Thursday, September 13, 2007

Inner preparation of the teacher

The idea of the inner preparation of a teacher was one Maria Montessori believed was crucial. I agree--and see my lack of inner preparation was the root of my struggles this year.

Inner preparation has to do with examining oneself, looking at, as one website put it, "seeking out their own faults, such as anger and pride, which may become obstacles in the education of the children." (http://www.wier.ca/~daniel_schugurensky/assignment1/1936montessori.html) What are faults I can identify in myself at this time?
  • lack of consistency
  • lack of enthusiasm
  • lack of focus
  • lack of follow-through
  • lack of order--not just my environment, but in my whole view of how the day will proceed, lack of routines, etc.
  • probably my attitude towards it all
  • admittedly, it's been that time of the month this week, which is probably one of the worst ways to start off a school year! totally throws me off--sleep is affected (which affects all kinds of stuff), usually suffer from headaches...

A different page I found recommended journalling as a help to what should be continual inner preparation work. I remember when I was journalling pretty much daily. It made a great difference in how our homeschool functioned on a day-to-day basis. I'll have to take it up again.

2 comments:

One Alberta Voice said...

You notice in my list that the things I'm experiencing are the things I'm seeing in the kids? Outer 'things' are often reflections of our own inner stuff!

Marcia said...

Ah. This is also what happens in preparation for work with an Atrium. The training is quite a bit of work of the teacher's interior life and less of preparing materials and presentations.