We just bought a small table and chairs for Sophie’s play room. At the end of the day, I went to the room and I was so surprised and laughed so hard.

Erin I.

I heard some moving around upstairs this morning. I went to check on Hailey and she had gotten out of bed and was brushing her teeth all by herself. She put the cap back on the toothpaste and put her toothbrush back after she was done. (This is not the norm in my house). Hailey started in the toddler program and has been at Le Port for 2 years now. It’s great to see the progress she’s made.

Lori P.

At lunch today, I took the suggestion from the Tuesday folder and put the girls’ dishes and cups in a basket on a low shelf in the kitchen. I already had some cloths stored on a low shelf with tablecloths, and the girls have a small table in the kitchen to eat at. Audrey (3 1/2) set the table for herself and her sister (17 months) and then both of them sat and ate. After they were both done, she cleared the plates and utensils and cups and put them in the sink and then, most stunningly to me, took a cloth and wiped off the table before pushing in all of the chairs. She was so enthusiastic to be able to do it all herself, and smiled broadly when all was clean. Thank you so much for instilling such awesome skills in my little one.

Reba N.

When toddlers and young preschoolers start in Montessori, parents are often amazed at the sudden spurt in independence and skill their children display.

If your child is starting in a Montessori toddler or preschool program, and you want to witness this incredible development in your own child, it helps if you are able to prepare your home environment in ways that support your child’s new skills and desire to be independent.

Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Provide simple storage spots for belongings right inside the front door.  A small rug to place shoes or a basket to put them into and some hooks to hang jackets are a great start.  This can help your child get out of the house and back in more independently, and maybe prevent some meltdowns!  A little stool to sit on helps, as well.



2. Make your kitchen accessible to your child.  Find a low shelf or drawer to store cups, placemats, and utensils within your child’s reach.  Buy glass cups and inexpensive ceramic plates (IKEA is great!) that you don’t mind getting broken.  Invite your child to set his own place at the table.  A bigger step stool, or a learning tower can be a great help to little people who want to join you in the fun cooking activities at counter height.  And, of course, when it comes time to sit down and eat, encourage your child to feed himself:  Even young toddlers can eat finger-foods on their own, and start using a spoon; this is what they do in their Montessori classrooms, too.



3. Organize and simplify the play area.  Fewer toys, displayed on open shelves, are preferable over lots of toys in boxes that the children can’t see.



4. Small chairs and tables facilitate independent snack time and organized playtime.  Provide some buckets, sponges, rags, and child-sized brooms, and your child can even clean up after himself.



5. Facilitate getting dressed independently.  Low open shelves, low racks, a mirror and a bench with brush or comb can enable even 2- or 3-year-olds to begin to dress independently, especially if you pre-select an outfit the night before, or lay out two simple choices for a younger child.



6. Consider a floor or other low bed.  Some Montessori parents never have cribs; instead, they baby-proof an entire room and let even infants sleep on a floor bed.  While this may not work for every parent, a low bed or a twin mattress on the floor can be a great step up after a crib, instead of a toddler bed.



7. Make books accessible and create cozy reading areas.  The more that books are all over your house, the easier it is for your child to grab a book instead of asking for your iPhone or the TV when you are not available to play.

To see growth in your child’s independence, it’s not necessary to reorganize your entire house (who has the time and energy for that?!).  Just pick one or two ideas and make little changes over time.  You might think your child is too young to take advantage of these kinds of opportunities for independence—but once she starts school, you might be just as surprised and thrilled as the LePort Montessori parents who wrote the Facebook posts above! 

Thanks to Bernadette, a LePort parent of three children, ages infant to preschool, for inviting us into her house to take many of these beautiful pictures!

The post Supporting Your Child’s Budding Independence at Home appeared first on LePort Schools.

Why is it that boys struggle more in elementary school than girls do?

Study after study show that girls outperform boys in elementary school. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with learning disabilities, especially in elementary school. 60-80% of learning disabilities occur in boys, and boys are two to four times as likely to be labeled as ADHD than girls. At all ages, the National Assessment of Educational progress shows that girls outperform boys at reading and writing tasks.

At LePort, our holy grail is individualization. Our approach is to observe, identify, and address the needs of the particular students under our care. As a result, we’re generally not interested in whether the "average" boy struggles with reading or the "average" girl is less confident in math. We believe that in the big picture, over time, boys and girls both need to acquire the same fundamental content and learn the same key skills, and that they are both capable of doing so.

That said, we’re open to research suggesting that boys and girls may, at certain periods of their development, have different needs. There’s no denying that in schools across the country, boys on average perform far more poorly in elementary school. In their book Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson, two of the country’s leading child psychologists, argue that this is a reflection of two well-established developmental differences between boys and girls:

The first … is that girls’ verbal abilities, on average, mature faster than boys’: they talk earlier and more fluently. Boys tend to catch up later, but in the early grades especially, feminine superiority in this area is readily apparent to parents, teachers, and researchers. The second difference is that boys tend to be more physically active than girls, moving faster and staying in motion longer.  [Emphasis added.]

According to the authors, many boys struggle in early elementary school because it is not optimized for their learning needs. Alan, a 12-year-old in therapy with one of the authors, offered a simple insight into the cause for this struggle.

He talks some more about classes he likes—not many—and those he doesn’t like, and it’s clear that, whatever sophisticated planning has gone into curriculum design at Alan’s school, the distinction between a good class and a bad class, from his point of view, has a lot to do with the freedom it offers to stand up and walk around.

In his weary review of life at school, Alan has described the nature of the problem so many boys have there. In essence, they sit all morning … And if they can’t move around, they feel trapped and turned off to anything the teacher might have to offer.

On top of being trapped, many boys experience themselves as "slow" in elementary school. They often enter with pre-reading skills behind those of same-aged girls, and may not be developmentally ready for the one-size-fits-all instruction in reading and writing found in traditional classrooms.

If it is true that on average, boys develop verbal abilities later than girls, and that on average, they need to move around more often than girls, then it is no surprise that on average, more boys struggle upon entering a traditional first grade classroom.  In such a classroom, students are expected to sit still; they are expected to work precociously without regular opportunities to move around and recharge; they are not given space to learn, over time, to channel their energy, to redirect it from physical to intellectual activity. 

Fortunately, whether or not it’s true for traditional schools, this is not the experience a boy (or girl) would have at LePort. Far from limiting ourselves to merely differentiating between boys and girls, our lower elementary class differentiates between the needs of each and every child, boy or girl. 

Montessori elementary provides an environment where each child can develop at his or her own pace, and thereby avoids presenting more active boys with the challenges they typically face.

• The Montessori environment allows for freedom of movement. Montessori elementary classrooms retain the same set-up a Montessori child is familiar with from his preschool years. Students choose their activities. They pick a place to work—a mat on the floor, a table. They can get up and move around the classroom when they want to, whether it is to go get a pencil, use the bathroom, have a snack, or to observe a peer at work. All this movement happens in the same deliberate, courteous way the children have learned in their preschool classes, as students carefully walk around mats, tables and shelves, and talk with each other in quiet indoor voices.
• Instruction is individualized, and allows each child, boy or girl, to grow at a natural pace, optimized by the teacher in response to particular, individual observations of that child’s strengths and weaknesses. If it happens to be that girls come into the elementary class with nicer cursive handwriting and more fluid reading, no problem. Boys who need more time to develop these skills find that time in Montessori. And teachers know to tie in boy interests to verbal skills. A boy who is captivated by geography may find himself reading about the animals and plants of different continents, and creating detailed maps showing a continent’s physical features. In the process, he improves his reading, fine motor and writing skills. 
• Montessori primary helps students develop critical early skills they otherwise might lack. If it is the case that boys on average take a little longer to "put together" all the foundational skills they’ve acquired, the 3rd year in primary Montessori is well suited to address that circumstance. This last year in primary helps students refine their fine motor skills. It offers a chance to learn language skills in an active way not found in traditional schools: an insightful teacher may help a very active student become engaged in reading by asking him to fetch items from all over the room after reading little labels. She might place him in the far corner of the room, with a moveable alphabet box, and ask him to walk across the room to her for each word he should write.

The authors of Raising Cain provide a critical piece of advice to parents of boys entering elementary school, advice which is just as applicable for parents of girls:

The most important thing to remember, the guiding principle, is to try to keep your son’s self-esteem intact while he is in school. That’s the real risk to this success and to his mental health. Once he’s out of school, the world will be different. … But if he starts to hate himself because he isn’t good at schoolwork, he’ll fall into a hole that he’ll be digging himself out of for the rest of his life. [Emphasis added.]

If you are a parent of an active child, boy or girl, and are at all concerned with how your child will adjust to a sit-still, work-book focused traditional first grade classroom, consider keeping him (or her) in Montessori at least for the early elementary grades. With the careful guidance of our expert teachers, by 3rd grade he’ll master the skills so many active children struggle with in traditional school.

Most importantly, he’ll retain the love of learning he’s gained in preschool, and continue to view himself as a capable, likeable young person.

Isn’t that the best gift your could give your child at the start of his school years?

The post Movement, Montessori and Active Children appeared first on LePort Schools.

When my daughter Cailey was not quite 3, she asked me if she could color with markers. Up until that time, she’d only used crayons, chalk or colored pencils for her art endeavors.

Without a thought, I produced the markers that I’d bought sometime before and gave them to her to use. She took out a sheet of paper and dug in.

When I checked in with her a few minutes later, I received a mild shock.

First, I saw that Cailey had colored vigorously all in one place so the paper was wet through and beginning to disintegrate. Second, caps and open markers were strewn all over the table and carpeted floor around her. There were also colorful marker streaks on the table, her hands, her face, and the front of her shirt (where the open markers had inadvertently rubbed as she colored).

Even with "washable" markers, it was going to be quite a job to get everything cleaned up. How quickly it can happen! Big sigh.

The mess wasn’t Cailey’s fault, of course. Rather, it was I who had neglected to show her how to use the markers.

What’s the big deal? –You might be asking yourself. Isn’t this par for the course for the under six set? They make a mess and we, the adults, clean up after them. You might be thinking that I’m lucky she didn’t color all over the wall.

On the contrary, I think this kind of outcome (one that’s frustrating for parents and doesn’t do much for our children) can be the exception, not the norm. Everyone–parents, and with their guidance, children too–can strive for and reach a better standard.

Let’s contrast this scene to the time I showed Cailey how to use watercolors, a much more ambitious activity than markers for her to do independently. (It involves many items: an apron, tray, paintbrush, paper, water bowl, paper towel, and watercolor set.) That time, I consciously prepared in advance what I would say and gathered the necessary materials before demonstrating to her. When I guided her through the process, I did so with simple instructions and a few parameters. She was able to go from the first step of carrying her tray to the table, to the last step of rinsing her water bowl in the sink, without so much as a "Remember, watercolors need a brush that’s good and wet" from me.

Now, looking at the mess of markers and stains before me, I couldn’t avoid having to point out–in as nice a manner as I could–how her paper was falling apart, how she and the table were covered in marker, and to please take a look at the floor…all because I hadn’t prepared her or myself in advance.

Indirectly, I was implying a whole host of things done wrong, putting a damper on something that could have been a home run.

Sure, no disaster took place. But I don’t think life with young children is about just getting by and avoiding disasters. It’s about creating optimal circumstances for their healthy development–development that includes accomplishments with the big and little things, an ever-increasing sphere over which they have mastery, and ensuing feelings of pride.

I’m not saying we should carefully orchestrate everything so that we can protect our children from bum experiences with markers or anything else, not at all. But life already hands us many situations that are rife with disappointment and "learning."

My point is that, as parents and teachers, with a little planning, we can provide experiences that promote a strong self-image in our children because they are confidently prepared to meet the challenges that come their way (even the ones that provide appropriate doses of frustration or disappointment).

All I would have needed were a few statements beforehand about how markers are different from crayons, a guideline or two, an-easy-to-access container for the markers, and a damp sponge. What ended up being something of a fiasco could have instead been an enjoyable experience for both Cailey and me.

At LePort Schools, our Montessori teachers apply this type of forethought throughout the classroom. It’s what we call "setting up a prepared environment," and it includes everything from how the materials are displayed, to how we introduce them to the children. Our teachers consistently use the "watercolors" approach described above, in which they prepare their students in advance by showing them how to. This enables each child to experience success as the norm, not as the exception, even when tackling tasks that many view as challenging for two-year-olds–such as painting with watercolors.

After the messy marker incident, I vowed to not settle for less as a parent. Now, in my role as Montessori Curriculum Coordinator at LePort, I see this "advanced preparation" carried out every day in our classrooms. And seeing the results is truly a delight: toddlers who joyously engage in learning activities that fascinate them, who succeed at what they attempt (at times, of course, after constructive struggles), and who become confident, eager explorers in the process.

This is what every toddler can experience at LePort. See for yourself: come in for a tour, or start by taking a sneak-peak into our toddler rooms with this video. Enjoy!

The post What I learned From the Messy Marker Episode — And How We Apply These Lessons at School appeared first on LePort Schools.

Throughout the ages, cultures have held different positions on the core purpose of education. Some have seen education as a means to preparing children for war (Sparta), or preparing them for a monastic life (middle ages), or getting them ready for factory work (late 19th century). Intellectuals have argued that education should be aimed at creating a just society (Plato), developing socially conscious adults (John Dewey), imparting universal classical knowledge (Mortimer Adler).

Of all historical conceptions of the purpose of education, the one LePort most identifies with is the approach adopted by the Greek city-state of Athens. The goal of the Athenian education was to enable a child to become the best adult possible, to achieve arête, or excellence, the full realization of his human potential, in body, character, and mind. The ultimate purpose of this excellence was the child’s personal happiness, which he could achieve by living a good life, a life that is, in the words of historian Will Durant, "the fullest one, rich in health, strength, beauty, passion, means, adventure and thought. [The ideal human being] combines beauty and justice in a gracious art of living that frankly values ability, fame, wealth and friends…" *

At LePort, we embrace such an Athenian ideal. We see our purpose as helping our students achieve "the good life", a life in which an individual uses the full power of his mind to achieve and enjoy chosen values. Whatever ends any child ultimately pursues in adulthood—advancing in a fulfilling career, sustaining a thriving marriage, earning health and wealth, raising children of his own, furthering some important social end—our responsibility is to make sure he has the requisite cognitive tools necessary to achieve those ends.  We seek to ensure that each unique, irreplaceable child under our care acquires the cognitive common denominators necessary to achieve a life of personal happiness.

LePort of course does not have a monopoly on student well-being. Many schools share the desire to help students thrive, as is clear from their focus on academic achievement, their efforts to offer students a rich variety of meaningful extra-curricular experiences (theatre, overnight trips, sports), and the dedication with which they pursue their educational program. What makes LePort unique, however, is that our students’ personal fulfillment is our exclusive purpose.

Peruse most schools’ mission statements and you’ll find that in addition to helping students self-actualize, there is also emphasis on inculcating a spirit of public service. Schools pride themselves on encouraging "responsible, global citizenship", transforming children into "exemplary citizens of a global society", training students to make "meaningful contributions to the world community." While there are many variations on the object of the service —the community, the country, religion or faith, the environment — the common thread is that these schools aim to nurture a service mentality in children.

We collaborate with and have deep respect for many schools that take this approach, and we recognize that some parents will want a mission of service as part of their child’s learning environment. But at LePort, we operate on a very different foundation.

Our view is that a child’s purpose is to live his own life according to his own chosen values, in the pursuit of his own happiness.  While it’s the mark of an educated mind to be able to take a global perspective on life, we don’t believe it’s our place to prescribe or imply the particular ends a child must serve. What matters to us is not whether a child "makes a meaningful contribution to the world community," but whether he achieves the things that give his life meaning (which may or may not include making a meaningful contribution to the world community).

Here are a few ways this difference in approach comes up in practice:

• Learning as a child’s highest moral purpose. To encourage children to value the experience of learning, we try to create a culture of curiosity, of genuine interest in understanding and exploration. This means de-emphasizing external motivators (like a bad grade as a punishment or a class party as a reward). It also means not adding any special prestige or importance to so-called "volunteerism" efforts, even when a child chooses it voluntarily. If one child wants to spend her weekend visiting a homeless shelter, and another wants to spend it taking apart a toaster to figure out how it works, we treat both choices with full respect to the extent that both are equally an expression of a desire to learn. We don’t celebrate the first as somehow morally superior, because it involves "service". We’re much more interested in the process by which a child is making choices—is she pursuing a certain experience based on thoughtful, active reflection about what matters to her, or is she motivated by false prestige, or popularity, or a neurotic need to be first among her peers. We nurture a genuine exploration of life and learning, and leave it up to each individual child to determine how that process unfolds.

• Moral neutrality with respect to career choices. At LePort we don’t treat certain callings—a nurse, a teacher, or joining the Peace Corps—as somehow morally better than a life dedicated to other, more "materialistic" careers such as creating movies, or running a successful business, or becoming a professional tennis player. Our view is that the child’s goal, as a human being, should be to live his life to the fullest—and we leave it up to him to identify, over years as he grows up, what form that fulfillment will take.

• No mandated community service projects. We celebrate each child’s interests, whatever they may be. If one of our students is a passionate, accomplished figure skater, we help ensure she has time to pursue her passion. If another one loves marine life and wants to volunteer at a rescue center for marine mammals, we’ll help him find the right place. If yet another is in love with reading and aspires to become a fiction writer, we’ll help her find the books and make the time to read as much as possible. We believe that if these children are pressured to give up the pursuits that are personally meaningful to them in order to perform community service, that at a deep level they will end up resenting rather than feeling goodwill towards their fellow men.

  Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.Howard Thurman

• An individualized, self-motivated approach to learning and discipline. Because we value each child as an end-in-herself, we don’t put much weight on whether she conforms to the views of her community. Instead, we work hard to discover what inspires her: her interests, her temperament, her strengths and challenges. We encourage her, not to obey adult commandments, but to learn the self-discipline she will need to pursue her own, chosen values. Toddlers choose their individual activities from the shelves; preschoolers learn to concentrate for an hour or more to write a story they want to tell; elementary students decide when and where to complete their weekly work assignment; and middle school students learn to keep themselves organized using our planner system, so that they can have ownership over their quest for knowledge.

• Hiring teachers who model loving their work and loving life. If we want students to embrace the challenge of creating a happy, fulfilling life for themselves, we need to ensure that they have the right role models. That’s one of the reasons why we hire teachers who relish teaching, who love learning about the subjects they teach, and who are enthusiastic about working with children. Our students don’t see their teachers as martyrs who have selflessly devoted themselves to the next generation, but as passionate, joyous professionals motivated to be their best selves.

  No written word, no spoken plea
  Can teach our youth what they should be,
  Nor all the books on all the shelves.
  It’s what the teachers are themselves.

  Author Unknown

The result is an educational program wholly devoted to helping our students achieve lives of personal fulfillment and joy. Here’s how we put it in our mission statement: "At LePort, we help our students acquire the essential knowledge, thinking skills, and strength of character required to flourish as joyous children today, and as successful adults tomorrow."

* Will Durant, The Life of Greece, pg. 298

The post The Purpose of a LePort Education: A Child’s Personal Happiness appeared first on LePort Schools.

Internal Paper: Experiential Teaching

Everybody has heard the line "The Red Coats are coming", usually at some point in elementary school. But how many of us can see and feel it? How many have a rich visual scene in their heads, with a real emotional connection to go with it?

Too often in school all we hear is words. Disconnected, uninteresting, non-visualized words. At LePort we know that words matter, and we revere them, because they are the means by which we grasp and communicate knowledge. But we also know that for words to actually represent knowledge students must understand them.

An important method by which we ensure that words are understood, that our students connect what we’re talking about with their own personal context, is visualization – the eliciting of images in a individual’s mind. This tactic allows students to see what we’re teaching and to feel the emotional connection that comes only from experiential learning, ultimately making knowledge a student’s own.

To illustrate this idea, let’s travel back in time to our own elementary school, to our 5th-grade History (or Social Studies) class, when most of us first heard the "Red Coats" phrase. But on this occasion, let’s give the presentation the visuals and feeling it deserves, let’s make it a LePort style lesson:

Transport yourself to a cabin in early Colonial times (you know, homespun clothes, dirty hands, farm life). You’re ten, and you’re sitting in the living room around a fireplace reading. Above the fireplace, as in most homes of the time, sits a musket. Your dad is there, maybe a brother or sister if you have one. Mom’s out somewhere, don’t know where. Each of you are enjoying a book, you an exciting novel, though you’re a little tense because you’ve heard that British troops – Red Coats – have landed in your town and are abusing locals, some of whom are your friends’ parents. But the presence of the troops is still not fully real. It is still merely a news story to you.

You’re just reaching the climax of your novel, and your mind is now completely absorbed in your book. All of a sudden you hear shouting from outside the door. The voices are garbled at first, but then you make out the words. "The Red Coats are coming! The Red Coats are coming!!" Your eyes immediately shoot to the fireplace, and then to just a few feet up, where your dad’s musket sits. You see the musket as if it’s for the first time. Everything is quiet, motionless; life itself seems to have stopped. Then you remember that your dad is with you, in the living room. You look over to him. He is completely still, so still that his stillness belies what’s occurring within. In his eyes you see the deepest, most serious agitation you have ever seen in a man. One question then immediately comes to your mind: What is dad going to do?

At this point in the lesson, there is not one boy or girl who is really "in" the classroom. Each is in his own mind, living out his own visual story. And each wants to talk about it, to share his feelings. Hell, I want to share my feelings! This is when the teacher would transition to a class discussion – and boy what a discussion it would become.

As teachers, all of us have experienced those special moments when every child, seemingly without exception, is engaged. In this case, the engagement is accomplished through storytelling. But why is this particular story so compelling? I think it’s because it offers the children a visual and emotional experience. When dramatizing this story in class, there are a few actual visuals a teacher would use – a picture of a British troop (a Red Coat) and a video of a musket being shot – but the real visuals come from within the child’s mind, from his capacity and willingness to use his imagination, to turn the teacher’s words into images … to paint his own unique picture of the story.

Our students have such a capacity in them, if we can provide the spark. Through visual and emotional teaching, we gain huge in our efforts to impart knowledge. And that is why I believe whenever we are speaking in class, our intent should be to help kids see and feel what we’re saying. We’ll succeed if we go in with this underlying objective to make words visual, to transform sounds coming from our mouths into the equivalent of experiential knowledge. This applies throughout subject areas, whether we’re teaching a novel, some math formulas, a grammatical concept, or a species of tree. (No doubt this tactic is most challenging in math, but maybe all the more reason to make it a stretch goal!)

So the takeaway here is simple. Whenever we are prepping what we will teach our kids, or whenever we are up in front of the class ready to say a few words, let’s ask ourselves: Will my students be able to see this, will they be able to feel this? The more we can answer "Yes", the better our classrooms, the better our teaching will be.

The post “The Red Coats Are Coming”: Visualizing and Feeling in Teaching appeared first on LePort Schools.

If you’re like many parents researching alternatives to public schools, class size is probably high on your mind. With recent budget cuts, many elementary classrooms even in good school districts are now approaching or exceeding 30 students: Elementary schools in Irvine and Huntington Beach average around 25-30 students for 1st grade, and around 30-35 students for 5th grade. (To find out the average class size for your elementary school in Irvine, click here for a school list, select your school, and open the “School Accountability Report” on the school’s page. For Huntington Beach, click here for links to the accountability reports for Huntington Beach Unified and click here for the reports for Ocean View Unified.)

Everyone knows that small class sizes are better. The question is, how small?

While many studies of class size reduction show a benefit for smaller classes, the greatest benefit is only available with really small classes. Writes the Center for Public Education, in a summary of 19 studies:

A class size of no more than 18 students per teacher is required to produce the greatest benefits.

Center for Public Education

Public schools in both Irvine and Huntington Beach clearly exceed this recommendation – in some cases by a factor of two!

In contrast, at LePort, we limit our 4th – 8th grade class size to 16 students, and maintain at most a 1:14 ratio in our Montessori lower elementary program. Not only that, in addition to a homeroom teacher, who usually teaches literature and language arts for each class, we also have numerous subject matter experts, which means that we have one teacher for every eight students in the upper grades. We are convinced that these really small class sizes are essential to help children acquire Knowledge for Life, and not just memorized jargon to be repeated successfully on standardized tests.

Here are four ways in which our “Magic of Sixteen” works to help your child thrive at LePort:

1. In-depth, challenging academics, instead of mechanical test prep. At LePort, we want students to acquire Knowledge for Life, which means we want them to actually understand what they learn, grasp the relevance of their learning to their personal lives, and retain what they learn, so they can apply it, not just in school, but also in life. Our small class size is essential in achieving this goal. No matter how good a teacher, with 30 children in a class she’ll be forced to rely on multiple-choice type exams!

   As an example of the type of challenging, thought-provoking questions our students are asked to answer, read this:  “What was the Renaissance, and why do you think it began in Italy (rather than, say, England or Norway)? Explain using the facts you’ve learned in history class.” How would you answer this question? Not sure? Click here, and read the answer one of our students gave! For more impressive academics, click here to see a wide range of student work samples from grades 1-3 and from grades 4-8. This type of question would be hard to ask if you had to grade 30 or more papers!

2. The ability to foster a growth mindset. Research by Carol Dweck and others has shown that people who view their abilities as malleable, who focus on getting better, who have a growth mindset, live happier lives and are more successful than those who focus on demonstrating how good or smart they are, who have a habitual performance mindset. At LePort, we take this research seriously: we give students un-graded pre-tests, so they can see which areas they need to work on, and get better by putting in hard work. We focus not on a student’s performance against “grade level”, but always challenge each child to improve against himself—for example, by charting their own math facts speeds over time. We can do this, because at LePort, we have the luxury of time. Take one example: our 8th grade homeroom/literature & language arts teacher has just one class of 16 students. This makes it possible for him to provide the type of detailed feedback you can see here in this mystery story assignment.   We’re able to help our students progress at their own pace and level because we have the time to give substantive, specific feedback on essay after essay, math assignment after math assignment, history paragraph response after paragraph response. As one parent put it succinctly:

   I am an attorney, and I really appreciate LePort’s writing program. It’s really unique: because they are a small school and have very high standards, the kids will do many re-writes of their assignments. And that’s how they actually learn—by doing draft after draft, correcting their mistakes under the guidance of their teachers, and learning to become better writers in the process. Many schools just can’t do that—and what does a child learn, when he writes something once, then gets a grade and that’s it?!

   Susan F., LePort parent

3. Adding a personal touch and truly individualizing instruction. No teacher, no matter how dedicated, can truly get to know 30 or 35 students well enough to tailor his instructional approach to an individual child. As a result of large class sizes, and the never-ending focus on standardized tests, many public school teachers sadly categorize children into performance-based groups: The “greens” are those children who will pass the mandated tests, no matter what the teacher does. The “reds” are those that will flunk it, even if the teacher spends a lot of effort on them. The “yellows” are those on the bubble—the children whose test performance the teacher can influence, the ones he can move up to the magical level of “proficient” on the all-important year-end test. These “yellows” are the students he’ll spend most of his time on in class, if he wants to improve his own rating on the standardized, “value-added” assessments of teachers now becoming ever more common in public schools.

   At LePort, we think this is a horrible state, but unavoidable given large class sizes and high-stakes testing in public schools. Luckily, at our private school with only 16 children in a class, and without the yoke of mandated teaching-to-the-test, we are able to do things differently. A LePort teacher can really get to know each individual child, and tailor his instruction to each unique, valuable human being in front of him.

   Want to see what this means in practice? Here’s just a short excerpt from an email a teacher recently sent to a parent, highlighting the level of observation and thought our teachers put into their relationship with each child:

   

   I wanted to point out a few thoughts I had regarding Maria’s* experience yesterday, and my high hopes for her in the future. She is excellent at following directions, but sometimes struggles with articulating her thoughts. Nothing that she would have written down would have been incorrect, yet I could tell that she felt very uncomfortable with the vast freedom of the assignment. I intend to help her develop this creativity, as I’ve seen glimpses of it in the past. Besides the ability to write an interesting story, the ability to form an opinion about something is a skill that will benefit her in future classrooms, jobs, and social situations. I believe it is a life skill that will allow Maria to become a strong individual, which is why this is so important. 

   Parent

   (Interested in a broader context? Click here to read the whole email, and think about what it would mean to you to know that your child’s teacher observes her in such detail, carefully tailors her instruction to her needs, and takes the time to write you a two-page email giving you a glimpse into your child’s struggles and triumphs in the classroom!)

4. Focusing on the whole child, not just academics. At LePort, we want our students to not just be “college and career ready” (an education euphemism for doing well on standardized tests). As our mission statement puts it, we aspire to “help our students acquire the essential knowledge, thinking skills, and strength of character required to flourish as joyous children today, and as successful adults tomorrow.” Personal development is a key component of our instructional approach at LePort, and a 16 student maximum class size is essential in this whole-child approach. Our teachers have plenty of time to interact with their students, not just in the classroom, but also during lunch, recess and on our many field trips. Teachers are able to bond with students. They can provide the guidance children need to develop the strength of character and life skills they need to flourish and to successfully pursue their own path in life.

   Here’s an excerpt from another email a teacher sent to parents; it highlights both the teacher’s insight into this student, and his personal appreciation for him as a unique, valuable person:

   

   Aside from academics, I just wanted to share with you that I have never seen Sam upset or angry; he’s rarely shows any other emotion than being extremely happy. He is a true pleasure to not only have in class but also out on the dodge ball court at recess and lunch or even in the halls of school. He always asks me how my day is going, and his compassion seems so unique to me.LePort Teacher

Staffing our school with the many excellent teachers it takes to maintain the successful sixteen, and to achieve an effective 1:10 ratio, is not cheap. In fact, the investment we make in small class sizes and top-notch teachers is the main reason behind our tuition levels. Why do we do this? Because we know that nothing, nothing is as important as the close relationships your child will form during the key elementary and middle school years, with a teacher who is a role model, whom he respects, who can get to know him, challenge him, motivate him to do his best.

We think it’s worth it – and so does this parent, whose child had been attending LePort for a mere two months when she wrote this:

Hi Ms. K.,

On Thursday evening when I picked up Michael at the sitter after the LePort presentation, he INSISTED that I type up a story that he had written.  He was SO JAZZED about showing you that typed up story I thought…..who is this kid?  I have NEVER, and I mean NEVER known my son to EVER be excited about writing.  In fact, as I’ve stated to you previously, creative writing was always his weakest point.  To see him like this was AMAZING and even though it was past bedtime I agreed to type it up for him.  He was telling me how he loves your accents and that you can make your voice exactly like Miss Grangers of Harry Potter. He speaks so happily about your language arts class.   Whatever you are doing – THANKS THANKS THANKS.

WHO IS THIS KID  ????

Warm regards,
(A very happy parent)

LePort Parent

This is what the Magic of Sixteen at LePort makes possible—not just for Michael, but also for your child.

*Children’s and teachers’ names have been changed, to protect the children’s privacy.

The post The Success of Sixteen appeared first on LePort Schools.

How much will your child’s success in school and life be influenced by the quality of his teachers? Here is what studies say:

The available evidence suggests that the main driver of the variation in student learning at school is the quality of the teachers. Ten years ago, seminal research based on data from Tennessee showed that if two average eight-year-old students were given different teachers—one of them a high performer, the other a low performer—their performance diverged by more than 50 percentile points within three years…

Another study, this time in Dallas, shows that the performance gap between students assigned three effective teachers in a row, and those assigned three ineffective teachers, was 49 percentile points. In Boston, students placed with top-performing math teachers made substantial gains, while students placed with the worst teachers regressed—their math got worse. Studies that take into account all of the available evidence on teacher effectiveness suggest that students placed with high-performing teachers will progress three times as fast as those placed with low-performing teachers.

mckinsey.com

Another recent study, quoted in the New York Times, put a monetary value on the damage done by just one bad teacher:

Conversely, a very poor teacher has the same effect as a pupil missing 40 percent of the school year. We don’t allow that kind of truancy, so it’s not clear why we should put up with such poor teaching. In fact, the study shows that parents should pay a bad teacher $100,000 to retire (assuming the replacement is of average quality) because a weak teacher holds children back so much.

nytimes.com

No matter where you look, the answer is clear: Good teachers matter tremendously—and if you want to choose a school for your child, you should find one that hires the best.

But what does it mean to be a good teacher? And which schools will ensure your child will have good teachers, consistently?

Unfortunately, public schools, with their strict, union-driven work rules, often take a simplistic approach to teacher quality. While there are no doubt great public school teachers peppered through the system, the underlying approach to teacher selection rarely guarantees that your child will consistently have the best teachers, even in a good school district.

• Hiring practices that exclude many capable potential teachers. Public schools usually draw their teacher candidates from graduates of education colleges, that is, credentialed teachers. At first blush, this sounds like a good idea: after all, you want a teacher who is well trained, and a credential certifies that the teacher has completed course work on teaching. Many credentialed teachers are in fact highly dedicated, intelligent individuals who are passionate about educating children; but many others, in fact, are not.

  Yet it’s important to understand that teaching credentials are neither necessary nor sufficient in hiring the best teachers.



• Many smart, dedicated students who graduate with a B.S. or B.A. in a subject field—math, science, literature, history—would make great teachers. They often are passionate about their fields of study; they may have discovered a knack for explaining and mentoring while in college; they have a deep grasp of the subject that they could readily pass on to students. Yet, leaving aside a few alternative certification programs in high-need areas, these outstanding young people are often excluded from teaching by narrow certification requirements that impose onerous additional coursework of questionable merit.
• A credential, by itself, isn’t necessarily a good indicator of whether someone will make a good teacher. Teacher candidates vary widely in their skills, and admission standards of teacher colleges typically are not as rigorous as those of the top schools offering subject-matter degrees. Certification programs vary significantly in their content—some are more rigorous on subject matter knowledge, for example, while others require students to spend much of their time on courses on teaching processes (which may or many not be of much practical use in the classroom.)

• Limited ongoing development. In many public school systems, first year teachers immediately teach a full class load. They rarely have extra time to develop or even adapt curriculum; they rarely receive the benefit of regular coaching, or even have the opportunity to observe in a master teacher’s class. Once in, the public school approach seems to be “sink or swim” (beyond whatever support the teacher gets as part of completing her teacher credentialing program).
• Fast and largely irreversible tenure, which means ineffectual teachers stay on, even when everybody knows they aren’t doing a god job. Most junior teachers get tenure after teaching a mere three or four years, and the standards for tenure are lax. An L.A. Times article reported that 98% of teacher candidates in LA received tenure, after a process so lax that it requires just one unannounced classroom visit by school administrators! Admits the districts superintendent: “Too many ineffective teachers are falling into tenured positions — the equivalent of jobs for life.” Terminating a poorly performing teacher is nearly impossible. Instead, when parents successfully protest about a teacher, the teacher gets moved on to another school or another district, in a process so common it has a name: the “Dance of the Lemons.” 

To summarize:

• Good teachers are important – critically so!
• Public schools don’t consistently hire the best and brightest young people as teachers. They don’t train new teachers well. They put teachers on tenure, making it practically impossible to fire teachers who aren’t performing well.

At LePort, we understand how important great teachers are. That’s why our hiring, training and development practices are diametrically opposed to those of public schools:

• Hiring based on relevant skills and personality traits, not merely credentials. At LePort, we want to hire the most capable and motivated teachers possible. That’s why we hire based on three standards:
  • Deep skills in and passion for the subject the teacher specializes in. In our 4th – 8th grade program, students have different teachers for different subjects: a homeroom teacher, who usually covers literature and language arts, as well as specialist teachers in math, science and history. We believe that these teachers first and foremost must be knowledgeable about their subjects, and passionate about what they teach. This seems obvious—how can a literature teacher instill a passion for books, if he doesn’t love reading—but it’s unfortunately often ignored in other school settings!

  

  • A love of and skill in working with children. Being a great scientist isn’t enough to teach science at LePort: we understand that a teacher must love sharing his knowledge with students, and must be able to relate well to children, in order to be effective.
  • Joyous, growth-minded character. We want our students to be inspired by their teachers: we expect teachers to model the type of growth-mindset and joyful living we want our students to achieve. What better way to kill a child’s aspirations than to put a cynical teacher in front of him?!

  While some of our teachers hold teaching credentials, we also hire strong candidates who hold Bachelor’s or advanced degrees in the subject matters they want to teach, and in some cases even hire individuals with little formal training in their area but a clear lifelong passion and knowledge in a given area. We regularly review hundreds of resumes and conduct dozens of interviews, to find the best possible teacher candidates.

• An intensive, structured on-boarding and ongoing development program. Teaching is a skill that can only grow with practice, practice, practice. New teachers at LePort have many opportunities to develop their skills under the guidance of our academic staff:
• An onboarding training program. When we hire multiple teachers to start for a new school year, we put on a multi-week, intensive training program. Teachers get immersed in our unique curriculum. They practice teaching lessons the LePort way. They observe each other and give and receive feedback. They learn about our systems, from report cards to organization, from classroom management to parent communications. Most of all, they form a learning community – the basis of growing together throughout the year.



• Ongoing observation and guidance. All teachers, but especially new teachers, receive regular feedback from our academic supervisory staff (the Head of School, the Assistant Head of School, and our Executive Director for the Elementary and Junior High program). We regularly observe teachers in class, and give them feedback on how to improve. We also expect teachers to observe each other’s classes and to give each other detailed feedback. (Curious about this feedback? Click here to read a sample of the feedback one of our newer teachers received after such an observation.)
• Reduced course loads. While many elementary school teachers in other settings teach all day long, with rarely a break, at LePort, even home room teachers have several hours off during the school day, while the subject matter teachers take over the class. This provides time for them to prepare lessons, observe other classes, and think through any classroom or playground issues so that each student has an optimal learning experience. It also enables them to participate in weekly or bi-weekly departmental meetings to discuss curriculum and pedagogy issues specific to their subject area. Every month during minimum days, teachers also have an afternoon to participate in development workshops and further strengthen their teaching skills by collaborating with each other.
• A willingness to part with teachers who do not live up to our standards. Letting a teacher go is extremely hard: students and parents connect with teachers, even with some that are not top performers. And bringing a new teacher on board to replace one we let go means a lot of effort and cost. Yet because we know how crucial great teachers are, and because even the best hiring and training system cannot guarantee that every single teacher we bring in is a great fit with our program, we find that we on occasion need to replace a teacher who cannot meet our standards, despite much coaching. Because we are a private school and not bound by onerous union contracts, we are actually able to replace under-performing staff members in a timely fashion.

If you are seriously considering LePort for your child, we invite you to do your research about our teachers. Scroll down and read what some of our parents say about our teachers. Review bios of our teachers (Huntington Pier campus & Irvine Spectrum campus). Watch some videos of our teachers in action. Call us to schedule an observation: we invite you to come in, spend an hour or a half-day in our schools, so you can judge our teachers for yourself.

Related Articles

Elementary & Junior High: Who We Are
Parent Testimonials

LePort teachers love what they do, and care a lot. A great education boils down to the teachers. At LePort, every single teacher is very passionate about his subject, has deep knowledge, and cares personally about his students. There’s a personal relationship that grows between a teacher and each child. The teachers become the student’s role models and mentors. Our son wanted to please his teachers, because he respected and admired them—and that made him strive harder. When his teachers gave him their constructive feedback, it thus motivated him, and allowed him to go back and do even better. I really believe LePort teachers care—they take a vested interest in each student, and there is a strong personal relationship that goes on. You can see that—watching my son leave the school, and how sad he is to have to go, and to not be able to see his teachers every day any more. The heart of LePort is the teachers, individually and as a group. They are all a little different, they have put together a good mix of nice people with their own styles and personalities. Every single teacher at LePort actively engages the children in learning, and connects with them socially.

Kevin G.

The teachers at LePort inspire their students. They are all young and engaging – not teachers that have been doing it for 20 years, and are just going through the motions. Every one of them is sincerely concerned about a student’s personal growth. As they do the academics, they constantly talk about how they relate to the rest of life. All the teachers at LePort are the same way – they have a passion for their work, and it shows with the kids.

Lina S.

LePort’s teachers are consistently amazing. At other schools, you’d have a teacher here and there who would be great; their reputation is well known among parents and students—so you’d hope that your son/daughter was in their class at some point. The astonishing thing about LePort is that every single one of their teachers is excellent. The consistency is incredible: you never have to worry about which teacher your son/daughter will have the following year. To have an entire school of outstanding teachers speaks to their recruiting standards, their processes and how they train teachers as they come into the school. This is even more amazing given that all the LePort teachers are incredibly young!

Maritza A.

All the LePort teachers are excellent. I don’t think there was a bad teacher at LePort at all. Every one of them is an incredible professional, they are into their subjects, they are excited about teaching and learning. And that attitude transferred to the students.

Noreen M.

LePort teachers have what I like to call, “youthful enthusiasm”. This is probably due, in large part, to their clear philosophy that no teacher can teach a subject that they are not personally passionate about. If you think about that, it makes so much sense: if teachers love what they are teaching, that passion is present in every day classroom activity and that enthusiasm filters down to the students. It is apparent that the teachers feel supported. The equation is quite simple really: Happy teachers’ = happy students= happy parents.

Ruthie T.

I am really excited about the LePort teachers’ passion. My daughter will come home talking about history with such enthusiasm, that I even get excited and ask her questions about her history class! Because the teachers are so passionate, students become passionate—and go into real depth to explore the subjects. They become enthusiastic learners, and always ask to learn more. It’s a major contrast to some of our past experiences, where it appeared at times that the teachers didn’t want to teach the subjects, that they just went through the motions, to get the day done.

Tami W.

The passion and compassion of the teachers is rare—it is something that’s difficult to find. My younger daughter would just talk non-stop about her teachers, about how much she admired them, and how she respected them and enjoyed working with them. The LePort teachers took time to work with each of my girls, to help my older daughter fill in her knowledge gap due to illness, and to inspire my younger daughter to become an eager reader and writer. It also inspired my girls to be able to see a woman as amazing as Lindsay Journo, the head of school, and to dialogue with her every day: their teachers truly became role models – and that’s a hard thing to achieve in middle school.

Tom C.

The post Great Teachers Matter – Credentials Don’t appeared first on LePort Schools.

This choice may be one of the most important you’ll ever make for your child – and, if you choose private school, one of the biggest investments you’ll make as a parent. Private schools, after all, need to charge tuition for their services, while public schools don’t require much payment from parents (beyond, of course, the taxes you will be paying, whether or not your child attends public school).

Faced with the choice of “free” public schools and the private school alternatives, parents naturally wonder: is it worth paying for private school?

It’s a very personal question, dependent on your family’s financial circumstances and your other values. In many cases, the answer may well be that private school is not worth it: in some cases the difference just doesn’t make enough of a difference. Yes, private schools usually offer nicer facilities, more extra-curricular options, and smaller class sizes. Beyond these factors, however, many private schools aren’t that different from public schools: Often, they follow the same California Standards and use the same text books as public schools; they hire teachers from the same education colleges; they use the same pedagogical approach in the classroom and prepare students for the same standardized test battery. Sure, class sizes are smaller and there’s more accountability—but is that alone really worth all that money if at root private schools offer the same educational product as the public schools?

If we ask a different question, whether LePort Schools in particular is worth the investment, it won’t surprise you that we believe the answer ought to be yes for many, many more parents. The reason is that LePort Schools offers a truly different education. In our view, we offer a wholly different product, not just a better quality of the same thing offered by public schools.

Here are five fundamental differences between an education at LePort and at many other schools, private or public alike:

1. A deliberate, carefully thought-out focus on your child’s long-term happiness. What is your goal for your child’s education? How does it line up with what the schools you consider aim for? For many schools the answer is either very specific (“getting children into good colleges”, “achieving proficient scores on API tests”), or very broad (“responsible, global citizenship” or “making meaningful contributions to the world community”). At LePort, our core goal is different: we want to enable your child to achieve his own personal happiness. As we put it in our mission statement, “At LePort, we help our students acquire the essential knowledge, thinking skills, and strength of character required to flourish as joyous children today, and as successful adults tomorrow.” This difference in purpose has many implications; stay tuned for an upcoming post just on this topic!
2. A carefully sequenced, content-rich curriculum. With the dominance of No Child Left Behind and now Race to the Top, public elementary schools focus excessively on a narrow, test-driven, memorize & regurgitate approach to the basics – reading, writing, arithmetic. Many traditional private schools unfortunately follow a similar approach. Others, identifying themselves as progressive schools, commit a different mistake: worried about the negative impact of rote learning, they throw out an adult-guided, structured curriculum altogether, and rely instead on child-led, project-based exploration, which may leave children with significant skill and knowledge gaps. We reject both these approaches. Instead, we have developed a carefully sequenced, academically challenging curriculum that respects the child’s motivational context. Click here to learn more about five key ways in which LePort’s curriculum differs from what your child would encounter in public school. (In case you are concerned about test scores, we do want to assure you that our students test well – see here for recent scores.)



3. Motivation by interest and joy, not grades and fear. Here’s a question you should ask of each school you visit, private or public: how do you motivate children to learn? For many schools, the answer relies heavily on extrinsic motivators, which reward “good” behavior and results with stickers, praise, class parties, treasure chests or good grades, and punish “bad” behavior with loss of privileges (recess, independent work time), extra work (more homework!), bad grades or a trip to the principal’s office. Sounds familiar?! LePort is different: we understand that in order to really learn, children have to make a choice to want to learn. We think it is our responsibility to make what we teach so interesting that children can’t wait to learn. Curious how that works? Click here to find out!
4. Passionate professionals as teachers. A teaching credential: at most schools, public and private alike, this piece of paper is a must-have, do-or-die requirement for becoming a teacher. Not so at LePort. While we do have many credentialed teachers, we didn’t hire them because of their credential—and many of our teachers never attended a teacher’s college. Instead of relying on a credential, we have our own exacting hiring standards. Parent feedback, student comments, and our academic results all bear witness that our hiring approach consistently leads to high quality teachers who connect with their students and motivate them beyond the parents’ wildest dreams. Click here to find out how we manage to consistently hire, train and retain excellent educators, or click here to read bios of our staff at the Irvine Spectrum and Huntington Pier campus.   



5. A focus on individualization, made possible by small class sizes and low ratios.  At LePort, we limit class size to 16 students for grades 4 – 8. (Our Montessori elementary classrooms typically have 24 students, with two teachers, for a 1:12 ratio.) As impressive as a 16-student class size is, our actual teacher-student ratio is closer to 1:10: each class of 16 has a dedicated homeroom teacher, who usually specialized in language arts. In addition, students receive instruction from subject-matter specialist teachers in history, math, geography and science. Our typical 4th – 8th grade program is staffed by 10-12 full-time teachers, for a 1:7 or 1:8 student teacher ratio. Hiring this many highly-qualified staff members isn’t cheap, but we think it is essential to providing a great education: we expect our teachers to get to know and appreciate each child and family; to motivate the student by understanding his temperament, talents and interests; to provide detailed coaching feedback on each assignment (as against just assigning a letter grade and moving on); to help the child learn personal skills (such as organization, time management, goodwill during competitions), in addition to strictly academic content; to create ample time for questions in class and an opportunity for each student to participate. There is just plainly no way this level of personalized instruction is possible in classes with 25 children in 1st grade, or even 35 or more students by middle school (numbers unfortunately now typical of most public schools, and even many private schools).

These are five of the fundamental differences between an education at LePort and at many other private and public schools, and there are more subtle differences that parents pick up on when they become LePort parents.

In some ways, the process of becoming a LePort parent is like purchasing that very special car you’ve been eyeing. Before choosing the car, you probably first decide what type of car you want: sedan or SUV, roadster or truck. Then, your next step is a test drive.

As you research schools for your child, we encourage you to follow the same process: identify first what type of education you want for your child, then search out schools that offer a program in line with your goals. Next, take a “test drive” by spending a few hours observing at a few different schools you are considering.

Here at LePort, we love to have prospective parents come visit and sit in our classes and see our teachers in action. No matter how much we write about our unique approach, the best way of understanding it is to come in and see for yourself. Feel free to come for a guided tour, ask to meet with our Heads of School, or schedule a time to observe classes in action.

While many private schools and most public schools limit parents to pre-scheduled open houses, we think the decision of which school to send your child to is so important that you should have the opportunity to see for yourself. (Isn’t it ironic that car dealerships will do anything to get you in to look at their cars, while many schools are resistant to having parents even come in for an observation – and this is the education of your child, not just a test drive of a sedan!) So, please contact us and set up a tour: click here to find all campuses phone numbers.

The post 5 Ways LePort Is Different: Your Choice, In a Nutshell appeared first on LePort Schools.

Wondrous are the wonders of the world, but none more wondrous than man.Sophocles, 5th century BC

At LePort Schools, we spend every minute of every day nurturing our students’ efforts to grow and learn, to become their own future heroes and heroines. We try to embody what Carol Dweck calls the “Growth mindset” and we cherish that task, regularly thanking our lucky stars that we have careers that offer us such excitement and opportunity.

Underneath this enthusiasm is a conviction that each of our students is an irreplaceable value, an unrepeatable instance of that most precious of all things, a human life. Each of us deserves the opportunity to live and experience the joys that life has to offer.

Too often enjoying life – actually relishing this world of ours – is seen as a phase only existing in childhood, a nostalgic time before, the refrain goes, one must “grow up.”  But we at LePort don’t believe the fun has to end at eighteen, that life has to slowly lose its shine upon entering the “real world.” To the contrary, our mission is to ensure that our students have the knowledge and confidence to extend that benevolent attitude throughout the years, to lead lives of meaning and joy – just as we ourselves strive to lead such lives. The uniquely playful yet academic culture we have at LePort reflects this belief, i.e., that life is a playground, not a battlefield, and that growth is a process of deepening, rather than abandoning, the simple joys of childhood.

Our singular purpose is to help students delight in the process of learning and growth that will enable them to achieve their chosen goals as adults. By approaching education in a systematic way within a culture that values life, we are able to help our students gain a wealth of knowledge and relish in the seemingly unending excitement of learning (“the pleasure of finding things out”, as the physicist Richard Feynman describes it). Whether it’s as “simple” as a two-year-old successfully using the toilet for the first time, or as “complex” as an 8th grader discovering Shakespeare’s subtleties in Romeo and Juliet, with every piece of knowledge gained or success earned (or failure overcome) students are more comfortable with themselves, more confident acting in the world, and more excited to take on new learning adventures.

This purpose necessarily extends beyond our program. For if the striving to understand and the relishing one’s accomplishments were to end after graduation, what would be the point of our work? A real love of learning can and should be life long, from eight months old to eighty years young, from playing on the blacktop at the age of four to designing a playground at forty.

This educational philosophy of ours has its ultimate source in the civilization of Ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks were the first truly intellectual civilization in human history. From philosophy to mathematics to music to literature, the Greeks transformed the ideas that existed before them into fully-fledged fields of human thought. And yet, at the same time, the Greeks were also the first people in the world to play. The Greek attitude towards the world was that it is a place of wonder, an environment conducive to human flourishing. That is the attitude towards life and learning we strive to emulate at LePort Schools. 

While the Ancient Greeks are the civilization with which we most identify, there are scores of other people and movements who share our outlook on life. In this post, we’d like to offer some brief insight into two modern thinkers who capture, and have deeply shaped, the LePort view on this issue: Maria Montessori and Ayn Rand.

Maria Montessori’s and Ayn Rand’s basic outlook on the fundamental value of life and learning is an important source of LePort’s basic outlook, a modern validation of the Greek spirit that moves us. These two women, one a physician/educator the other a writer/philosopher, each independently presented a heroic vision of man and a benevolent outlook on the world. Every individual counts, they said, and can achieve happiness in life.

Montessori’s works consistently reflect a reverence for the act of being engaged, of that “flow experience” in which one loses oneself in a consuming task or captivating observation. Here she describes how a teacher should strive to achieve the kind of all-consuming interest exhibited by someone like Thomas Edison:

Edison too, one of the first friends of the Montessori Method, was soon weary of being dragged by a fashionable wife to social functions when his heart was in his laboratory. One day he tore off his tie and dress suit, tied them in a bundle and threw them out of the window, exclaiming “There goes your social husband!” – and resumed an old dressing gown and slippers for work. People like these counted it no sacrifice to renounce lesser for greater joys. They did what they liked best to do, having acquired an intense interest which transformed and ennobled them, and the teacher who reaches this stage of interest is similarly transformed. He or she joins the happy group of men who have taken the road of life. As surely as the scientists they penetrate life’s secrets, and, win its rewards, not only for themselves but for all.

Dr. Maria Montessori

Life, for Montessori, is mindfulness. It is that experience of being present and aware and engaged in self-initiated observations and actions, rather than losing oneself in the false comfort of passivity. She argues that we should be preparing our children for active lives rather than for easy, passive lives:

When we take as an idea that we must educate or train men for difficulties, nothing is more clear than life and nothing is easier than death. If we want to prepare men in such a way to fight, they could not be better prepared in any other way than when we prepare them for life because all know how to die, but few know how to live…Up to the present we have done much to kill all the great wonderful powers which were in man, all of his most noble powers, all his divinity. We will be convinced of this, that we have smothered it. We live, and if we don’t live amongst people who are dead, we at least live amongst people who are weakened in slavery. (This is the) slavery of the means which have suffocated them. People who have become blind and deaf and incapable of thinking are moving themselves but incapable of the will to live and their will has been broken. Then we must feel and know enthusiasm even in taking this difficult path which is the path of life. (We must) feel this, that man must require the best part of himself, he must destroy the chains which have held him in slavery, and the hymn of Life should sound upon the lips of all.

Dr. Maria Montessori

Rand similarly celebrates the conception of life as an experiential value, and stresses in particular the connection between active-mindedness and personal fulfillment. In response to the claim that academically oriented students are not socially engaged, she writes:

The thinking child is not antisocial (he is, in fact, the only type of child fit for social relationships). When he develops his first values and conscious convictions, particularly as he approaches adolescence, he feels an intense desire to share them with a friend who would understand him; if frustrated, he feels an acute sense of loneliness. (Loneliness is specifically the experience of this type of child—or adult; it is the experience of those who have something to offer. The emotion that drives conformists to “belong,” is not loneliness, but fear—the fear of intellectual independence and responsibility. The thinking child seeks equals; the conformist seeks protectors.)

Ayn Rand

Rand also expresses admiration for the idealism that is the hallmark of youth:

This view of man has rarely been expressed in human history. Today, it is virtually non-existent. Yet this is the view with which—in various degrees of longing, wistfulness, passion and agonized confusion—the best of mankind’s youth start out in life. It is not even a view, for most of them, but a foggy, groping, undefined sense made of raw pain and incommunicable happiness. It is a sense of enormous expectation, the sense that one’s life is important, that great achievements are within one’s capacity, and that great things lie ahead.

Ayn Rand

At LePort, we hold that life is sacred. It is a gift to be enjoyed, and an experience to be embraced. Its meaning is not prescribed, but is found in each individual human being’s choice to pursue what he finds meaningful. Rand more than anyone else (with perhaps the exception of Aristotle) emphasizes the connection between virtue on the one hand, and successful living on the other:

I will ask you to project the look on a child’s face when he grasps the answer to some problem he has been striving to understand. It is a radiant look of joy, of liberation, almost of triumph, which is unself-conscious, yet self-assertive, and its radiance seems to spread in two directions: outward, as an illumination of the world—inward, as the first spark of what is to become the fire of an earned pride. If you have seen this look, or experienced it, you know that if there is such a concept as “sacred”—meaning: the best, the highest possible to man—this look is the sacred, the not-to-be-betrayed, the not-to-be-sacrificed for anything or anyone.

Ayn Rand

Fundamentally, Maria Montessori and Ayn Rand taught that an individual’s life is his highest value. In the context of education, this means that each child’s life is uniquely precious. Our overarching goal at LePort reflects this view: we strive to offer a superior education within a culture that recognizes how special each child truly is, and just how wonderful life can really be.

In the end, we believe that life matters, that it should be enjoyed. And we are very proud to offer a safe and caring environment where that idea is taken seriously, where children can learn to their heart’s content – and love, love, love doing so. We would not be the school we are today if it were not for Maria Montessori, Ayn Rand, and the many, many others who have influenced the way we view education, the way we view life. And so we thank the great educators who came before us, who made today possible.

If you have questions about the people and ideas that have contributed to LePort Schools, please let us know.

Jesse McCarthy

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This week, a parent asked the following question on Berkley Parents Net, a well-read Bay Area forum:

Hi there,

We are looking for preschools for our daughter, and are wondering about parents’ thoughts on whether sending your child to Montessori for just 2-3 years is worth the cost over other play-based daycares. We can’t afford to do a Montessori school for her whole education–do the two years make a difference?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Parent on Berkley Parents Net

It’s a good question, and one that I bet many parents have.

At age six, my daughter just completed a mid-year move-up from the Montessori preschool class to the Montessori elementary class, after about 3 years in the Montessori program at two different Montessori preschools, and my answer is a qualified yes—if two conditions are met.

1. Even 2-3 years of Montessori preschool can have a huge impact, especially if you can make it possible for your child to stay through the critical third year of Montessori primary (the equivalent of traditional kindergarten.) Montessori preschool, done well, is a 3-year cycle: a child typically starts at age three, and spends a lot of time learning foundational skills during the next two years. He’ll strengthen his arm, wrist and hand muscles doing activities such as pouring water, washing tables, transferring objects with spoons etc. He’ll develop the skill of concentrating, by building the pink tower, matching sound cylinders, and making maps of the world by tracing puzzle pieces and coloring in the maps. He’ll be introduced to the letters of the alphabet with sound games and by tracing sandpaper letters; he’ll begin to build words with the moveable alphabet, and start to learn about math with number rods, spindles, and the bead materials.

   If he attends right from age three, then by age 5 (i.e. before kindergarten), he’ll typically have learned his letter sounds, will be able to write the letters and sound out simple words.  He’ll have learned the basics of numbers to 100 and beyond. He’ll be able to choose activities independently, complete multi-step processes, focus on a task for an hour or more. He’ll have developed strong social skills: taking turns with materials, sitting attentively at group time, asking for help politely without interrupting, and looking out for his peers, helping younger ones at tasks he has already mastered. All of these will get him more than ready for traditional kindergarten: in fact, many Montessori 5-year-olds have already accomplished most of what is expected of children by the end of Kindergarten! Yet it would be a shame to take him out of Montessori at this point…

   

   California writing standards – Kindergarten

   Because then, in the third year, the magic happens: with the careful preparation of the prior two years, most Montessori children make a HUGE leap in their capabilities during the third year in the program. Suddenly, they go from sounding out individual letters, to reading 2nd or 3rd grade level books. They go from carefully writing a few words, in still tentative cursive, to writing multi-sentence stories, in handwriting that’s better than that of many 2nd or 3rd graders. And they get math, progressing from concrete materials (like the Golden Beads) to arithmetic into the thousands.

   

   

   I’ve just seen it with my daughter: In September, at the beginning of her 3rd year in Montessori primary (the time she’d have entered kindergarten), she read longer, but still phonetically controlled books, like Mr. Sanchez and the Kickball Champ. Now, shortly after she turned six, she’s able to read real books, reading aloud entire shorter books like Amelia Bedelia or Poppleton to us,or alternating pages with me as we read chapter books like The Boxcar Children or In Aunt Lucy’s Kitchen. She writes longer stories, and her handwriting has become much more neat and consistent.

   

   After three years in the Montessori classroom, she’s not only made great strides in academics; she’s learned that work is fun (the story in the picture is a voluntary, Saturday-morning effort, not required homework); she can focus for hours at a time, a crucial prerequisite for all future schooling. She’s independent in fulfilling her own needs, making her own snacks, helping with cooking at home, taking a shower on her own, and getting herself ready for school and bed with nary any assistance from us. And, maybe most importantly, she’s developed a great self-confidence in her ability as a learner, and an eagerness to mentor and help others (including her little brother, at least most of the time.)

   If our daughter were to go to traditional school for first grade next fall (which she won’t), my main concern would be that she’d be bored, and that she wouldn’t be happy at being told to do things in lockstep with a large group of children. She’d probably resent the mindless worksheet work all too common in many other schools, and the need to do busy-work homework with limited choices. But at least she’d have learned to love learning, she’d have mastered reading, writing and the basics of arithmetic, so that no matter what class she’d enter, or what teacher she’d encounter, the basics would be there, for life.

2. Make sure that you enroll in a real Montessori preschool. Unfortunately, the name Montessori alone doesn’t mean much: it’s not trade-marked, and anybody can call their preschool Montessori, whether or not they abide by the philosophy. Many preschools, in fact, take some pieces of Montessori, but then mix it up with different ideas, so that some preschools are really mostly play-based preschools, with some Montessori ideas and activities thrown in.

   So what is a parent to do? I didn’t know much about Montessori four years ago, so I picked a “Monte-sorta” preschool for our daughter, and later found I needed to move schools to give her a real Montessori preschool experience all the way through her third year of the three-year Montessori cycle. Now, I have a cheat sheet for you: here are four things to look for in assessing whether a school is a true Montessori preschool.

• Mixed-age preschool classrooms: ages 3-6 in one class. Much of the Montessori preschool magic depends on a family-like community of mixed ages, where one teacher leads a child through three years of development. So ask each school you consider, before you even tour: do you have mixed-age classes, or do you separate out the kindergarten aged children? Many schools bow to convention and have narrower age ranges (2-3, 3-4, Pre-K, K): those are not authentic Montessori programs.



• A three-hour, child-led “work period.” Freedom of choice and time for child-led, uninterrupted exploration of the Montessori materials is indispensible for your child to have the full benefit of Montessori. Good schools offer 2 ½ to 3 hours of “work time” in the morning, and 2 hours in the afternoon—time that’s not interrupted by any mandatory group activities, such as circle, snack, or teacher-led arts & crafts. Many so-called Montessori schools instead have at most 90 minutes of work time, and then lots of play-based type group activities.



• AMI or another year-long, in person Montessori training. Being a Montessori teacher is a challenging calling: the teacher must master hundreds of activities, each of which have special ways of presenting them, all of which need to be taught in a certain order, and only when a child is ready for them. That’s why the best training programs, such as that offered by the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), take a full year of full-time, on-site training under the guidance of master instructors—and why the best Montessori schools then pair up new teachers with a more senior, Master teacher, for at least 6-9 months, to learn the craft. Be wary of teachers who only have a “quickie” training, have learned their craft via a distance, internet learning course, or who are only trained “in house.” While some of these may be wonderful teachers, you can’t assume that; you’ll want to spend a lot of time observing in their class, or ideally have a knowledgeable Montessorian observe in the class to assess whether the teacher able to implement an authentic Montessori preschool program.
  
  
• Teaching cursive handwriting. Most Montessori preschools, even some excellent ones, have bowed to the unfortunate standard of teaching print for handwriting first, then re-training children in 2nd or 3rd grade to write cursive. If you see a preschool that teaches cursive from the start, as intended by Dr. Montessori because it is consistent with a child’s motor development needs, this is a good indication that the school is taking Montessori seriously, and is willing to do what’s right, even if it’s not the easy path. But don’t take the lack of cursive as a death blow: while the first three criteria are must-have items for great Montessori preschools, this last one is just an indicator, and I wouldn’t throw out an otherwise good preschool if it taught print.

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