In this episode, Melanie and Michael converse with Charlotte Cushman -- trained Montessori teacher, experienced Montessori school administrator and owner, writer of books on Montessori education -- about her experiences in her Montessori career: lessons taught and lessons learned.

We discuss:
-her background
-her training under Lena Wikramaratne, friend and associate of Maria Montessori herself
-how children learn
-the backstory to Charlotte's books
-lessons learned about learning and teaching


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About Charlotte: "Charlotte Cushman attended Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, where she majored in elementary education. Immediately upon graduation, she took Montessori training at the AMI Montessori Training Center in Palo Alto, CA from Lena Wikramaratne (a colleague and friend of Maria Montessori). She then taught at Montessori schools for twelve years and in 1985 she co-founded her own school, Independence Montessori, and later joined her husband's school, Minnesota Renaissance School. Your Life Belongs to You is the story she told her students over the years about the founding of the United States of America."

About Charlotte, see also:
1. http://whymontessorimatters.wixsite.com/montessorimatters/about-me
2. https://www.yourlifebelongstoyou.net/about-the-author

Her books:
1. "Montessori: Why It Matters For Your Child's Success And Happiness" by Charlotte Cushman
a. A Website for the book: http://whymontessorimatters.wixsite.com/montessorimatters
b. On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Matters-Childs-Success-Happiness/dp/1889439398/

2. "Your Life Belongs to You: A True Story About the Birth of the United States" by Charlotte Cushman
a. A Website for the book: https://www.yourlifebelongstoyou.net
b. On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Life-Belongs-You-United/dp/188943941X/


Contact Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-katragadda-nctm-9b14522a
Contact Michael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-gold-2883921/ or http://goldams.com/


External links:
1. Thales "seeing triangles everywhere:" http://dbanach.com/homepage/thales.htm

2. Montessori Education
a. https://www.montessori.edu
b. http://imsmontessori.org/index.html
c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education
d. https://amiusa.org

3. Biography of Maria Montessori
a. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXqeTYHn0p4
b. https://www.whitepaperpress.us/bbc-documentary-on-maria-montessori/
c. https://montessori-ami.org/resource-library/facts/biography-dr-maria-montessori

4. Books by Dr. Montessori
a. Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook: A Short Guide to Her Ideas and Materials: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Montessoris-Own-Handbook-Materials/dp/0805209212/
b. The Discovery of the Child by Maria Montessori: https://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Child-Maria-Montessori/dp/0345336569/
c. The Absorbent Mind: A Classic in Education and Child Development for Educators and Parents by Maria Montessori: https://www.amazon.com/Absorbent-Mind-Maria-Montessori/dp/0805041567/

5. "What is Montessori / Mario Montessori and Lena Wikramaratne interviewed by Elsa Knight Thompson:" https://archive.org/details/pacifica_radio_archives-BB1697

6. Montessori geometric solids
a. https://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Geometric-Solids-Stands-Bases/dp/B0070XYZHO
b. https://montessoriacademy.com.au/montessori-geometric-solids/

7. The "Montessori Mafia"
a. https://livingmontessori.com/the-montessori-mafia/
b. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/09/26/the-montessori-mafia-why-tech-titans-like.html
c. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/02/is-montessori-the-origin-of-google-amazon/#41b29cde467a
d. https://hbr.org/2011/07/montessori-builds-innovators

8. The concept of "the crow epistemology"
a. "In connection with the assertion that the idea of number seems to be understood by the higher orders of animals, the following brief quotation from a paper by Sir John Lubbock may not be out of place: 'Leroy ... mentions a case in which a man was anxious to shoot a crow. "To deceive this suspicious bird, the plan was hit upon of sending two men to the watch house, one of whom passed on, while the other remained; but the crow counted and kept her distance. The next day three went, and again she perceived that only two retired. In fine, it was found necessary to send five or six men to the watch house to put her out in her calculation. The crow, thinking that this number of men had passed by, lost no time in returning.' From this he inferred that crows could count up to four." ' " (From The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development by Levi Leonard Conant, published 1896, quoted on http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/Crow-epistemology)
b. "The Crow Epistemology" by Mr. Cropper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD7fAHa8Aog
c. The concept of "unit-economy," which identifies how concepts help us deal with the problem of "the crow epistemology:" http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/unit-economy.html

9. Research and articles on the counting abilities of crows
a. " How Do Crows Count? Study Examines Mathematical Crows" by Zawn Villines: https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/study-examines-mathematical-crows-0625151
b. "Counting abilities of crows" by Kaeli Swift, Ph.D.: https://corvidresearch.blog/2015/06/11/counting-crows/
c. "Counting crows! Birds can make calculations like humans by using 'number neurons' by Sarah Griffiths: "https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3118366/Counting-crows-Birds-make-calculations-like-humans-using-number-neurons.html
d. "Counting Crows" By Miguel Carvalho: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/counting-crows/
e. "The Numerical Competency of Two Bird Species (Corvus splendens and Acridotheres tristis)" by Nor Amira Abdul Rahman, Nik Fadzly, Najibah Mohd Dzakwan, and Nur Hazwani Zulkifli: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4156476/




Image courtesy Charlotte Cushman.