Breaking the Paradigm

What happens when two former Montessori students, and lifelong Montessorians, sit down for a conversation? You get this episode of Breaking the Paradigm with my friend Joe Campbell. You might know Joe from the Montessori conference circuit, as the owner of Learning Sunshine and as a publisher of Montessori books through Parent Child Press; what you might not know is that not only was Joe a Montess...

What needs to change about the way we prepare educators such that they can fully embody scientific pedagogy, engage fully in their spiritual preparation, and bring about a world of equitable interdependence? This is a question that Taylor Henry, Kelly Jonelis, and I have been discussing together over the last few months. It’s led to us deciding to create a “Fellowship in Scientific Pedagogy” for M...

There are some people who I could talk to about Montessori and how education must be transformed all day- and Emily Bloyd is one of those people. You may know her from her viral social media channels, where she goes by Montessori Miss Emily, or as The Montessori Mafia here on Substack. She’s someone who not only talks a big game about how we can bring Montessori to every child, but she also walks...

I am so excited to announce that Developing Education has a brand new website! You’ll be able to see all of our offerings where we take the ideas in this podcast and bring them to life. Go check it out at www.developingeducation.org - we can’t wait to see you there! Maria Montessori’s birthday, August 31st, corresponded with the first day of school for me, as well as marking 10 years in education....

I am so excited to announce that Developing Education has a brand new website! You’ll be able to see all of our offerings where we take the ideas in this podcast and bring them to life. Go check it out at www.developingeducation.org - we can’t wait to see you there! There’s a single part of a teacher or leaders practice that (in my opinion) makes or breaks whether they will succeed in creating tru...

I am so excited to announce that Developing Education, of which this podcast is a part of, has a brand new website! You’ll be able to see all of our offerings where we take the ideas in this podcast and bring them to life. Go check it out at www.developingeducation.org - we can’t wait to see you there! It all started at a doctors appointment, as I was reading Things Become Other Things by Craig Mo...

I’ve spent my career being told that shooting for the “ideal environment” for adolescents is impossible; that we must be “pragmatic” and make compromises when necessary in our work. What if the problem isn’t reality but our understanding of if? What if the “ideal environment” wasn’t a state of finality or achievement, but a never ending process that could begin immediately? In this episode of Brea...

Are you willing to be inconvenienced for someone else’s liberation… And your own? My guest, Suzanne Yatim, is a Palestinian-American actress, writer, filmmaker, and co-owner of Montessori Thrive. Her directorial debut, Breathe , filmed in Palestine, is currently in post-production. She’s also the bestselling author of Post Pardon Me , a dark comedy exploring motherhood and mental health. And when...

What is the best way to support students with diverse learning needs? It’s the question that almost every educator I know is asking. There’s a massive apparatus of intervention and support built around labels, diagnoses, and deficit-based thinking that was designed for conventional classrooms where compliance and uniformity are the goals. It’s referred to as the medical deficit model. When that ap...

I was honored to deliver the keynote at this year’s Montessori Educators of Alabama conference around their theme of “Better Together.” I wanted to use this time to sit with a question that’s been nagging at me for years: if Montessori education is so revolutionary, why haven’t we achieved the world of peace and justice that Montessori described? Why, nearly a century into this work, are we still...

There’s a quiet truth most schools are avoiding right now: our students are navigating AI, social media, and digital life every single day; and if we’re not in that conversation with them, something else is. Probably AI itself. That was one of the most clarifying moments from our recent webinar with Dana Anderson, Building a Positive Tech Culture at Your School (and Why It’s Not About AI Bans and...

What if the biggest obstacle in Montessori is moving past our fear? Kathy Leitch, executive director of the International Montessori Council, joins Breaking the Paradigm to explore what it really means to carry Montessori forward as a living, experimental method rather than a fixed recipe. With decades of experience in Montessori schools around the world, Kathy makes a case that’s both provocative...

What if peace education has nothing to do with teaching kids to be calm? Here’s the provocation from Tammy Oesting in her third Breaking the Paradigm apprearance: Peace education isn’t about mindfulness exercises or conflict resolution scripts. It’s not the “kumbaya approach” where we shield children from the world’s hard truths. Real peace education creates conditions that produce a new human who...

What if the most powerful thing Montessori educators could do for children right now isn’t in the classroom, but in the halls of Congress? Mixed-age groupings. The three-hour work cycle. Observation-based curriculum. Teacher preparation rooted in human development. Everything that makes Montessori transformative deserves to be reflected in the laws, funding streams, and regulations that shape what...

What if depression and anxiety in young people aren’t signs that something is wrong with them, but proof that something is wrong with what we’re doing to them? This is a special three-part episode recorded before, during, and after the Student Power Summit in Los Angeles: a conference that truly and authentically centered student voice. Students from across the country weren’t just in attendance,...

What if the crisis we’re facing isn’t something to be solved, but something to be composted? Raj Chawla and Andrew Kutt joined me for a conversation that asks us to slow down long enough to feel what’s actually happening beneath the surface of our world, our systems, and ourselves. What Raj illuminates so beautifully is that the assumptions driving our global unraveling: separation, domination, th...

This was our first ever live stream with Breaking the Paradigm, and Kelly and I tackled a question that keeps coming up in our work: What are we really afraid adolescents will do when left unsupervised? The answers people give, ranging from mischief to far more absurd fears, reveal something deeper about how we view adolescents: That there is a fundamental mistrust that erodes our ability to truly...

Yesterday, ICE murdered another innocent bystander, Alex Pretti. He was a US citizen Earlier this week, they took a 5 year old hostage in order to detain his parents. They are legally allowed in this country. Last week, they murdered Renee Good at point blank range outside of her home. These aren’t isolated incidents- it’s a call for those of us who are pushing the education revolution forward. Ch...

What if honoring the whole child means honoring the whole of humanity? Sometimes we convince ourselves that our work stops at the classroom door- that if we just prepare beautiful environments and follow the child, peace will somehow emerge on its own. But we don’t have time to wait for perfectly prepared children to fix the world. We need justice now. In this urgent conversation with Hannah Richa...

What does it mean to create a space where people truly belong? Under Dr. KaLinda Bass-Barlow’s leadership, The Association Montessori International/USA (AMI/USA) is reimagining what it means to honor Maria Montessori’s legacy while meeting the evolving needs of our time and place. In this conversation, Dr. KaLinda shares the intentional work happening at AMI/USA: opening the annual conference to a...

What if we organized Montessori organizations the way we organize Montessori classrooms? When The Institute of Montessori Training’s previous organization became financially unviable, Carolyn Sweet and Suzanne Tipton faced a choice: walk away or build something radically different. They chose to create the first worker cooperative Montessori training organization, where decisions are made collecti...

The best things I’ve ever done have been emergent- arising out of good conversation and dialogue with others. This is the MO of Breaking the Paradigm; bringing together Montessori and progressive practitioners and letting the right conversation emerge - no script, no pre-determined outcome, just trust in the power of presence. And was that spirit of emergence that led Justin Tosco, now a member of...

What if friendship with students isn’t unprofessional- but essential? Sometimes the most radical thing we can do is challenge the unspoken rules about teacher-student relationships. When we bring our authentic selves to the classroom and treat young people as worthy of genuine connection, learning becomes possible in ways control never could. In this conversation with Jarrett Arnold—a science and...

Dear Paradigm Breakers, We are starting this post with something new and different- sharing a new chapter for us at Breaking the Paradigm/Developing Education as we start our third year of operations in January! In response to what we have heard from so many of you, that this podcast has given you a deeper sense of community and connection, we are happy to share that we are hosting a six week cour...

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, on outcomes and benchmarks, that we forget to ask: what do we (the adults) need to serve human development? When we shift our attention from the child’s future to our own preparation, everything changes. In this contemplative conversation with Marie Cru...