Cycle Three - The Relationship Between School and Home

            This week’s reading provided several chances for me to reflect on my Montessori education as well as opened my eyes to several topics Martin discussed that are current events.

            To begin with, I have always been familiar with the word “Montessori.”  First, I knew it as part of the name of one the elementary schools I attended.  Then, I understood it as the name of the woman who founded this new method of instruction and educational environment.  Unfortunately, the Montessori school I attended resembled more of a Schoolhouse than a Schoolhome.  I was young, so my memories are not complete, I do not recall much of a “homey” atmosphere in my Montessori school.  This could be because I was part of the cohort of students who were first to be tested on redesigned standards and assessments.  The classroom images of a Montessori classroom in Italy presented by Martin do not match the images I have in regards to a strong presence of care, connection, and concern in the classroom.  However, my Montessori classes were very student-directed.  I recall a lot of independent work time.  Always in groups, my friends and I would busy ourselves at several classroom stations throughout the day working with manipulatives to understand math concepts and writing our own stories to practice reading, writing, and spelling.  Most of the work was done on the floor and students were held responsible to take care of each learning station before we left for another one. 

            I seldom worked with the teacher.  Classes were mixed with students of two grade levels (K with 1^st, 2^nd with 3^rd, etc.) and, without fail every year, the teacher always seemed to provide more rigid instruction to the grade level I was not in.  I remember working with the teacher’s assistant frequently to prepare for spelling tests.  I never had a connection with the teacher or her assistant that Montessori strived for.  The classroom never had a home-like atmosphere but you could say that student needs were met and curriculum was individualized since the majority of the time my friends and I could work at different stations as we chose.  

            Personally, I may not have had the Montessori experience Maria Montessori intended her style of instruction wanted to precede but my incomplete experience has not left me hardened to hers and Martin’s ideas of constructing a schoolhome.  Watch the news and you will find every reason why school's need to be a safe haven for students.  Within the past week, this story was shared on NBC’s Nightly News with Lester Holt and right away it made me think of the schoolhome ideal shared by Martin and Montessori.
           Thankfully, the students I, and most of us teach, do not live in literal war zones where schools and places of worship are main targets for terrorists.  But this does not mean that a figurative war is not going on in students' homes (domestic violence) or neighborhoods (crime and drugs).  In another class I took as part of this masters program, we read an article and discussed the psychological effects traumatic situations can have on students’ abilities and motivation to learn.  It is impossible to expect a student to leave home at home and school at school when he may not have a home, parent, or sibling, to go home to.  And for those who do not have someone at home to care for them (because both parents are working to make ends meet) those students come to school to find that missing support.

            But what makes the mentality of “home being left at home” worse is that situations happening in our students’ homes and neighborhoods are not discussed in the classroom from an academic point of view.  By focusing on a common curriculum, common lessons, and common assessments, teachers are not given the time to help students in the ways they need the most.  One method of instruction that could reverse this and actually bring a students’ home life into the classroom to foster understanding of what is going on in their neighborhoods and how to resolve it would be using a curriculum centered on social justice (also discussed in a previous course).  Creating a classroom with couches and bean bags, essentially bringing the home furniture into the school, may be unrealistic for some educational settings, but establishing a positive repertoire with students in which they can discuss and study social justice issues such as domestic violence and sexism can not only peak student interest but also help students integrate school as part of their lives – not an institution to be kept separate from their home lives.

            I mentioned sexism as one of the social justice issues that students could study because it was one that Martin discussed in her text, but it is also one that I am starting to see more and more in the media.  If I’m seeing it, I know the students are too.  Whether it is brought to their attention or not, sexism runs rampant on my high school’s campus.  I saw it just today at the Freshmen Bootcamp hosted by the Student Government Association (SGA).  Most of the SGA is comprised of girls who like to cheer, decorate banners, plan events, and help others.  While on the other hand, our school’s aerospace engineering programming is mostly male.   To compound this, another instance of sexism that resonated with me this week was the comparison of Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky to Michael Phelps.  Rather than Ledecky receiving allocates for her athletic achievements at such a young age she is constantly referred to as the Phelps of women’s swimming.  Even in this article by the Daily Beast, Ledecky is compared to her male equivalent in the headline, the opening paragraphs, and throughout the text.  In order to bring the home into the classroom, all aspects of the home need to be integrated – that includes caring for the students’ academic and personal needs, teaching them how to show concern for one another, and connecting their world to what is taught in the classroom.