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, the compulsion to control, aren’t just “out there” in our institutions and economies. They live in our nervous systems. They live in us.

This is not a comfortable conversation. It’s not meant to be.

What does it mean to truly unlearn something that has been passed down through generations of conditioning?

What do we lose when we let go of control, and what becomes possible when we do?

And what does any of this have to do with how we educate young people in a time of collapse?

Raj doesn’t offer answers. He offers something rarer: a slowing down, a bearing witness, an invitation to compost what modernity has accumulated in us so that something new might emerge in the clearing.

This is one of those episodes that will sit with you long after you’ve finished listening.

Thanks Raj and Andrew for a great conversation!

Are you a Montessori Adolescent educator or leader? Join our Montessori Adolescent Collaborative Forum!

Our Purpose:

Realizing Montessori’s vision of a new world starting with how we, as practitioners, transform through dialogue and community.

Why join the MAC Forum?

* Build community: Connect with fellow adolescent guides from around the world.

* Co-create the forum: Your questions, observations, and experiments shape the discussion.

* Access the archive: Can’t make it live? All sessions recorded and available.

Forums are held virtually every second Tuesday at 7:00pm EST

Join Today and Find Your Community!

The traditional education system had its chance.

Now it’s our turn.

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 see them for who they are.

Kelly and I dug into why we feel the need to surveil adolescents constantly, even in prepared Montessori environments where we claim to trust development.

Here’s what we explored:

When we create environments of control and compliance, we get exactly what we’re afraid of: adolescents who will act outside of the tight boundaries we try to draw. But when we prepare environments rooted in trust and autonomy, adolescents rise to meet our highest expectations and demonstrate meaningful, positive, and engaged citizenship. The question isn’t what they’ll do, it’s what our need to watch them reveals about our own inner preparation and reflection.

We also talked about the impossibility of power struggles (spoiler: you (the adult) always lose) and what it actually means to be the prepared adult in relationship with adolescents.

This episode launches our new Montessori Adolescent Collaborative (MAC) Forum!

Bi-Weekly Dialogues for Practitioners and Leaders.

MAC Forum Purpose:

Realizing Montessori’s vision of a new world starting with how we, as adolescent practitioners, transform through dialogue and community.

Why join the MAC Forum?

* Build community: Connect with fellow adolescent guides from around the world.

* Co-create the forum: Your questions, observations, and experiments shape the discussion.

* Access the archive: Can’t make it live? All sessions recorded and available.

Forums are held virtually every second Tuesday at 7:00pm EST in March

Join Today and Find Your Community!

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. Check out this conversation where Andrew discusses what this means for our work in education- how our human nature is NOT violence and competition, the role of education in creating emergent transformation toward equitable interdependence, and what we must be willing to lose to actually change these systems we find ourselves in.

Please share your additional comments, thoughts, and ideas of how we can come together in interdependence and solidarity. Our young people need our collective courage now, more than ever.

Thanks to all those who attended live, it was great to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Quotes and other resources I shared in the podcast:

* I LEAVE YOU FINALLY A RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. The world around us really belongs to youth, for youth will take over its future management. Our children must never lose their zeal for building a better world. They must not be discouraged from aspiring toward greatness, for they are to be the leaders of tomorrow. Nor must they forget that the masses of our people are still underprivileged, ill-housed, impoverished and victimized by discrimination. We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends. (Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, 1999, p. 62)

* Paths to the Light and Dark Sides of Human Nature: A Meta-analysis of the Prosocial Benefits of Autonomy and the Antisocial Costs of Control

* “The schoolchild who is continually discouraged and repressed comes to lack confidence in himself. He suffers from a sense of panic that goes by the name of timidity, a lack of self-assurance that in the adult takes the form of frustration and submissiveness and the inability to resist what is morally wrong. The obedience forced upon a child at home and in school, an obedience that does not recognize the rights of reason and justice, prepares the adult to resign himself to anything and everything. The widespread practice in educational institutions of exposing a child who makes mistakes to public disapproval, and indeed to a sort of public pillorying, instils in him an uncontrollable and irrational terror of public opinion, however unfair and erroneous that opinion may be. And through these and many other kinds of conditioning that lead to a sense of inferiority, the way is opened to the spirit of unthinking respect, and indeed almost mindless idolatry, in the minds of paralysed adults toward public leaders, who come to represent surrogate teachers and fathers, figures upon whom the child was forced to look as perfect and infallible. And discipline thus becomes almost synonymous with slavery.” Maria Montessori, Education and Peace, pg 16

* “Two paths lie open in the development of personality - one that leads to the man who loves and one that leads to the man who possesses. One leads to the man who has won his independence and works harmoniously with others, and the other to the human slave who becomes the prisoner of his possessions as he tries to free himself and who comes to hate his fellows.” Maria Montessori, Education and Peace, pg 53

* “Nowadays it is considered antiquated and out of fashion to talk of morality or religion. In fact, in these times it is felt that, in order to respect the opinions of adults, one should give no opinions to children. How strange and illogical to think that in order to respect the feelings of adults we must deprive the children of a very necessary help. Now I feel certain that the child himself can be a great assistance to us in understanding this question of morality. That is why I say that the life of the child and the adult are two different things that can help each other. Without doubt we can, for what the child has shown us, consider morality in relation to social life. For the meaning of morality is our relation with other people and our adaptation to life with other people. Therefore, morality and social life are very closely united.” Maria Montessori, “Moral and Social Education” in Citizen of the World, pg 19

* “The need that is so keenly felt for a reform of secondary schools concerns not only an educational, but also a human and social problem. This can be summed up in one sentence: Schools as they are today, are adapted neither to the needs of adolescence nor to the times in which we live. Society has not only developed into a state of utmost complication and extreme contrasts, but it has now come to a crisis in which the peace of the world and civilization itself are threatened. The crisis is certainly connected with the immense progress that has been made in science and its practical applications, but it has not been caused by them. More than to anything else it is due to the fact that the development of man himself has not kept pace with that of his external environment. While material progress has been extremely rapid and social life has been completely transformed, the schools have remained in a kind of arrested development, organized in a way that cannot have been well suited even to the needs of the past, but that today is actually in contrast with human progress. The reform of the secondary school may not solve all the problems of our times, but it is certainly a necessary step, and a practical, though limited, contribution to an urgently needed reconstruction of society. Everything that concerns education assumes today an importance of a general kind, and must represent a protection and a practical aid to the development of man; that is to say, it must aim at improving the individual in order to improve society.” Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence, pg 56

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 Richardson and Frank George IV, co-founders of the Peace Rebellion, we confront what it means to move from conversation to action. They’ve built a nonprofit organization providing Montessorians with concrete tools: emergency defense resources, ICE information, food access guides, labor rights support, community gathering spaces, and global solidarity dossiers.

Why must Montessorians engage in justice work right now?

How do we prepare environments for our children to grow into as adults, not just as students?

What’s the difference between peace as compliance and peace as liberation?

Hannah and Frank challenge us to see that Montessori is not safe from the world, it lives in the world. And that means we cannot abdicate our responsibility to create systems of justice and liberation for adults. From fighting for fair wages to providing SNAP benefits resources during government shutdowns, the Peace Rebellion embodies what it means to act with urgency.

This conversation isn’t about adding justice to your to-do list—it’s about recognizing that without justice work, we’re not fully embodying Montessori.

All these paradigm-shattering insights on action, urgency, and what it truly means to work toward peace, in this episode of Breaking the Paradigm.

Thanks, Hannah and Frank, for a great conversation!

Check out the Peace Rebellion here: https://www.thepeacerebellion.org/

You just heard another conversation that mainstream education won’t have.

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

Most educators listen to paradigm-breaking ideas and return to the same broken systems tomorrow.

But you’re different - you’re here because you refuse to accept “that’s just how education works.”

Ready to move from consuming revolutionary content to building revolutionary alternatives?

Start Free: Join the Paradigm Breakers Community - Connect with educators worldwide who are questioning unspoken norms and implementing authentic alternatives. Share your breakthrough moments, get support for your experiments, and contribute to frameworks we’re building together.

Go Deeper: Provocations Magazine Subscription - Quarterly investigations into topics mainstream education won’t touch. The conversations you just heard barely scratch the surface of what we explore.

Transform Everything: Premium Provocations (Launching Soon) - Join the waitlist for quarterly group coaching calls, 50% off all courses, and direct access to building the frameworks that will reshape education.

Here’s the reality: The educational revolution won’t be built by people who just listen to podcasts about change. It’s being built by educators who question everything, implement alternatives, and prove that transformation is possible.

The traditional education system had its chance.

Now it’s our turn.

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 all Montessori educators regardless of training, visiting over 20 schools in four months to listen and understand needs, and building partnerships across Montessori organizations.

Despite a tradition among Montessori organizations of competing with one another, Dr. KaLinda’s focus is clear and refreshing- we cannot keep competing with each other if we want to create the peace that Dr. Montessori fought so hard for in her lifetime. We must collaborate for the benefit for our children, teachers, and our world at large.

Dr. KaLinda’s moral compass is clear: serving children requires courage to challenge the status quo, ask difficult questions, and move beyond “this is how we’ve always done it.” From her journey stumbling into Montessori in Kansas City Public Schools to now leading AMI/USA’s transformation, she demonstrates what happens when leaders suit themselves with the right tools and let their values guide strategic action.

We have been so grateful to collaborate with AMI/USA to offer Provocations Magazine at a discount to AMI/USA Members and we will be having our first live podcast booth at The 2026 Montessori Experience: Refresher Courses and More in San Diego in February!

All these insights on transformation, belonging, and courageous leadership in this episode of Breaking the Paradigm.

Thanks, Dr. KaLinda, for a great conversation!

Note: The reference to the Core Principles Course is an AMI course, not an AMI/USA course

You just heard another conversation that mainstream education won’t have.

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

Most educators listen to paradigm-breaking ideas and return to the same broken systems tomorrow.

But you’re different - you’re here because you refuse to accept “that’s just how education works.”

Ready to move from consuming revolutionary content to building revolutionary alternatives?

Start Free: Join the Paradigm Breakers Community - Connect with educators worldwide who are questioning unspoken norms and implementing authentic alternatives. Share your breakthrough moments, get support for your experiments, and contribute to frameworks we’re building together.

Go Deeper: Provocations Magazine Subscription - Quarterly investigations into topics mainstream education won’t touch. The conversations you just heard barely scratch the surface of what we explore.

Transform Everything: Premium Provocations (Launching Soon) - Join the waitlist for quarterly group coaching calls, 50% off all courses, and direct access to building the frameworks that will reshape education.

Here’s the reality: The educational revolution won’t be built by people who just listen to podcasts about change. It’s being built by educators who question everything, implement alternatives, and prove that transformation is possible.

The traditional education system had its chance.

Now it’s our turn.

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 collectively, autonomy is the default, and trust replaces micromanagement.

Carolyn and Suzanne share how they rebuilt from the ashes with a simple principle: a good leader puts everybody on the right seat on the bus and then leaves them alone. No time clocks, no permission-seeking, no control. Just transparency, shared financial statements, monthly community meetings, and the spiritual preparation to trust each other.

In this episode, we pondered:

Why do we give autonomy to children but micromanage the most highly educated professionals?

How do we shift from teaching the minutiae of lessons to passing down the spirit of Montessori?

Their work proves that organizations can embody Montessori principles: assuming positive intent, celebrating individual strengths, and trusting people to do meaningful work without surveillance.

This conversation isn’t about fixing what’s broken, it’s about what emerges when we have the courage to let go and build something better.

All these paradigm-shifting insights on autonomy, accessibility, and living Montessori as adults, in this episode of Breaking the Paradigm.

Thanks Suzanne and Carolyn for a great episode, and welcome to the “Two Timers Club” Suzanne!

You just heard another conversation that mainstream education won’t have.

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

Most educators listen to paradigm-breaking ideas and return to the same broken systems tomorrow.

But you’re different - you’re here because you refuse to accept “that’s just how education works.”

Ready to move from consuming revolutionary content to building revolutionary alternatives?

Start Free: Join the Paradigm Breakers Community - Connect with educators worldwide who are questioning unspoken norms and implementing authentic alternatives. Share your breakthrough moments, get support for your experiments, and contribute to frameworks we’re building together.

Go Deeper: Provocations Magazine Subscription - Quarterly investigations into topics mainstream education won’t touch. The conversations you just heard barely scratch the surface of what we explore.

Transform Everything: Premium Provocations (Launching Soon) - Join the waitlist for quarterly group coaching calls, 50% off all courses, and direct access to building the frameworks that will reshape education.

Here’s the reality: The educational revolution won’t be built by people who just listen to podcasts about change. It’s being built by educators who question everything, implement alternatives, and prove that transformation is possible.

The traditional education system had its chance.

Now it’s our turn.

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 the Breaking the Paradigm Five Timers Club, to convince me to let him host our show and interview Kelly and I about our work with Breaking the Paradigm and Developing Education.

This episode was so special to me- in part because this is the first time that we’ve been able to fully tell the story of this work. While longtime listeners have picked up snippets here and there, we are grateful for so many new listeners over the past few months- and this is your chance to get to know us a little better.

This episode is also exciting because it comes on the precipice of some big announcements coming in January for Developing Education- so stay tuned and watch this space!

So if you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes look at how Breaking the Paradigm works, and how many hours of sleep I do (or don’t get) every night, check out this anniversary episode of Breaking the Paradigm!

Thanks, Justin, for being an excellent guest host!

You just heard another conversation that mainstream education won’t have.

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

Most educators listen to paradigm-breaking ideas and return to the same broken systems tomorrow.

But you’re different - you’re here because you refuse to accept “that’s just how education works.”

Ready to move from consuming revolutionary content to building revolutionary alternatives?

Start Free: Join the Paradigm Breakers Community - Connect with educators worldwide who are questioning unspoken norms and implementing authentic alternatives. Share your breakthrough moments, get support for your experiments, and contribute to frameworks we’re building together.

Go Deeper: Provocations Magazine Subscription - Quarterly investigations into topics mainstream education won’t touch. The conversations you just heard barely scratch the surface of what we explore.

Transform Everything: Premium Provocations (Launching Soon) - Join the waitlist for quarterly group coaching calls, 50% off all courses, and direct access to building the frameworks that will reshape education.

Here’s the reality: The educational revolution won’t be built by people who just listen to podcasts about change. It’s being built by educators who question everything, implement alternatives, and prove that transformation is possible.

The traditional education system had its chance.

Now it’s our turn.

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 math teacher who came to education as an artist, parent, and former puppeteer—we explore what happens when we choose radical acceptance over traditional authority.

Why does vulnerability from teachers unlock vulnerability in learners?

What becomes possible when we stop pretending the curriculum isn’t arbitrary and start building real relationships instead?

This conversation isn’t about following the rules—it’s about having the courage to be yourself, trust young people, and remember that students are actually smarter than we are.

All these paradigm-shattering insights on friendship, vulnerability, and radical acceptance, in this episode of Breaking the Paradigm.

Thanks, Jarrett, for a great conversation!

You just heard another conversation that mainstream education won’t have.

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

Most educators listen to paradigm-breaking ideas and return to the same broken systems tomorrow.

But you’re different - you’re here because you refuse to accept “that’s just how education works.”

Ready to move from consuming revolutionary content to building revolutionary alternatives?

Start Free: Join the Paradigm Breakers Community - Connect with educators worldwide who are questioning unspoken norms and implementing authentic alternatives. Share your breakthrough moments, get support for your experiments, and contribute to frameworks we’re building together.

Go Deeper: Provocations Magazine Subscription - Quarterly investigations into topics mainstream education won’t touch. The conversations you just heard barely scratch the surface of what we explore.

Transform Everything: Premium Provocations (Launching Soon) - Join the waitlist for quarterly group coaching calls, 50% off all courses, and direct access to building the frameworks that will reshape education.

Here’s the reality: The educational revolution won’t be built by people who just listen to podcasts about change. It’s being built by educators who question everything, implement alternatives, and prove that transformation is possible.

The traditional education system had its chance.

Now it’s our turn.

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 course, facilitated by Christine Lowry, “A Responsive Classroom: Montessori for ALL.”

The course offers six weeks of videos AND an optional weekly live session for questions and sharing (total about 2 hrs. per week), and is applicable to all levels of Montessori classrooms in public & private schools.

The course explores how to understand and serve ALL students with practical teaching and guiding techniques for minimizing, or preventing challenges, creating a classroom of calm, providing instructional success for all, and partnering with families and community professionals.

Learn more about the course here: https://developingeducation.thinkific.com/products/courses/responsiveguidance

Now, on to our episode!

What if the very practices we think are Montessori are actually authoritarian?

Sometimes the greatest threat to authentic education comes from within—when we control the pipeline of lessons, when we operate from fear instead of trust, when we prioritize materials over spiritual preparation. The question isn’t whether children are ready for independence. It’s whether we’re brave enough to give up control.

In this provocative conversation with Charles Terranova—a Montessori educator who fled law school, trained under Mother Isabel, met Mario Montessori, and has spent decades questioning the authoritarian practices creeping into Montessori schools—we challenge everything we think we know about our role as guides.

Why do we require children to wait for lessons before exploring materials?

What happens when we mistake control for leadership and let fear drive our decisions?

Charles shares his radical experiments: abandoning the rule that children must have lessons before taking materials, observing from outside the classroom, removing lids from boxes to stop controlling what children can see.

His insight cuts to the heart of our work: this approach requires trust in children, giving up our attempts at control, and releasing the fear that something terrible will happen if we let go.

This conversation isn’t about perfecting technique, it’s about confronting the authoritarianism we’ve internalized and choosing trust over control.

All these paradigm-shattering insights on trust, fear, and the spiritual work required to truly guide, in this episode of Breaking the Paradigm.

Thanks, Charles, for a great conversation!

You just heard another conversation that mainstream education won’t have.

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

Most educators listen to paradigm-breaking ideas and return to the same broken systems tomorrow.

But you’re different - you’re here because you refuse to accept “that’s just how education works.”

Ready to move from consuming revolutionary content to building revolutionary alternatives?

Start Free: Join the Paradigm Breakers Community - Connect with educators worldwide who are questioning unspoken norms and implementing authentic alternatives. Share your breakthrough moments, get support for your experiments, and contribute to frameworks we’re building together.

Go Deeper: Provocations Magazine Subscription - Quarterly investigations into topics mainstream education won’t touch. The conversations you just heard barely scratch the surface of what we explore.

Transform Everything: Premium Provocations (Launching Soon) - Join the waitlist for quarterly group coaching calls, 50% off all courses, and direct access to building the frameworks that will reshape education.

Here’s the reality: The educational revolution won’t be built by people who just listen to podcasts about change. It’s being built by educators who question everything, implement alternatives, and prove that transformation is possible.

The traditional education system had its chance.

Now it’s our turn.

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 Crutcher—a Montessori educator, yoga practitioner, forest bathing guide, and curriculum creator with over 20 years of classroom experience—we explore the quiet, revolutionary work of attuning ourselves to the moment.

How do we prepare ourselves to live in what the child might need, rather than preparing for an end goal?

What shifts when we understand that Montessori is truly the education of the adult, not the child?

Through practices like forest bathing and present-moment awareness, Marie invites us to see education as a form of spiritual preparation, one that asks us to constantly reflect, to communicate with honesty about our own capacity, and to meet each child exactly where they are.

This conversation isn’t about techniques or curriculum design—it’s about the inner transformation required to truly see the young person in front of you.

All these paradigm-breaking insights on attunement, adult preparation, and being an aid to life, in this episode of Breaking the Paradigm.

Thanks, Marie, for a great conversation!

You just heard another conversation that mainstream education won’t have.

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

Most educators listen to paradigm-breaking ideas and return to the same broken systems tomorrow.

But you’re different - you’re here because you refuse to accept “that’s just how education works.”

Ready to move from consuming revolutionary content to building revolutionary alternatives?

Start Free: Join the Paradigm Breakers Community - Connect with educators worldwide who are questioning unspoken norms and implementing authentic alternatives. Share your breakthrough moments, get support for your experiments, and contribute to frameworks we’re building together.

Go Deeper: Provocations Magazine Subscription - Quarterly investigations into topics mainstream education won’t touch. The conversations you just heard barely scratch the surface of what we explore.

Transform Everything: Premium Provocations (Launching Soon) - Join the waitlist for quarterly group coaching calls, 50% off all courses, and direct access to building the frameworks that will reshape education.

Here’s the reality: The educational revolution won’t be built by people who just listen to podcasts about change. It’s being built by educators who question everything, implement alternatives, and prove that transformation is possible.

The traditional education system had its chance.

Now it’s our turn.