Resource for Your Source: TheMes of Jack
Meaning Montessori
This video on Youtube is a recent conversation I had in a Starbucks here in Beijing with a Chinese friend, George, who is running an English Language Education company in China, where I tell him about my Personally Responsible Freedom Educational Project: THE SOURCE -- that includes Montessori, Parent Effectiveness Training and Choice Theory. I apologize for the cramped visual and background noise--and NOTE: watch only the first 20 minutes and 45 seconds as the remainder of the video repeats this part--sorry!
Hello to all my current Chinese and other (Potential) Free Friends Wherever in the World, Who May be Interested in Montessori Education and/or Homeschoolingan's Paideia, the thing for which he is born, the sum of intellectual, moral, and aesthetic qualities that make him a complete man."
This is Jack (Resource for your Source) in Beijing, China sharing my expansive enthusiasm (and limited experience and expertise) concerning Montessori Education and Homeschooling with particular reference to China...but open to invitations from anywhere in the world!
My education experience until a few years ago was only with teaching/learning with adults—from 1993 in Australia, then, from 2003 in China. Then in 2012, I had the good fortune of learning/teaching with 2 to 5 year olds when working as the main English teacher for All Genius. Inspired by my new teachers (2 to 5 year olds!) I began studying Maria Montessori’s approach to Education as well as Homeschooling and found to my great joy it fit my approach to learning centered in Self-Direction and Self-Control—and my philosophy of Personally Responsible Freedom.
Also, my Montessori approach will include my previous many years involvement with: Myers Briggs Type & Keirsey Temperament Theories; William Glasser's Choice/Control Theory; Thomas Gordon's Parent/Leadership Effectiveness Training; Eric Berne's Transactional Analysis combined with Freud's Tripartite Personality & Paul MacLean's Triune Brain; Nathaniel Branden's Self-Esteem; John Bowlby's Attachment Theory; George T. Lockland's Transformational Theory; Edward Deci’s & Richard Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory -- now all updated to include along with Montessori these models I have been studying the last few years: Jaak Panksepp’s Affective Neuroscience's 7 Emotional Brains; Henry & Karen Kimsey-House’s Co-Active Coaching; Roger Schwarz’s The Skilled Facilitator Approach; Arthur L. Costa’s & Bena Kallick’s 16 Habits of Mind; Harrison Owen’s Open Space Technology; and David Cooperrider's and Suresh Srivastva’s Appreciative Inquiry. (Whew!)
Over the past 3 years here in China, I have met with dozens of couples with young children (ages 1 to 12) to discuss what I consider are the great advantages of the Montessori method of Education and the potentials of Homeschooling in China.
It is my intention to find to join or found (create) a group of dedicated Parents with younger (or older) children who are interested in considering the merits of Montessori and/or Homeschooling (including the above Mind Models) over the current State-Directed School-Factories in any Nation, and in China, the “Tiger Mother” model and what I term the “Gaokao Madness”, that currently goes for “Education” in China.
I believe I can present a reasonable argument backed by empirical evidence for why the Montessori and/or Homeschooling way is THE BEST WAY to Educate a Unique HUMAN BEING for his/her life in China (or wherever in the world) and the larger World rather than being Trained as an ANIMAL to conform to what Statist/Status Quo Society demands so as to be an Obediently Successful Part of the Herd/Machine.
In my talks with Parents to date, I think I have sensed enough disagreement with the “Status Quo” of Chinese Schooling to make Montessori and/or Homeschooling a real possible choice. I am confident I can startup a TRUE Montessori school (as opposed to schools in China that just use the name but are not based on the Method) somewhere in China (or wherever in the world); and I am enthusiastic about helping Parents implement Homeschooling based on the Montessori Method and my Personally Responsible Freedom philosophy. I am currently enrolled in a 12 week online course with a premier international Montessori organization, the Montessori Foundation, titled: "Building a World-class Montessori School" (go here for view: http://www.montessori.org/leadership-institute#22414) to give me the knowledge I need to make a successful startup.
Also, in regards to Homeschooling (or individual/family "tutoring" I will do), I am in touch with such Libertarian resources as the Tom Wood's Ron Paul Homeschool program (go here: http://tomwoods.com/blog/announcing-the-ron-paul-homeschool-curriculum) as well as the "Unschooling" theme (go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling). That is, I will consider being a "Resource" for a family or group of families and coming to your place and living there to do so.
I invite you to visit my pages on this website: the “Free Friend Book Downloads” page: https://www.resourceforyoursource.com/free-friend-book-downloads where you will find a great “hands-on” book (#7) for using Montessori at home, as well as the “Free Library” page where you will find a wonderful video “Montessori Madness” presented in a creative and very accessible way: https://www.resourceforyoursource.com/apps/videos/ .
NOTE for mainland Chinese: you MUST use a VPN to get to my site. The Chinese government has somehow decided to block me since around October 2014—for what combination of words I do not know! But understand this: I NEVER threaten any government with even a suggestion of “revolution” or any initiated violence, etc. My constantly and consistently stated means of dealing with any government (all are Unnecessary Evils!—power hungry individuals, vicious, immoral “Wolves” that must be understood and disabled/worked around) is to do my best to banish and abandon them—ignore and not sanction them (give them any credibility or usage in my life).
I end now by asking you to IMAGINE this when you think of your children:
Each is a “SEED of an UNKNOWN KIND”—a totally UNIQUE HUMAN BEING, that no-one knows what it will grow up to “BE”. Each just born infant is “Sui Generis”, Latin, meaning “of its own kind or genus/genius”, “unique in its characteristics”. As Maria Montessori puts it: “The child is an enigma… He has the highest potentialities, but we do not know what he will be.” Thus, you as Parents are not “Dictators” deciding and commanding what “your possession—your child” should be; rather, as Montessori wrote, “The child’s parents are not his makers but his guardians.” I think you, as Parents, should consider your Child as a Freely Growing Person that must be Responsibly Nurtured—given the wisely protected and most richly enabling of surroundings—as Montessori wrote: “To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely.”
There is another Educator who lived before Montessori by the name of Herbert Spencer from England (1820-1903) whose approach was similar to hers. From Spencer’s essay, On Moral Education: “Aim, therefore, to diminish the amount of parental government as fast as you can [and] substitute for it in your child’s mind that self-government arising from a foresight of results.”
You act as a “Resource” for your Child’s “Source” by giving it the Opportunity to be Responsible for its Freedom. Or as I put it: “You are only as Free as you take the Responsibility to be.”
I hope I can interest enough of you to join me in setting up a Montessori School and/or Homeschooling Communities somewhere in China--or wherever else in the world! Towards this end, please pass on this message and the attachments to whomever you think might be interested—the more the merrier!
Here’s to Your SEED! Let’s “tend it” together and watch it GROW!
CHeers from CHarming, always CHanging, and often CHaotic, CHina
Jack in Beijing
My contact details:
Skype: jackinchina2005; QQ: 1684864831
Cell phone: 86--1591 0600 531; Email: themesofjack@gmail.com