Discovery is always a major theme in my teaching. I don’t view myself so much as a teacher but as a guide to the child’s journey of self-discovery, independence, and efficacy. The discovery piece is the most beloved aspect of my chosen profession.

 

I had a boy in my class when I first began teaching in a Montessori environment directly after my training. He suffered from crippling emotional deficits and often couldn’t even say precisely what he was feeling. Let’s call this young man Mike. Mike was occasionally pulled out of our environment for special services. He was kept in our lower elementary environment for four years and I was there for his last year. I was warned that he shut down often and had a difficult time with language. I began working with him in the outdoor environment and I soon realized he was an exceptionally talented child in many ways. Whenever we would build something, pitch a tent, work with wood or knives, he was the best. He had the most incredible skill in his hands. Then we began to do some cooking and baking. He was, for lack of a better word, a culinary genius. His cakes, pies, and other concoctions were always far superior to those around him. The other children around him were in awe. We started to extend that to science projects, and he helped me learn to make bath bombs for Mother’s Day. I let him pick a science project out of the book and we would gather supplies and work on it. Anything where he could mix and measure, he was a standout. He started to change in a way I can’t quite explain. He lifted his head more. He smiled more. He worked more independently. He didn’t need verbal compliments because he felt it. He felt it in his heart that he had a talent no one else did. I was emotional that I was there to help him discover it, cultivate it, and observe it. He discovered within himself that he could do something better than the children that could read more proficiently or those that were more verbally confident. Students began coming to him for help with specific things. We did pumpkin dissection and carving and his skills were so precise and beautiful. He was the envy of many of his classmates. He had discovered his talent, his hidden talent! When I told Mike there are schools where you can go to study culinary arts; he lit up like bright light. Children have so many talents and avenues in which to discover their special gifts but traditional environments and even some Montessori classrooms are solely focused on the core subjects, highlighting only those who excel in those areas and leaving behind so many others. The feeling that college is the only real way to succeed is ultimately unfair to the children whose talents do fit in that box. Skilled tradesmen, artists, mechanics, carpenters, and culinary arts, are often overlooked, and they are lovely and rewarding professions that we all need.

 

My personal mission has always been to help the children in my classes to discover. Discovering who they are, where they fit in, how they are valuable and where their talents can make a contribution is a goal for me as a guide, as a mom and as a member of society, for that is my personal talent and a former teacher helped me find that in myself as well. Everyone has a place, a purpose, and a mission; discovery is mine.