Philosophy of Education

Join us for a discussion with Rebecca Girn, Chief Programs Officer of Higher Ground Education, about the process Montessori called “normalization”: centering one’s developing self with concentration and work. Rebecca Girn is an attorney with an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and a law degree from UCLA, with dual specializations in business law and philosophy of law. She also holds an AMI Montessori teaching diploma from the Montessori Institute of San Diego, specializing in 0 to 3-year-olds. In 2016, Rebecca became a founding member of Higher Ground, providing oversight and guidance for the organization with regards to the law, human resources, marketing, and infant and toddler pedagogy. She currently serves as the company’s Chief Programs Officer. Higher Ground Education is dedicated to mainstreaming and modernizing Montessori education, and is the parent company of the Academy of Thought and Industry, Guidepost Montessori, Montessorium, and The Prepared Montessorian.

Homeschooling is on the rise. And it’s not just disaffection from the status quo; it’s an enabler of better pedagogy. This week, we were joined by Ryan Delk, CEO and Co-Founder of Primer, an exciting ed-tech company that connects students through interest-based clubs and microschools. Learn more about Primer on their website, https://primer.com/.

Telisha Thomas and Sam Sharp of Higher Ground Education join Matt Bateman to discuss the exciting work they're doing to bring Montessori education to military families in the United States. Telisha is Higher Ground's Department of Defense Liason. She is a senior military spouse who has spent 25 years advising and advocating on behalf of military spouses and military-connected students. Sam is a trained Montessori guide who has worked in the Montessori world for over 25 years as a guide, trainer, mentor, parent, HOS, Regional Director, and most recently as the Director of School Launch for Higher Ground Education. She is currently doing lots of exciting work launching new projects to expand the reach of Montessori.

David Doswell and Arnaud Schenk join us for a discussion of the potentials and pitfalls for educators thinking about the blockchain-enabled internet. Arnaud is Higher Ground Education's VP of Technology. Prior to Higher Ground, Arnaud was a co-founder of Aztec, a privacy-focused layer 2 for Ethereum. David is a founding member and engineer at First School, a Web3 education platform for Generation Alpha. He is also the author of the sci-fi book Meredith: The Future of Silicon Valley.

Education has experienced two decades worth of change in the last two years. Joseph Connor joins us to help bring order to the chaos, to glimpse the present clearly enough to see the future. Joseph is a founder, attorney, and teacher. He is the current CEO of Agora, a new startup with the goal of helping families finance their K-12 education, and the co-founder of micro-school company SchoolHouse. You can find Joseph on Twitter (@josephconnor) and on Agora's website, http://withagora.io/.

In this special episode, Cristina De Stefano joins us to discuss her new biography of Dr. Maria Montessori, The Child is the Teacher. Listen to hear about what drew Cristina to investigate the life of this fascinating, accomplished, and complicated woman. Cristina De Stefano is an accomplished journalist and writer. She lives and works in Paris as a literary scout for many publishing houses around the world. Her books Belinda e il mostro: Vita segreta di Cristina Campo (2002) and Americane avventurose (2007) have been translated into French, German, Spanish, and Polish. Her biography Oriana Fallaci: The Journalist, the Agitator, the Legend was published by Other Press in 2017. Her most recent work, The Child Is the Teacher: A Life of Maria Montessori, was published by Penguin Random House on March 8, 2022.

Join us for a conversation with Pano Kanelos, founder of the new University of Austin, about his philosophy of higher education. What is the job of the university? How do most universities go wrong? How will UATX fix it? Dr. Pano Kanelos is the Founding President of the University of Austin. Before embarking on this exciting project, Dr. Kanelos served as the 24th President of St. John’s College, Annapolis. After earning degrees from Northwestern University (B.A.), Boston University (M.A.), and the University of Chicago (Ph.D.), Dr. Kalenos taught at Stanford University, the University of San Diego, and Loyola University Chicago. You can learn more about the University of Austin here: https://www.uaustin.org/

Kmele Foster and Dr. Gregory Salmieri join Matt Bateman for a critical discussion of public school. Is it compatible with free speech? With parental custodianship? Do we need it for cultural unity? How should we evaluate school choice proposals? Kmele is the co-founder of Freethink Media (https://www.freethink.com/), and co-host of The Fifth Column, a libertarian podcast that covers political and social issues. (https://wethefifth.com/). You can find Kmele on Twitter, @kmele. Dr. Salmieri is a senior scholar of philosophy in the Salem Center at the University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Brigham Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism and is director of the Center’s Program for Objectivity in Thought, Action, and Enterprise. Dr. Salmieri is the co-editor of "A Companion to Ayn Rand" and "Foundations of a Free Society".

This week, we have the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Miller, Program Manager at Edpuzzle about video content in education. What makes video such a unique and special tool? How do we fully leverage this amazing resource? What can we do with video that we can't do with anything else? Edpuzzle is an innovative teaching tool centered around interactive video content. You can learn more about Edpuzzle on their website, https://edpuzzle.com/. You can find Sarah on Twitter (@0sarahmiller) and LinkedIn.

Art historian and educator Luc Travers joins us this week to talk about his book, Touching the Art, a tour of five incredible artworks meant to show you ways to experience meaningful and emotionally powerful encounters with the visual arts. Luc Travers is the author of Touching The Art and the forthcoming book Stories in Paint: 50 Moving Artworks from American Museums (Spring '22). He leads art museum tours around the world and teaches literature to all ages. Learn more about his work at TouchingTheArt.com and LiteratureAtOurHouse.com.