Breaking the Paradigm

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...

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 we stop them from doing things. When we step back from compulsory, coercive control and trust young people with real responsibility, they rise to meet it in ways that surprise us. In this inspiring conversation with Bruce Robbins- a secondary educator for...

What if the very structure of our schools prevents the transformation we seek? Sometimes the barriers to real education aren’t the teachers or students—they’re built into the system itself. When we fragment knowledge into isolated disciplines and organize schools around hierarchy rather than unity, we limit the understanding that’s possible. In this profound conversation with Bob Blecher—a former...

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-olds consistently operate at higher stages of moral development than most adults? Karen Kelley, doctoral candidate in the nation’s first Montessori doctoral program at University of Wisconsin River Falls, tackles these questions by arguing that Montesso...

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 authentically? Koren Clark, founder of Know Thyself Inc and creator of the Liberatory Montessori Framework, exposes the uncomfortable truth that most Montessori educators know but rarely address: without transformed adults, we cannot create truly libera...

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 differently? What if instead of accumulating credentials that prove compliance, students earned recognition by making meaningful gifts to the world? Dr. Ben Freud, co-founder of the podcast Coconut Thinking and Head of Upper School at Green School Bali, c...

How did a method created for marginalized children in Rome's slums become primarily accessible to affluent white families? Emily Bloyd exposes this painful irony as Head of School in a Montessori program exclusively serving children experiencing homelessness. Her work reveals what happens when we return Montessori to its revolutionary roots instead of treating it as classroom decor for the privile...