by Phyllis Wallbank, MBE [the following text was a draft of notes used for a series of workshops that Phyllis delivered in 1999. The workshops provided educators with a number of tips about education rooted in Phyllis’ long work and reflection upon education. There are a number of golden nuggets in this piece.] How does one […]
Author: DavidNewman
Savants
by Phyllis Wallbank MBE [Phyllis Wallbank was an advance trainer for Maria Montessori. As well, Phyllis organized the last international Montessori congress at which Maria was present before Maria died. For years, Phyllis was a teacher and director of the Gatehouse school in East London. For more on Phyllis see http://www.pwetrust.org/] I watched very recently a […]
Pre-Natal Neural Research and the Absorbent Mind
by Dr. David Fleischacker During the 1990s, there was an explosion of studies funded and conducted on the brain. These included looking at the brain at different stages of human development and one of those stages was pre-natal development of the brain. Studies continue. This is absolutely fascinating. The vast neural and synaptic explosion that […]
Why Montessori Sensorial Materials Work: The Light of Understanding
by Dr. David Fleischacker During the first 6 years of life, Maria Montessori discovered that the inner being of the child is being formed, literally. Brain research has demonstrated this as well. Just before birth, the child undergoes massive synaptic growth in the brain that sets the child up for absorbing his or her familial […]
The Deepest Mystery of the Child: A fools treasure
Today is April fools and it is no foolish point that I would like to discuss. The only foolish thing is my failed attempt to bring out this next point, and given the nature of it, failure is inevitable, hence so is my foolishness. I am the April fool. Spring is coming soon. It was […]
The Deep Mystery of the Child: Part 1
by Dr. David Fleischacker The deep mystery of the child is the same as the heart or the essence of every human soul. Most of the time we think of a mystery as an unknown. There is something true here. The child is not really known yet to the world. And the child is not known […]
“Following the Child”
[As a note, some blogs will be more practical and concrete. This particular one is more explanatory.] “Follow the Child” Let the nature of the child and the realization of that nature be our teacher. I recommend that you read Maria Montessori’s book The Secret of Childhood. In it, she speaks of an educational precept that […]
A note
A new blog will be posted every Saturday morning by 9 am except for holidays.
Sensitive Periods and Development
One of the major breakthroughs in Maria Montessori is her discovery of the developmental stages of a child. Her discovery flows out of some of the positive developments in modern life, one of which is the realization that there are real and natural stages of development and the second is the growth of modern biology. […]
Natural Education Worldwide
My name is Dr. David Fleischacker. It has been 19 years now since I met Phyllis Wallbank at a Lonergan Conference at Boston College. She was showing us a simple set of materials that helped children to learn math and everyday life activities. How she revealed to us the secrets of Montessori revealed as well […]