When we let students ‘get it’

This is awesome. It’s the type of feeling I get from my students every time we’re together. Our Montessori jr/sr high school is filled with students who embrace the PBL style and do amazing things with it.

Is PBL easy? No. Is it natural? Yes. If students or adults have been brainwashed with the “tell me what to do” educational mindset, it takes a great unlearning to shift those minds back to natural, problem-solving learning.

When that happens, however, it’s amazing. There now becomes no limit to what students can accomplish. Last year, our students began a partnership with dementia patients in an eldercare facility. Students used the Montessori Method to connect with the minds of the patients. Not only were the patients learning things, they were connecting and retaining things they had once forgotten.

Show me where my students can learn that in a textbook. Show me how we quantify that on a bubble test. Show me how that applies to every day my students are alive.

Once students ‘get it,” they don’t forget it. And if they do in their old age, we have a new crop of students ready to help them get it back.