Ryan–you’re right that “Montessori, unlike Dewey or the other anti-individualist educators, actually liked children and thought they had intrinsic value. For her, the purpose of education was not to make people “productive” or good taxpayers or good wage slaves or whatever”–and that “most government educators violently hate Montessori.” In fact Montessori usually is hated both because it’s different, and because it’s private. It’s widely misunderstood; people ignorantly say that it has “no structure,” etc. I’ve grown to love the Montessori approach. My post Out of the Mouths of Babes pointed out its wonderful pro-peace approach to dispute resolution. And of course the state and statists hate Montessori’s “citizen of the world” approach which emphasizes our common humanity instead of our nationality.
Montessori children using the Peace Table to discuss a conflict and come to resolution prior to resuming activities.
