It all matters, supporting the wholeness of the child matters. The emotional wellbeing, expressive abilities, and cognitive development all matter. The child is an integrated whole being – body, mind, emotions, spirit – and needs bonding, connection, and activities in all these areas to thrive. Within the Montessori prepared environments and prepared relationships, the individual child can self-form, self-develop, and self-educate in just the right balance. Each child is a uniquely self-developing Calder mobile of his own creation!

The ever shifting educational emphases, collapsed and shattered, emphasized in the quote and link below stand in vivid contrast with the philosophy, psychology, and practice of Montessori’s living Calderesque balance.

” – that academic achievement matters more than anything else.” This claim appears to be an implicit criticism of former education secretary Michael Gove, who instructed schools not to focus on “peripheral” issues such as children’s moral, social and cultural development in favor of academic excellence. Gove’s successor, Nicky Morgan, has pledged to reverse this approach.

Read the article here on The Guardian