First Week at School

Hello from Bangkok!

I'm sitting here watching an amazing lightening storm over the city, so beautiful. And I realized that I haven't blogged in a while. My first day with children was Aug.5th. I had one day to set up the entire classroom, before children arrived. Even while I was moving furniture, windows were being installed. It has been a whirl wind week. With lots of tears, mostly from new toddlers, but some of the tears were mine. I'm trying to bring Montessori to a land where children are allowed to do whatever they would like. A culture where I can't put out  pretty breakable dishes because they aren't safe. However, children are allowed to run around in cars without car seats, seat belts or even just sitting down. The idea of what is safe and what isn't safe is completely different here. Children don't feed themselves, nannies and maids chase them around with a fork; I call this the floating fork. They don't sit down to eat, and I'm not just talking about children of privilege. This is hard because Montessori is about independence. Does this work in culture where children will live their whole lives in the family home until their grandchildren are taking care of them? What do you think?

I have three students. One a french girl, who has been in a Montessori school before in Bejing, two, a Thai girl who has never been to school, and three the granddaughter of the owner. The diference between them is amazing. They are all wonderful and learning to explore and concentrate without stupid grown ups being in the way. I have given very few formal lessons, choosing to sit back and observe. I only jump in when:

1. They might hurt themselves

2. They might hurt others
3. They might hurt the classroom materials

The storm is over, I'm listening Pasty Cline staring at the city lights. I can't wait to see what next week holds.

Love,

Scooter