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Comment by throwaway71271 | Hacker News Reader

I mean that it is an attempt to build a system that integrates the child so deeply, that the child can not build resistance, Montessiori's ideal is to start education at birth, how else can you 'shape' the person to take their role and responsibility in society.

In the end, it is still a system for producing workers that fit in whatever the current regime needs, and I think there should be some space for "i dont want to be a part of this, there must be some other way to live"

The first few pages of brave new world gave me this vibe, thats why I said its in the eye of the beholder, you read as much into a book as out of it.

In the same time, my daughter is growing up to be critically thinking and self aware and independent and is enjoying the school very much.

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I’m surprised you view Montessori education as some sinister thing despite your daughter doing well with it. I feel like you might be overthinking things. Leaving aside Montessori’s somewhat grandiose speech, it’s just a pedagogical mode which allows for more student independence. The main benefit, IMO, is that it reduces the amount of arbitrariness on the part of the instructor. Seems obvious that children will prefer to be able to have some say over what they do day to day. I don’t see how that squares at all with your suggestion that it’s brainwashing students a la Brave New World.

Of course I am overthinking it, I am sending my kid there for the better part of the day :) if there is one thing I am allowed to overthink its the education system.

Elul was a Christian above all, so you can maybe understand it in that sense?

Who is Elul?

Jacques Ellul, the person throwaway7 cited as quoting Maria Motessori. Ellul was a Christian anarchist, which is of course redundant for most modalities of “Christian.” It explains the context of the Montessori reference, to me at least.

Edit: a nice concise explanation of his view on pedagogy and montessori: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jVvpVXdhCQg

> I mean that it is an attempt to build a system that integrates the child so deeply, that the child can not build resistance, Montessiori's ideal is to start education at birth, how else can you 'shape' the person to take their role and responsibility in society.

I don’t understand what you are saying here. Montessori education focuses on developing independence from a young age.

> In the same time, my daughter is growing up to be critically thinking and self aware and independent and is enjoying the school very much.

Sounds like a Montessori education after all.

I'm not sure there's a way to not start learning from birth. Avoiding systems of education won't stop a child from being shaped from birth, it just means that the "system" used to do the shaping is a hodge-podge of influences and decisions.

I guess I don't see the connection between acknowledging that children begin to learn from birth and you need to be aware of that in order to educate them, as well as understanding that education affects the end result on both a mental and emotional level and the jump to it being a system that produces workers that fit in whatever the current regime needs.

>In the end, it is still a system for producing workers that fit in whatever the current regime needs, and I think there should be some space for "i dont want to be a part of this, there must be some other way to live"

https://www.youtube.com/c/ForestAnon

you might be interested in this dude. he just walked away from society and built a hovel in the woods.

I just watched "Reply to Javier (Life is Worth Living)" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWHScqsSL4g and I have to say, this person is amazing. Thank you.

haha the FBI actually investigated him because he reads Jacques Ellul and he lives in the forest...

Right? He's one of my favorite niche internet personalities.

This is an important idea of course, but I don't think that a 5 year old is really equipped to make a principled and informed decision about whether to withdraw from society--the authority they will challenge is really just trying to get them to brush their teeth and learn the fundamentals of reading; the kid is not going to think up alternatives to capitalism.

There is a Montessori High School and Montessori University

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