Teaching Positive Discipline At The Montessori Event of 2019

Almost annually for the past 20 years, I have been making the trek to the Annual AMS conference. Every time I go, I come back more inspired, more connected to colleagues, more supported and ready to strengthen my practice of Montessori pedagogy with what I have learned.

This year the above was true with one additional change. I had the privilege and honor to present Positive Discipline to other Montessorians. The proposal was submitted and accepted almost 9 months ago and we (my presenting partner Ines Oldenburg and I) have been planning and practicing the activities. We knew before going there that we should plan for around 200 attendees. When we arrived, the room started filling up and within minutes there were no more seats and people were standing along the wall sitting on the floor in the front and even behind us. We ended up with over 300 people at the workshop. My biggest A-HA was that Montessori teachers from all over our country are hungry for a different way to handle the misbehaviors of children.

Every year, AMS invites famous people who are experts in their field to deliver the keynote lectures. In the past, we have had stalwarts such as, Fred Rogers, Maya Angelou, Jane Goodall and Bryan Stevenson, just to name a few. This year our first keynote was one of my long-time heroes, Daniel Goleman. Goleman is author of the best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence. He has studied emotional intelligence and helps support the Montessori philosophy of teaching to the whole child (not just teaching academics). His study has shown that great leaders may not have been the top of their class with GPAs or SATs, but those who could delay gratification, control their emotions, and empathize with others. These are all the skills that we teach to children even as young as 3 at SMA.

Cognitive Control is when we or children have inhibitory control. According Goleman we (as Montessori schools) teach this automatically by having only one of every material and a child may have to wait until it is available or wait for snack because someone is still setting it up. We increase executive functioning naturally by expecting children to put away one piece of work before they can take something else out. The Montessori environment is naturally designed to help children develop and strengthen their emotional intelligence!

There were so many more positive things at this conference and it is my goal to be able to take the entire teaching staff next year!