Upper Montessori Newsletter

December 2008

"Education should no longer be mostly imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities." Dr. Maria Montessori

The violin recital is on Monday, December 8^th at 8:30 am.  The children have been working very hard on this recital.  I am very proud of all of them and their effort. 

I found the following article very interesting and I wanted to share it with you. 

The Child, the Forgotten Citizen

In I947 Dr. Maria Montessori wrote a letter which she sent to all governments. Excerpts from this letter are printed below.

"My life has been spent in the research of truth. Through the study of children I have scrutinized human nature at its origin both in the East and the West and although it is forty years now since I began my work, childhood still seems to me an inexhaustible source of revelations and—let me say—hope.

Childhood has shown me that all humanity is one. All children talk, no matter what their race or their circumstances or their family, more or less at the same age; they walk, change their teeth, etc. at certain fixed periods of their life. In other aspects also, especially in the psychical field, they are just as similar, just as susceptible.

Children are the constructors of men, whom they build, taking from the environment language, religion, customs and the peculiarities not only of the race, not only of the nation, but even of a special district in which they develop.

...The child is the forgotten citizen, and yet, if statesmen and educationists once came to realize the terrific force that is in childhood for good or for evil, I feel they would give it priority above everything else. All problems of humanity depend on man himself; if man is disregarded in his construction, the problems will never be solved.

...Man must be cultivated from the beginning of life when the great powers of nature are at work. It is then that one can hope to plan for a better international understanding."

(http://www.montessorifoundation.org)

** Your child should be practicing the violin every night. 

** Please practice multiplication and simple division every night with your child.  Most of the math from now on will involve multiplication in some form.  

Reminders:

December

11-Winter Concert @ 6pm

10-12 Christmas Store Sponsored by PTA

15-Jingle Bell Jamboree

17-Half-Day for Students-No Lunch

18- No school

19-January 2 Winter Break

January

5-Classes Resume

14-End of Second Quarter

15-Early Dismissal/Staff Development

19-No School/Martin Luther King, Jr.  Holiday

22-PTA Meeting@6pm

February

5-Montessori Parent Night @ 6pm

6-Teacher Workday/Staff Development

13-Bill Brinkle Circus

       9am –Grades 4-6

      11am-Invited Daycares

        1 am-Grades K-3

16-No School/President’s Day

26-Black History Program

      8:30am Grades 4-6

      1:00pm Grades K-3

March

8-Daylight Savings Time Begins

13-School Pictures

April

9-PTA Meeting @ 6pm

10-No School

13-17 Spring Break

May

3-8 –Teacher Appreciation Week

8 Muffins for Mom @ 7am in the cafeteria

11-ELA TESTING

12-MATH

13-SCIENCE or SOCIAL STUDIES

14-SOCIAL STUDIES

15-FIELD TESTING

      Donuts for Dad @ 7am in the cafeteria

22-End of 21^st Century Program

25-Memorial Day-School is in session

28--Montessori Bridging Ceremony @ 8:30am in the cafeteria

29-Kindergarten Graduation @ 8:30am in the cafeteria

June

1-Sixth Grade Graduation

3-Last day for Students