This text was published on my personal Facebook page a few days ago. It had more repercussions than I imagined it would have and brought more reflection than I thought it would. I share it here now so that we can discuss the idea and its consequences, and we can use the space in the comments to keep the dialogue open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is always impossible to separate our interpretations of Montessori from what Montessori said. We never read what she said, we read what we can understand, what makes sense to us, and therefore we read by interpreting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not wrong, it is not a flaw and it is not a crime. But it leads to three important consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, we need to say what we think Montessori is. If we are Montessori teachers, researchers or administrators, we need to be with other Montessorians and say what we think Montessori is. What we think freedom is. What we think material is. We need to SPEAK because when we speak, we will see the other person’s reaction, and then we will know if everyone shares our interpretation or if\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026only those who live with us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026only those who listen to us a lot\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026only those who work for us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026only our students\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026only those who graduated from the same course as us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
share our opinion. In this case, it is worth thinking. Your interpretation may be different from someone else’s and be right. But it is important for you to know about other interpretations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, it is essential to reread Montessori. We can read books by other authors, handouts, manuals, blogs, watch videos and follow pages. But it is essential to reread Montessori. Read and reread. Not because it is the universal truth, but because rereading Montessori in the light of new experiences shows us angles that we did not see in Montessori and angles that we did not see in the child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third, it is important to listen. It is important to read other interpretations, listen to other interpretations, watch other interpretations. The fact that someone thinks, says or does Montessori differently than you does not mean that it is worse \u2013 mind you, it MAY BE, but it is not necessarily. It may be, and often IS, that by listening to other interpretations you will change yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Association Montessori Internationale has just officially recognized, at a meeting in the United States, that rigid interpretations maintained for a long time were leading Montessori to decline, irrelevance and disappearance. And they are going to reinterpret it now. If AMI, which has a history of seriousness and intellectual rigidity, is doing this, we can all do it. More. We all have a duty to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This text was published on my personal Facebook page a few days ago. It had more repercussions than I imagined it would have and brought more reflection than I thought it would. I share it here now so that we can discuss the idea and its consequences, and we can use the space in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cemsp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cemsp.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}