?
Build community: Connect with fellow adolescent guides from around the world.
Co-create the forum: Your questions, observations, and experiments shape the discussion.
Access the archive: Can’t make it live? All sessions recorded and available.
Forums are held virtually every second Tuesday at 7:00pm EST in March
Join Today and Find Your Community!
