little bets

Daring to stumble on the road to discovery

by Peter Sims

INVENTION and discovery emanate from the ability to try seemingly wild possibilities; to feel comfortable being wrong before being right; to live in the world as a careful observer, open to different experiences; to play with ideas without prematurely judging oneself or others; to persist through difficulties; and to have a willingness to be misunderstood, sometimes for long periods, despite the conventional wisdom.

All these abilities can be learned and developed, but doing so requires us to unlearn many of our tendencies toward linear planning and perfectionism.

As the technology pioneer Alan Kay put it: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” It begins with a little bet. What will yours be?

the bubble test

Fill in the circles. There is only one right answer. Stop when time is called.

Secret of success = failure?

This article in the New York times created good buzz among the parents here at Post Oak. They've heard this from us before...

The power of "yes"

A recent e-mail from Post Oak parent Deepa Poduval:

Aashna (4 1/2 years old) reminded us of a valuable parenting lesson this weekend and I thought we should share it with you since you will recognize POS' imprint in it!

Aashna's sister, Ashwini, is now 7 months old and has just started to crawl. She has been particularly attracted to the power outlets we have in the floor of our living room for our table lamps. Since she is still relatively unsteady and slow while she tests her new skills, Raj and I have had fair warning when she starts to approach the power outlets and have stopped her before she was able to get too close. We would look her in the eyes and say "No" firmly and repeat it a couple of times (for reinforcement!). Each time, Ashwini would look at us with those big, sparkling eyes, give us a toothless grin and set right off toward the outlet again. This afternoon I was at it again with Ashwini when Aashna walked by, saw us and went running to get Ashwini one of her favorite sqeak toys and held it out in the opposite direction from the power outlet and said "This is Yes!", "This is Yes!". And sure enough - Ashwini abandoned her journey to the power outlet and set off in pursuit of her toy. I'm pretty sure this will not be a permanent solution to Ashwini's fascination with the power outlet but we enjoyed and appreciated watching the way Aashna's mind worked while ours defaulted to saying "No"! Aashna saw the problem and as a Montessori child rushed to the rescue with a simple, yet practical solution - she instinctively offered choices and used the power of the affirmative.

Definitely a testament to her Montessori journey at POS every day!

Deepa

quick draw (superwoman)

A second You Tube Quick Draw video done by a parent singing the value of Montessori education.

The Single Best Idea

Steve Denning's latest blog for Forbes: "The single best idea for reforming K-12 education." He doesn't much care for conventional education which he compares to the management system that emerged from the 20th century factory model. He presents an alternative approach and says, by the way, that we don't need to reinvent the wheel. It's already been done.

EFs pt 2

The Wall Street Journal has picked up the story about EFs. Here's Jonah Lehrer's version:

EFs

Executive functions.

What are they? (hint: think self-management, self-control, self-direction)

Why are they important? (hint: success in school and in life)

How can we help children develop them? (hint: Montessori education is the most comprehensive school curriculum to do this.)

Read this article (be sure to scroll down the page for the article) in Science magazine for the full story.

or this article in the Weekly Post for my take on it.