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Getting Out of the Way: Reflections on Student Engagement and Proactive Discipline Compass Montessori School Staff Development Days August 15, 2015
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Getting Out of the Way: Reflections on Student Engagement
and Proactive Discipline
Compass Montessori SchoolStaff Development Days
August 15, 2015
The focus was on the atmosphere, the prepared environment, the assembled community of learners, and teachers relating in real and deep and meaningful ways with their students.
Framing the Work
Framing the Work: Semantics
discipline
1. from the early 13c. meaning "penitential
chastisement, punishment";
2. from Old French descepline (11c.) meaning "discipline,
physical punishment; teaching; suffering; martyrdom";
3. from the Latin disciplina meaning "instruction given,
teaching, learning, knowledge".
(Source: www.etymoline.com)
The Art of Discipline
The art of discipline is to mold others in your image:
who you are, and (most importantly) what you do.
Who and how you are helps to define what kind of people your students will become.
Who has the greatest opportunity for consistent messaging
about what it means to be fully human?
We do.
Looking Inward
When we are presented with behavior that flies in the face of our desires
and/expectations we need to look inward first.
Most of the time it's about how we have prepared ourselves and the environment
to meet the child’s needs
that is the root of the child's actions.
We need to be: flexible, spontaneous, dynamic, humble,
specific, direct, and purposeful in our work with children.
• What is it about certain behavior that really pushes your buttons?
• What's your “shark music”?
• How will you convey that music to your assistant(s) and colleagues?
• Do you give a little more, loosen the reigns a bit and wait?
• Do you pull in tight?
• Which action allows for sustained and transformative changes in behavior?
If there is an issue, ask yourself:
- What are you not providing the child?
- What is it about your choices and decisions that have led to this point?
- Are you fueling and fanning the flames?
We must be present to the struggles within us as we make these decisions around our interactions with children.
It is this mindfulness that will allow for
partnerships over punishments.
Happy? OR Bittersweet?
Proud? OR Remorseful?
Content? OR Embarrassed?
Sometimes we lose our focus and prime directive:
To be stewards of the spirit
in the children who gather around us.
● In what ways can you represent where you are
coming from?
● In what ways can you represent where you are
going, that which you wish to become?
Breaking Old Habits & Developing New Ones:
Seeing the Child Anew
It is through Montessori pedagogy and practice that we meet the children
in their heart spaces.
As servants and stewards, we worship the child not the curricula; children first then
content, hearts first then minds.
Discipline is more often
about letting go and giving in.
• What do you wish for that relationship?
• How would it feel?
• In five, ten, fifteen years… What memories would you like to have made of the experience?
It’s not about us. It’s about being ready for them.
Preparation of the Guide
• Say Yes More
• Anticipate the Struggle
• Be Uncomfortable
• Take Risks
• “Sit on Your Hands”
• Choose Carefully When, Where and Why You Intervene
• Let. It. Go.
• Broaden Your Definition of “Work”
• Start Seeing “False Fatigue”
• Give it Time
• Soften
• Rethink Consequences
Discipline reframed as peace education allows for the chance to teach and experience new ways of being in the world – both for the child and the guide.
When we do this,
we walk together
towards a brighter future.
Resources on Discipline
1. “On Discipline – Reflections and Advice” by Maria Montessori
http://www.montessori-ami.org/articles1/article01.htm
2. “The Montessori Approach to Discipline” by Mary Conroy and Kitty Williams Bravo http://www.
montessori.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=230:the-montessori-
approach-to-discipline&catid=27:articles-on-parenting-the-montessori-way&Itemid=42
3. “Freedom and Discipline” by Marcie Hogan
http://mariamontessori.com/mm/?p=2050
4. “Liberty and Discipline in the Montessori Classroom”
http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/Liberty-Discipline_ep_48-1.html
5. “Freedom and Responsibility: A Life in Balance” by Seth D. Webb
http://radicalmontessori.blogspot.com/2011/11/freedom-with-responsibility-life-in.html
