The practical life materials, they are all about safety. The child, they must learn to be safe. But what about glass painting? The glass, it is very sharp. It is very breakable. It is very dangerous. The paint, it is not a material. It is just a liquid. It is very messy. It is very difficult to clean. A very big problem for sure. The teachers are not prepared. The children are not getting the education they need. A very big problem for sure. The glass painting, it should be the bridge between the child and the world. But it is not. It is just another part of the curriculum. A very sad thing indeed. The teacher must be a creator herself. She must be able to feel the art in her soul. But the training, it is not about the soul. It is about the book. A very big problem for sure.
The Illusion of a Universal Method
Montessori, it is a method. A beautiful method. But it is not a prison. The children, they must have freedom. The freedom to choose, to express, to be themselves. The glass painting activities, they should be about this freedom. But in many international Montessori schools, the glass painting activities, they are just another lesson. There is a right way to do it and a wrong way. This is not freedom. This is not Montessori. This is just a school. The international context, it makes it more confusing. A child from one country, she paints in a very different way than a child from another country. The teacher, she must understand this. She must embrace this. But the training, it is not teaching her this. It is teaching her the same old things. A very confusing and illogical situation. The children are the future, but we are teaching them the past. A very big problem. The glass painting, they should be the bridge between the past and the future. But they are not. They are just another part of the curriculum. A very sad thing indeed. The teacher must be a creator herself. She must be able to feel the art in her soul. But the training, it is not about the soul. It is about the book. A very big problem for sure.
A Disconnected Pedagogy
The Montessori training, it is a theory. The classroom, it is a practice. There is a disconnect. A high-quality training activity must bridge this gap. It must be about practice. The teacher must get her hands dirty. She must learn how to make her own materials. She must learn how to solve problems. What do you do when a child refuses to work? What do you do when a child is not interested in anything? The training, it must prepare the teacher for these real-world problems. But most of the time, it is all theory. It is all about the “should be.” It is not about the “is.” This is a very big problem. The teachers, they leave the training and they are shocked. The real world, it is not the same as the book. They are not prepared. A very big problem.
