Signorina meet Monsiuer

I've started re-reading Montessori's books. It's amazing , though not neccessarily surprising, how much more I can relate to what she says now then when I first started teaching almost ten years ago. At this point I can see where she is actually givng directions in to what to present to what children and and the reasons why. It really is very inspiring.
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One interview has been done, one is coming midweek and I am arranging flight schedules for a third this weekend. Interesting how different schools are in their approaches. One school will take care of everything while another one insists that there is a joint responsibility. Hmmm and yet the latter charges a high end tuition and the former relies on state monies. What to think? or should I?

One school give much responsibility as in not only supervision of lessons but of four other adults as well and one says children and an assistant are enough.
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Last night I went to a demonstration of acro-yoga which was accompanied by live music. I have experienced acro-yoga personally before, being supported in a backbend, off the ground, by a partner who is lifting me with just their feet. Partners have to have complete trust in each other and this adds I think to the beauty of it all.
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(As an aside my reading is now fluctuating between Montessori and Balzac. perhaps there is some meaning in that)***CV

Synchronicity

Today after practice I entered a discussion in which the phrase "Ladder of abstraction" came up. As I understand it an abstraction is when a person generalizes from a specific experience in such a way that the specific situation no longer has to be dealt with. For example: "Today (x) yelled at me" becomes abstracted to, "Nobody likes me." A ladder is comprised of all the steps one takes from the specifc event to the generalization. The ladder idea is nice because it froms a path that one can follow back to the specific.

In a somewhat related situation I was browsing the local new age/ spiritual shop and as I was perusing the Thich Nach Hahn shelves I came across a slim volume related to Sangha building.

I found both of these situations insightful as in my particular line of work abstractions are continually being formed by the individuals in my care; beings who are not only learning how to become a community among themselves but developing the skills to create community no matter where they go.

(Not to mention the couple who asked one of the shop attendents what Ganesa represented. "Hmmm? Oh, most ommonly he is known as The Remover of Obstacles.) ***CV

Subtle Semaphore

Isn't it funny the things that turn up when you least expect them?

Yesterday a friend asked if I would be changing jobs completely and I said I couldn't imagine not teaching children and that I had been looking at different places out of state. She seemed awed that I would be willing to move if a new position reqired it. This is not to say that I haven't considered other fields of interest: Librarian, Rolfer, etc. and would be unwilling to move if they required it also.

I took today off as a personal day and, after a later then usual practice during which there was the adult equivalent of one of my students participating, took care of an errand before visiting my sanctuary. As I was leaving with my aquisitions (Short Stories of Balzac, and a Borges Biography) what should be outside but a group of Montessori upper els on a field trip.

Then I went to a cafe and enjoyed two of the stories from the Balzac collection before heading to the yarn shop to pick up class supplies. Last night I only registered. While I was there the teacher from the cabling class mentioned to the shop owner that I was a teacher too but for a Montessori school.

Turns out the shop owner was a Montessori child until she was five.

O Universe: are you trying to tell me something?***CV