By Head of School, Abbie Miller

It will come as no news to any of you what an important and daunting responsibility we have, you as parents and we as teachers, preparing your children for the world that they will be entering over the next ten to twenty years. It is a world in which the jobs that they will hold don’t even exist yet!!

The bad news is that these children are going to need a whole new set of skills to be able to compete. The good news is that Montessori educators have been helping students to master just these skills for over 100 years!

A recent TIME magazine article describes these skills in detail. Entitled “How to Build a Student for the 21st Century”, it suggests these things…

1. In a world where someone can place an order in PA which will be processed in India, for a product made in China, it is essential that students learn to be global citizens…to be culturally literate, sensitive to foreign customs and beliefs, conversant in different languages.

2. It predicts that as facts continue to become more widely and easily accessible, the value of information will diminish. In this age of Google searches, podcasts, blogs and instant messaging, what will become more important is a student’s ability to locate and rapidly process information and to distinguish what’s reliable and what’s not.

3. Students must acquire the ability to think across disciplines… It’s interdisciplinary thinking - design and technology, mathematics and art that created successes like U-Tube and Google and Amazon…and by the way, do you know what kind of school the founders of Amazon and Google went to?

4. More than ever before, students will be expected to have strong social skills, be able to communicate and to collaborate, to work in teams with people from other cultures and apply what they have learned to the real world.

5. Students will need to achieve a balance between “core knowledge” - facts and figures and “portable knowledge”…the ability to think critically, make connections between ideas, see patterns and relationships and know how to keep on learning.

6. Last but not least, the article emphasizes the need for and sad lack of what one school superintendent who was quoted called “Deportment”…knowing how to show respect for others, how to shake hands, be punctual, comport yourself in public…
Many business schools, I am told, are now requiring students to take a course in interpersonal skills as part of the MBA curriculum. Lessons in what we call “Grace and Courtesy” have always been at the core of ours.

    ALL of these are skills we teach at GMS…and have been teaching for over 40 years!

This summer I read a very interesting book by Daniel Pink entitled “A Whole New Mind”. The title refers to the author’s belief that three factors, the world of abundance in which we live, the threat of ever increasing automation from super-intelligent computers and growing competition from Asia are changing the professional landscape our graduates are likely to encounter. Pink suggests that in order to prosper in the world they will enter as adults, students today must develop a new way of thinking…A Whole New Mind.

While traditional educators have long emphasized “left brain” aptitudes that are logical, sequential, analytical and rule-based, Pink argues that that the skill set needed for success in the future will be aptitudes which cannot be replaced or reproduced by low cost labor overseas or by intelligent computers…“right brain” aptitudes, such as the ability to think creatively, to be empathetic, to synthesize and see the big picture, to be a team player …

Is this beginning to sound familiar???

While Dr. Montessori could never have imagined the world in which we live, she was a woman far ahead of her time, which is no doubt, the reason why hers is the single most adopted educational philosophy in the world, with over 23,000 schools in 110 countries.

Montessori education inherently develops both sides of a child’s brain, his aptitude to analyze and synthesis, to think logically and holistically. At every age level, the lessons we teach emphasize global literacy and cultural understanding. Our multi-age classrooms are learning environments where cooperation and collaboration are endorsed - places where children learn naturally to respect one another other and work together.

The unique math materials we use help children to learn their facts, as well as to become adept at seeing patterns, making connections and problem solving. Our integrated, research based History and Science curriculum encourages students to read as soon as they are developmentally ready and teaches them to collect information as they read, as well as to use it in a variety of contexts. It challenges them to apply their knowledge and think across disciplines.

These skills, learned here at Gladwyne Montessori, form the foundation for the active, purposeful learning your children will do in secondary school and beyond, aptitudes which will serve them for the rest of their lives!

As you might imagine, the You-Tube video is inspiring conversations among parents and educators across the country, as is Daniel Pink, who was the keynote speaker last year at for both the National Association of Independent Schools and AMI, the Association Montessori Internationale. I encourage you, as parents, to find a way to join in these important conversations!

Your children have begun a journey of discovery that starts at GMS when they are two years old and ends when they are in sixth grade. I encourage you to travel along! Read lots of books. Ask lots of questions. Participate in the parent events you will find on our calendar.

Join us the evening of Tuesday, November 18 at 7 pm, for the event that we call “The Journey” – a wonderful opportunity to find our more about our curriculum and those curious “materials” you see on the class room shelves!