I’ve been a Montessori Guide for years. I started right out of University in 2005 and worked pretty steadily in classrooms until I had my first daughter in 2011. Even then I was back in schools administrating and supporting teachers with her strapped to my chest. I love my work, and I love watching my daughter grow and develop as we tried our best to follow her and support her at home. My second daughter was born in 2014 and it was with her birth that a spark of urgency started to grow inside of me.
Every year I work with a new set of families and children. I speak to many other teachers, guides and early education workers. I run workshops for parents and grandparents and caregivers. All the time there is a clear message from them and from me - we can do better. It is an odd time in raising children - we are torn by wanting our children to be absolutely safe and successful but don’t know how to get them there. As adults, we are terrified of our children having to suffer, we see struggle as evil. We subvert our children’s capacity in order to do for them, so that they don’t have to put out effort. But… it is the very act of effort that will lead them to be successful, in struggling, a person learns to succeed.
And so the urgency inside me grows.
If we change the way we interact with the youngest of our humanity - the babies, the toddlers and preschoolers and treat them as capable, important members of our society we will change the way we are as a humanity. By respecting our smallest members and by making them matter by encouraging their place, their work, then they will grow with confidence, understanding how to function in relationships with others.
We have to change now, we have to raise our children up, help them develop resiliency, grit, develop their capabilities, understand consent, understand boundaries and limits, become secure and successful adults.
I invite you to journey with me. I’ll share my experience, observations, and opinions on child-rearing grounded in my years of working with the youngest children. I’ll answer your questions and hear your stories, share in your triumphs and commiserate when it is hard. Together we will change the way we support our children and change humanity.
I’m so glad you’re here, because we’ve got work to do.