Your Mission

Through comparing the methods of education here in the public school system in the US, compared with the education my daughters get/got from a Montessori Public Charter School, one thing becomes really clear. The reason why the traditional schooling fails is because the kids are "fed" the fare of what is to be learned cattle style. Not free roaming healthy cattle mind you... I'm sure that you have similar experiences wherever you reside. The problem one could think, lies fully with the school system. I don't see it quite like that. The school system needs adjusting, true, but I believe the problem lies with the level of individual consciousness and ability to be responsible for oneself. The problem lies in being dormant and accepting that system as it is, without changing one's own experience for oneself.

I am not a very political person. I have always withdrawn from great demonstrations against something or other, even if the activism sounds justified. I always have left those kinds of protesting things to those who felt drawn to it. That's the key point - some feel drawn to do certain things. Some don't feel drawn to those things, they feel drawn to other things.

All those of us who have not had the joy of a Montessori based education, are probably very removed from what they are supposed to be doing in their lives. (If you read this and don't agree, then you can possibly count yourself just lucky and one of the few who have found their calling.) We are adults now, way past schooling, or so we thought. However in this adulthood, there is a nice little freedom that we tend to avoid. We are perfectly capable to continue learning. We have the freedom to learn whatever and however we want. We can, with our more adult sense of maturity, decide what structure we want to build around our learning process and when we feel an urge to explore a certain topic, a certain field of information, then, so my belief, we must heed that call and begin learning and exploring what we are driven into or attracted by. Even if there's no money in it! (Mostly there isn't any in it for us at first glance.)

If we decide to become kids again, if we decide to heal the damage the schooling we received has caused in our systems, if we decide to become whole and step into our full power, we have a responsibility. This responsibility is to wake up from the nap that was induced when we went to our school back when, wherever we were. This waking up can begin with a sense of gratitude that we have learned certain things, like reading and writing - we are absolutely fully equipped to take responsibility for any further learning and exploring. We have innate curiosity about things, we have an intuition that guides us to whatever we wish to explore and if you read these words, you certainly have access to the internet and a computer. No more excuses! You have all it takes to go out and learn what you feel you want to learn. The absolute joy that comes from learning what we want to learn is seen in a Montessori classroom. We can make our own world our own Montessori classroom, where we bring in the basics of maths/reading and writing as tools to explore to our hearts' content. Who said that we are too old for learning ? Toss that thought out if it crosses your mind - it's simply not true. Our minds are far from being used to their full capacity: Given the potential of our physical brain, we owe it to our lifetime to at least give it a shot and figure out what we could learn next.

Become like these wonderful Montessori children, that have an innate zest for learning, own their own learning process and are accountable for what they have learned. This will create creativity, joy and continued mental growth and with being in line with your field of interest, I believe that you will be in line with your mission in life much sooner than if you sit in meditative contemplation for hours (thinking of you all sitting in lotus position, I believe your knees will thank you later!).

Stop making excuses, the time is now to embark on a path of joyous curiosity and find what tickles your fancy - allow yourself to explore just that and if one thing leads to the next, follow the thread, for at some point, you will find the area of expertise that you feel most comfortable in - Voilà! There's your mission!

(If you're curious about Montessori education, "google" is your friend - happy researching).