Time for Revolution!
Can building resilient schools build a better future?
“It is time for a paradigm shift in education, on a par with the Copernican revolution.” Dr. Angeline Lillard
Earlier this year, Dr. Angeline Lillard declared, “The time is ripe for an education revolution.” In an article for Frontiers Developmental Psychology, she outlined our current social conditions and how this moment aligns with other paradigm shifts in human history. These conditions include the advent of AI technologies, fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, and renewed attention to social inequities in schools and society. Our current education system - which she calls the teacher-text-centered (TTC) model - does not adequately meet these conditions; it doesn’t comport with child psychology, fails to address culturally responsive pedagogy, and is unprepared to address new technologies like ChatGPT. Over decades we have tried to tinker with the TTC model, but the problem is the model itself and it is long overdue an overhaul.
Instead, she proposes an education system “aligned with child psychology and the contemporary imperative of social justice,” a system that has been proven at scale in US public schools - Montessori Education. Although it is mostly thought of as a private preschool model, there has been rapid growth in public Montessori over the last 20 years, extending across all the school years. For example, I have taught both 9-12 year olds at a public Montessori Magnet, and 12-15 year olds at a public Montessori Charter. There are now around 600 public Montessori schools in the US, over double the number there were in the 1990s. That is about 0.5% of all public schools in the US. The revolution has begun!
So how do we continue this growth and usher in a full-scale revolution? For educators who want to be part of this work, Dr. Lillard proposes 5 steps:
Increase alternative teacher training tracks in schools of education, see Hartford University.
Encourage state governments to automatically grant graduates from approved alternative teacher training courses a state teaching credential, see South Carolina.
Encourage states to allow alternative assessment models, see NCMPS playbook.
Create strong guidance and support networks for the implementation of the Montessori method in public schools, especially for school leaders, see Public Montessori in Action International.
Push districts to start converting one school at a time to the Montessori model!
One key takeaway I had from Lillard’s article is that if we want Montessori to be successful, we have to create schools that are sustainable and that can serve as models for this new educational paradigm. This is where Elizabeth Slade’s book Montessori in Action: Building Resilient Schools (2021) comes in. Lillard directly cites this book in her paper as a leading example of “excellent guidance on creating such schools.” Building Resilient Schools is a handbook for creating a Montessori school ecosystem that can thrive in the current public education environment. This is of particular interest to me as a Montessorian who has witnessed the various successes and shortcomings of several public Montessori schools. What if a handbook existed that meant that Montessorians weren’t always reinventing the wheel with each new public Montessori program?
Elizabeth has a history of deep involvement with public Montessori. She helped open the first public Montessori school in Massachusetts and has supported the growth of several other public Montessori schools across the US. She also worked for many years at the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (NCMPS) where she helped design and implement their Child Study program. She is now Executive Director of Public Montessori in Action International (PMAI), where she continues the work she describes in the book, helping establish sustainable, equitable, public Montessori schools.
“What slows us down, often to a halt, in public Montessori schools is the lack of cohesive shared structures that become known and easily used by everyone, fostering independence and a greater sense of agency for all. Instead, each school is innovating in its own way, with much reinvention of the wheel and some missing pieces, leaving them vulnerable to systemic disorder that may ultimately threaten the success of the program.” Elizabeth Slade.
This quote resonated with my own experience of both public and private Montessori schools. At my last school, it often felt like we were implementing public Montessori in a vacuum, constantly trying to solve problems as they emerged. Also, when I arrived at the school, it had been through a process of significant decline, a drift away from authentic implementation towards a more traditional model, succumbing to external pressures with an increased focus on tracking, testing, and “direct instruction.” Trying to right the ship was a painful process that led to a significant loss of staff and parents, and, six years later, the school is still trying to recover. This story is a common one in many Montessori public and private schools. Slade writes that the difficulty lies in implementing, “a model [that] at its core is about society by cohesion and personalization of work in a system designed for competition and conformity.”
Elizabeth’s book focuses on building resilient schools - schools that can withstand or recover from the difficult circumstances of operating in today’s educational environment. She calls her approach the Whole School Montessori Method: a design model that recognizes that schools as a whole are Prepared Environments that need to be intentionally structured for all the adults, children, and families under their care. Why is this necessary? Firstly, resilient schools retain staff, students, and families, and can therefore honor the 3 year cycle that underpins so much of the Montessori Method. They are stable communities that allow for consistency and cohesion. This then impacts the wider community, as functioning Montessori programs can influence social change in their districts. Slade writes, “We need a long track record of constancy in the midst of the regular sea of change in public education.”
So what are the elements of the Whole School Montessori Method? In true Elementary teacher fashion, Slade uses the model of the earth’s layers to structure this approach (See Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1
At the core, is constructivism: the guiding principle at the center of the Montessori Method, that children learn through creating meaning from their experience, through self-construction. “The child is the builder of the man,” said Dr. Montessori. The principles of constructivism are also explored in detail in Angeline Lillard’s article. Equity is the next core element, because how can we achieve peace education without placing equity at the center of everything we do? The third core element is coaching. Again, this leads back to Angeline Lillard’s article, that to create effective public Montessori systems, we need expert coaching and consultancy so that we are not constantly reinventing the wheel. These core elements, Slade writes, are “not just a way of thinking but also a way of acting.” They provide the groundwork for implementing the main components of the Whole School Montessori Method: One School, Honest Talk, and Strong Systems.
Over the next few months, as part of my current fellowship with PMAI, I am going to embark on a writing project, unpacking each of these core elements and components of the Whole School Montessori Method using Montessori in Action: Building Resilient Schools (2021) as a guide. Consider it a one-person book club. I recommend buying the book, especially if you are a public school leader or teacher looking for guidance, and then you can read along with me! Next time, I want to delve deep into constructivism, and why shifting our education system from an industrial, behaviorist to a constructivist model is the key to everything.
