The Progressive Montessori School System

Southwest Montessori center is a new Montessori that recently started a year ago. There is a small student to teacher ratio. Although the school is small, it has some high expectations from their students. I was amazed at their first graders academics skills. I am grateful to have an opportunity to observe such intelligent students.

In Ray Bradbury’s fictional novel about the horrifying future, he discusses topics that, politically and socially, can relate to Judith Ortiz Cofer’s short story; The Paterson Public Library. These two pertain to each other because both Bradbury’s and Cofer’s characters are afraid of situations that involve books. Though they do compare in many ways, there are also differences between the stories.

Marilynne K. Roach is a resident of Watertown, Massachusetts. She went on to graduate with a BFA from MCA (Massachusetts College of Art) but she uniquely gives credit to the public library systems for the rest of her education. This is very interesting to me because she says that libraries are what she owes to her education to. Because of all the books she reads she later turns out to be a great book writer herself. The library system really did impact Marilynne’s life drastically. But besides illustrating other writers work in history she also has written and illustrated many books of her own, this including “Six Women of Salem”.

Sitting in a classroom filled with several maps of the world, vast spines of colorful books, and watching the clock hit the next hour, there is nothing more that a seven-year-old would rather do than be stuck sitting in a desk for eight hours of the day. Looking back to when I was young and learning about the history and background of the church, I was illiterate. According to Bud Heckman’s definition, “religious literacy is the understanding of the profound role that religions plays in human social, cultural, and political life in both contemporary and historical contexts” (2).  Learning about religion seemed

On October 28th, 2015, Lone Star College of Kingwood hosted an event called the human library. It was held on campus for students who were interested to participate. The human library was created for students to gain knowledge of obstacles individuals experienced in life, such as living in the south as a black woman in the 1950’s, being homeless, and being a religion that is frowned upon in society. The purpose of the event is to teach students about other cultures, social classes, and hardship. The speakers inform our generation their own personal experience rather than information in a text book.

My mom signed me up for the community library when I just turned 6 years old. Even if I did not know how to properly read at the time, I had to go there every afternoon to keep myself busy as an only child. Being opened to books at such an early clearly has had a major impact on my life and personality. From the local tales of my beloved Senegalese society to the deep and sophisticated French literature, I have traveled through cultures and generations. Whether it is Emile Zola’s collection of novels or Albert Camus’s philosophical texts, these books raised me and taught me about life, love, and resilience. As times went by, reading was no more a regular pastime but a detrimental part of my existence. The lessons and morality I gained from each story always pushed me to challenge the status quo, to be curious, to be adventurous but most importantly to be a problem solver.

A library is filled with diversity. Magazines, newpapers, computers, books of all shapes, sizes, colors, and genres line the shelves in hopes of being read. Personal and childhood experiences are often like books on a library shelf. Like a book, childhood experiances may be very similair but the outcome of adulthood or ending of a story are never the same.

Many people might not have known that oppression is present in regard to religion. There have been many times over the past decades were overt forms of oppression have been present when a dominant religious group takes over a subordinated group. In a reading this week, Christian Privilege is talked about. This type of privilege surprised me because I did not even know it existed. The reading talked about how dominant religious would punish individuals who went against their religion and tried to force others out so they would be on top. It is absurd to me that individuals would go to such great lengths to make sure that people were following their religion and not another. A topic that really enforced this type of oppression is the marginalization of the Catholic religion. I have never noticed that unless you are in a public school, one never has off for holidays unless it is a Catholic holiday. It is preposterous that some students need to be excused from school just to celebrate any over their religious holidays. I could not believe that so much of our school system is centered on a Christian denomination. This reading really helped open my eyes to the oppression that many religions have to face (Blumenfeld, 2010).

In the beginning, the librarians acted as the mentors to my hero. They scanned Easy Children’s Fiction, introducing me to new friends, new stories, new universes. I braved first grade with Junie B. Jones, memorized Silverstein poems, and climbed tree houses with Jack and Annie. The months went by, the years went by, and eventually,

The article Montessori Public School Pre-K Programs and the School Readiness of Low-Income Black and Latino Children Article Response by Arya Ansari and Adam Winsler is found in the Journal of the Educational Psychology. It is volume 106, fourth issue and on page 1066. The year published was 2014. The article discusses the Miami Montessori school readiness program. It also focuses on the effect of Montessori school on two ethnics group: Black and Latino. The article has compared Black and Latino students in Pre-K programs in Title 1 Montessori School versus Black and Latino students in Title 1 conventional school. They have used various groups of 6700 Black and 7045 Latino children from end of four years old to Pre-Kindergarten as samples.

“I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library.” said Ray Bradbury. Bradbury was in the library a lot when he was growing up. Being in the library helped Bradbury with his writing career. After taking a look at the life and work of Ray Bradbury, it is apparent that this writer deserves recognition as a profound American author.

Of course, the last day, one of my friends got left behind in Penn and me, another person and Don stayed behind to make sure she was lost and then we got left behind! Throughout this whole class, I told myself I wouldn’t do this and of course this happened to me on the last day but thank god we had Don with us to show us the way to the New York City Public Library. “This is the second largest public library in the United States. Although there were many libraries in New York in the 19th century, almost all of them were privately funded and charged admission to those seeking to use them” (ENY, 124). It was amazing to see the lions and the building in person because I always heard of the Public Library, but I have never seen it in person. I was

Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner are both known as an educator in early childhood education. Their theories, principles, and beliefs share many similarities. But at the same time, show many differences.

The Montessori method began in the early 1900's by the first female doctor in Italy, Dr. Mary Montessori, as a way of educating mentally disabled children. Her ideas were so successful with these children that she began to apply her understanding of learning to study the potential of normally functioning children (Oalf, 2001). Dr. Montessori's approach to education stresses the importance of learning styles, independence and responsibility.

Watching a small child discover how to operate his or her favorite plaything is awe inspiring. The look of wonder at the item as it's carefully chosen from amongst their belongings and studied ever so carefully for each and every nuance. How that little face lights up with each new discovery no matter how large or small. The sounds of delight an even dismay at an unwanted result are beautiful. Consider an educational system that would continue to utilize a child’s natural curiosity, unyielding ingenuity and thirst for knowledge. Montessori education creates that environment for children by allowing them the freedom to not only gain knowledge in a natural progression, but also provide a basis on which to continue to grow no matter where