Some sweet old brother already pulled me over once for basically agreeing to somebody's post, but I will risk that again. Martin is so very right here, painfully so considering that with XOs and Sugar we are trying some very different options to work. We are assuming that we can use technology to improve over (sometimes very) limited teacher skills and other issues. Of course the saner among us are aware that getting rid of teachers will just make things worse. Yes, dedicated, highly trained, enthusiastic, "smart" teachers with great materials, small groups of kids from families who care for education cannot but succeed, at least compared to the alternatives. Let me go a step further than Martin. Anything, including the bestest and newest computer thingie, will fail when the expected enabler is an unenthusiastic teacher. And enthusiasm itself, alas, might not be enough, or at least something hard to actually make last long enough so that actual skill, the real deal maker, gets a chance to grow in the teacher and kids. BTW, spending half an hour in a Montessori environment (as claimed in the website) will not give you the right picture, which is of an actually very rigid and disciplined set of procedures, actually the only way that exploring and creativity can get anywhere good. Kids build their perception on their own, but their exploration itself is very constrained to specific events and objects in a Montessori classroom, with a high degree of follow up and teacher intervention. <div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 3:55 AM, Martin Langhoff <<a href="mailto:martin.langhoff@gmail.com">martin.langhoff@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="im">On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:18 AM, Sameer Verma <<a href="mailto:sverma@sfsu.edu">sverma@sfsu.edu</a>> wrote: > I've been reading "Montessori Madness" for a few hours now, and I find </div>Another good one is "Montessori Today" <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Today-Comprehensive-Education-Adulthood/dp/080521061X" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Today-Comprehensive-Education-Adulthood/dp/080521061X</a> The funny thing is that since I've been exposed to Bryan Berry's poignant "theory" of education, I can't help looking at Montessori and thinking that it is excellent, but not because Montessori's approach and materials are inherently better. It is excellent because - Montessori teachers are teachers who are clearly smart and passionate about education, and the school environment (principals, etc) share the smarts and the passion. - Parents sending kids to a Montessori school are smart and passionate about education. - The group of kids is small and manageable, so the smart and passionate teachers can work their magic. And that wins. They could teach with computers, or abacuses or post it notes or books written in Esperanto. It's all a catalyst that brings the 3 (purely human!) elements above together. Indirection. A social mind trick. Of course, I like most of Montessori's approach. But remove the human elements and... poof! it's effects will be gone. Montessori strategies in a crowded group with an unenthusiastic teacher have very slim chances. Bryan, you need to postulate your theory more formally :-) cheers, m -- <a href="mailto:martin.langhoff@gmail.com">martin.langhoff@gmail.com</a> <a href="mailto:martin@laptop.org">martin@laptop.org</a> -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff</a> <div><div></div><div class="h5">_______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> </div></div></blockquote></div>