gettin' older, gettin' off the floor: Montessori teachers arise!

(In response to a Montessori teacher's concern about getting up off the floor, an age-related difficulty for we who used to sit cross-legged in circle...)

I don't know why your post makes me smile. I mean, I've known all along this was gonna happen--it was pretty clear when my old man was gettin' older. I like walking and, I'll be frank here (sorry, Frank), I put on headphones, step up the treadmill, and play Donna Summer, disco gold.

Ah: why I smiled: here we all are, oh me oh my, gettin' older, but I see it, hey, we're in the best situation there is-- anybody wanna stay lively, getcher self in with children. Gettin' sleep is a problem, always too much to think about or be doing -- hah: a little story, a true story, a story that happened to me just last night.

I'm in class, room-assistant/art teacher in the summer program, with a new guy, who's the lead teacher this summer; lots of here-this-week, gone-next kids, not necessarily Montessori kids, and then some who're enrolled first time in the fall.

It's morning, but it's late. There're three little girls running, chasing around the far perimeter of the room. I don't want to get up off the floor to deal with the situation; it's really not 'my job' to handle classroom situations. And, it means I have to get up and I'm really comfortable lying down. I am lying down. I am in my bed and I am lying down. I really am. In the moments of falling asleep last night, I dreamed about being in class, and finally woke myself out of it. I don't have to get up at all. Just fell asleep again until Time to Feed the Cat Now! around 5 a.m.

Never getting enough sleep aside, I've been concerned about maintaining my energy and mobility, too, and I suspect we have an edge over many of our parents' generation, in that many our age began to be concerned far younger than our elders. When I hit forty, I was concerned. (Now I'm concerned because "forty" seems both middle-aged and young to me...). I began and continue taking steps to eat healthily and exercise and all that good stuff 'cause while it took a long, long time to get here --sixty years-- I'm mostly happy now. And I will do what I can to keep this going.

So I'll be on the floor with a lot of 3-6yr old friends, or on a stool sometimes, once again this fall, (oh! what an ending--) clapping my hands 'cause I'm happy and I know it.


Sorry to be so cheerful. Must be one day short of summer program's end. Yup; got away with it.
best wishes,
Matt