Breaking the Paradigm
Episodes
Trust, Control, and Fear: Confronting Authoritarianism in Montessori Education with Charles Terranova
07 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dear Paradigm Breakers,We are starting this post with something new and different- sharing a new chapter for us at Breaking the Paradigm/Developing Ed...
Montessori Is the Education of the Adult, Not the Child: The Quiet Revolution of Teacher Transformation with Marie Crutcher
23 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the real work of education isn’t preparing children- but preparing adults?Sometimes we focus so intently on where we’re getting students, ...
Why Teachers Must Be Brave Enough to Refuse the Status Quo with Bruce Robbins
09 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the biggest barrier to student capability is our own fear of letting go?Sometimes we claim students “can’t” do things—but the truth is...
If We Want Equity Later, We Must Actualize It Now: Why the Means of Education Must Match Its Ends with Bob Blecher
26 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the very structure of our schools prevents the transformation we seek?Sometimes the barriers to real education aren’t the teachers or studen...
The Adjacent Possible: When Adolescents Lead Adults to Higher Consciousness with Karen Kelley
12 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why can’t you give an elevator speech about Montessori? What do quantum physics and indigenous research methods have in common? And how do 13-year-o...
Beyond Spiritual Preparation: Creating Liberatory Cultures in Montessori Schools with Koren Clark
28 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you discover that the inner work you've been avoiding as an educator is actually the most critical component of serving children aut...
Learning as Contribution: Why We Should "Assess" What Students Give, Not What They Get with Dr. Ben Freud
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the only thing that mattered in a presentation wasn't eye contact or slide design, but whether you moved your audience to think and feel diffe...
The Montessori Mafia: Breaking Down the Gates to Liberatory Education with Emily Bloyd
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did a method created for marginalized children in Rome's slums become primarily accessible to affluent white families?Emily Bloyd exposes this pai...
Relationships, Meaning, and Support: What Public Montessori Teachers Really Need with Caroline Robbins
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we focus so intensely on child flourishing in Montessori schools while burning out the adults who make it possible? If we believe in human dign...
Emotional Solidarity and the Courage to Resist: Why Developmental Education Is Democracy's Best Hope with Ellen Roche
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If freedom is our highest democratic value, why don't we give young people freedom in schools? Ellen Roche, my latest guest on Breaking the Paradigm, ...
From Deficit to Equity: Building Truly Inclusive Montessori Communities
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If Maria Montessori started her work with children who had learning differences, why does modern Montessori have a reputation for not serving neurodiv...
Unscheduled: How We're Breeding Compliance When We Should Be Fostering Agency with Taylor Henry
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if efficiency is actually the enemy of deep learning?When we prioritize productivity over process, we rob both educators and students of the mome...
Radical Love and Student Agency: Creating Classrooms Where Every Student Can Dream with Sawsan Jaber, Crystal Watson, and Marlo Bagsik
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the key to transforming education isn't new curriculum, but radical love?When we center radical love, hope, and relationality in our classroom...
What Happens When... Choosing Curiosity Over Control with Jason Blair
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if stepping back actually helps students step forward?Sometimes our impulse to control becomes the very thing that limits learning. When we creat...
Dignity as our Birthright: A Lever for Global Peace with Kathy Minardi
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the key to global peace and understanding is dignity?When we truly understand dignity as our birthright, rather than something to be earned, i...
The Status Quo Won't Save Us: Introducing Provocations
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When we talk about education- what do we really mean?Last week, I attended an alumni event called Education at a Crossroads put on by the University o...
The Power of Public Montessori with Jihane Mrad and Corey Borgman
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“Montessori is only for affluent children.”Have you heard that one before?It’s one of many myths about Montessori that is propagated in the US a...
Is Peace Problematic? A Conversation with Justin Tosco on Language and Montessori
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The language we use has power- to restrict or to liberate.Ideally, our language points toward liberation for all, reflecting the inclusive potential o...
Challenging our "Monte-Assumptions" with Jonathan Wolff
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Which of these have you heard before?* “My teacher trainer told me to do X when I did my Montessori diploma, and that’s how I’ve been doing it e...
Cultivating Digital Citizenship in Children and Adolescents with Dana Anderson
11 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What is your emotional response to students “cheating” using technology?The New York Times recently published an article titled “Everyone is Che...
The Challenge with AI Isn't the Technology: It's our System of "Schooling" with Dr. Sabba Quidwai
04 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We live in an era where the term “education innovation” is thrown around constantly. New tools, techniques, apps, and trends are nearly abundant.Y...
The Power of Reflective Practice with Sue Pritzker
27 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Montessori education, it’s commonplace to discuss how to support young people toward independence.We prepare environments that are designed to fo...
Montessori IS Social Justice with Hannah Richardson
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve spoken and written at length on this Substack about how Montessori cannot be separated from social justice.Montessori herself was a social revo...
DEI is Non-Negotiable: Creating a Meaningful Experience for Every Student with Jen Cort
06 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are in a time where issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion are seen as “divisive” and “harmful,” and teachers and students across the c...
Montessori's Profound Discovery: How Love Leads to Human Unity with Tammy Oesting
30 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In The Absorbent Mind, Maria Montessori wrote the following: “Love, like that which we feel for the child, must exist potentially between man and ma...
Don't Let Fear Control Your Teaching: Exploring Mindfulness and Montessori with Liz Goodman
23 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you observe your students, do you react or respond?This is not just a semantic difference.When we react to our students, we engage on impulse. We...
Do Parents Understand Montessori? Reimagining Parent Education With Isabella Cai
09 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do parents really want to know about their child’s Montessori education?As a Montessori practitioner, I could talk about the importance of a de...
The Harder We Push, the Worse it Gets: The Imperative for Student Power with Mike Nicholson
23 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you look at the history of educational reform in the United States, it feels like we’ve tried everything:* No Child Left Behind* Race to the To...
Boys, Masculinity, and Education Pt 2: Beyond the Gender Binary with Tom Brown and Justin Tosco
16 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do we support the positive development of boys in our educational spaces?How does creating a truly gender inclusive classroom lift up all young pe...
Stop Expecting You From Other People
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you interact with others, what are you expecting from them?If you asked me this question a few weeks ago, I would have said that I went into inte...
Boys, Masculinity, and Education with Justin Tosco and Tom Brown
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our boys are not alright.An ideal education environment support all children, and meets all of their developmental needs.However, we have a systemic p...
Young People Are More Capable Than You Think with Beven Barnhart
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When I first observed in a Montessori toddler classroom, I was in awe.Children, as young as two years old, were handling glass plates and cups by them...
Montessori for All: A Conversation with Justin Tosco
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when two former Montessori students, now Montessori administrators and leaders, sit down to have a conversation?You get a conversation th...
What Matters Most in Montessori Education? Spiritual Preparation and Giving Ourselves Grace with Suzanne Tipton
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do educators balance the need to critically reflect on our actions with the importance of giving ourselves grace as we grow in our practice as edu...
Am I a Vitally Responsive Practitioner? Unpacking Spiritual Preparation of Montessori Adults with Tammy Oesting
24 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do we awaken to our deepest sense of purpose and connection to our work as guides and teachers?How does discovering ourselves in the context of th...
#U Must Learn: Why Montessori Education is Common Sense Education
17 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Montessori education is designed to be an aid to life. Our goal is to support the positive human development of each student in our care, and to ensur...
Education for the Development of the Heart with Andrew Kutt
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is the purpose of education?For Andrew Kutt, founder of the Oneness-Family Montessori School, the purpose of education is the development of the ...
Love, Trust, and Deep Relationships: Cornerstones of a Developmental Education
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What if we’re focusing on the wrong things in education?I’ve been posing this question lately. I fear that those of us in Montessori, Progressive,...
Why Do We Seek to Control Children? Discussing Montessori Education and Human Flourishing with Tom Brown
29 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The idea of controlling children is one I hear often in traditional education discourse.The logic goes that we, as adults, know what our young people ...
Embracing Learner-Centered Education with Kyle Wagner: Shifting from Choreographer to Coach
08 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The most beautiful, and frustrating, aspect of learner-centered education is that there is no “single way” to go about it.Many “edu-celebrities”...
Your Teacher Desk Is Holding You Back
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the best decisions I made as an educator was to get rid of my desk.My pedagogy and my relationships with students were hugely impacted by this ...
Why Young People Need Autonomy to Thrive
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The traditional paradigm of education is fundamentally based on compliance and control. Getting students to sit in rows, stand in a straight line, tur...
Breaking the Cycle of Math Phobia Starts With Adults: A Conversation with Kelly Jonelis, Part 2
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a language and humanities educator, I used to “comfort” students who were “not math people” like me.“It’s ok, not everyone is a ‘math...
You ARE Good at Math: Encouraging learners and educators to reconsider their relationship with mathematics with Kelly Jonelis
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We need to break the paradigm on math education because it helps our young people unlock a richer understanding of their world and a deeper level of c...
From Rows to a Circle: How Circle Practice Transforms our Pedagogy in a Learner-Driven Classroom with Carol LaLiberte
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What do you picture when you envision a typical classroom?You probably think of desks in rows facing a blackboard or podium, which is reserved for the...
What Does it Take to be a Montessori Educator?
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Montessori paradigm is based on a fundamental principle; one which is so engrained in the method that we often take it for granted.We believe that...
What Does It Mean to "Reimagine Education?"
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to reimagine education given our current context of chaos and inequity?This is what I discussed with my friend and colleague Wendy F...