A few memorable Tweets.

Has everyone seen the new Twitter feature? You can now embed tweets. We thought we would take advantage of this option, and highlight a recent thread by our friends at Maria Montessori dot com.

One of the fundamental tenets of Montessori is that everyone learns at their own pace. We're not here to judge their progress, we're here to evaluate and support their needs.

With reading, as you can glimpse in the exchange below, children need the space to develop and understand. If they're afforded this freedom, the world becomes their possibility.

Maria Montessori famously said that everyone can learn to read Shakespeare, but not everyone can truly come to understand what Shakespeare meant.

If we fully adopt the hypothesis that everyone learns differently, and that there is no set age at which you must perform x, then the landscape of education completely changes.

In the sample below, the student started "reading late", but only a short time later, he was exceeding any and all expectations. While it took him a little longer to get started, he burst "ahead" in no time.

The reason for this, of course, is that he was afforded the time, and offered the support that he needed to develop his confidence. Reassurance guides everyone.

Just had a conversation with a Montessori alumnus about reading. He started reading late (3rd grade) but by 5th was at "12th grade level."

— Maria Montessori (@MariaMontessori) December5, 2011

We imagined if he'd gone to public school & been forced to do reading assignments before he was ready to read...would probably hate it.

— Maria Montessori (@MariaMontessori) December5, 2011

With space, love and support, anything is possible. It's not our expectations children need to meet. They need to foster their own lines of interest, and meet their own demands.