STORY
Meet Jesse McCarthy
Founder of MontessoriEducation.com
Jesse McCarthy began his career as a young assistant at a small private school in California, and now 15+ years later he leads an organization that helps parents and teachers around the world to achieve inevitable success with children — happily and without stress.
Jesse’s Story
I started out in my early twenties working in the front office of a Montessori school and teaching in traditional elementary and junior-high classrooms. As I grew to become a Principal and later an Executive helping to create schools throughout America, I realized that I was far from the only one who struggled with children.
Although great strides have been made in dealing with the difficulties of raising and educating kids (most notably the development of a radically new approach by Dr. Maria Montessori), parents and teachers can still feel at a loss for what to do in the day-to-day with their children. For instance, many have tried escaping the mess of old-school rewards & punishments by going along with more modern trends of “freedom” and praise — only to find themselves stuck in even bigger battles than before.
This is a real problem, because how we are with children — our attitudes, interactions, styles — can have a profound impact on them (and on us), for better or worse. As one of my favorite parent educators once put it:
“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom [or home]. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher [or parent], I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”
-Dr. Haim Ginott
When I first began working with children I no doubt contributed to a fair share of bad-weather days.
But I got better, I did better. I learned from my mistakes — and my successes — as well as from all the parents and teachers around me.
For example, I discovered that in some cases it was my own desire to completely control things that was causing problems, and that occasionally all that’s needed to avert arguments, nagging, tantrums and the like is allowing children to get a bit of anger (or sadness or confusion, etc.) off their chest. I also learned, in stark contrast, that sometimes it’s not so simple, and much greater understanding and planning (and patience) are required for success.
With a lot of experience, I grew to be a lot more effective with children, enough that parents and teachers were now coming to me with their challenges. I actually loved the work, so my focus eventually shifted to adults.
Over the years since — aiding thousands of unique moms and dads and caretakers and educators, alongside their children from infancy to adolescence — I’ve found striking similarities in the problems that arise, such as the universal “How do I get this child to listen??”
That question of course comes in many different forms and levels of frustration:
From a dad’s early morning, “Ahh! why won’t my daughter just pick out an outfit and get ready to go?”
To a teacher’s midday, “What am I doing wrong with these kids … they just won’t get to work?”
To a mom’s late night, “My God! am I ever going to get my son to bed?”
And to everything else in between.
But whatever the situation, I discovered that there are incredibly effective solutions — most of which parents and teachers unfortunately just don’t know.
So after years of aiding the children, parents and educators in the group of schools I worked with across America, I decided to extend my reach by focusing on 1-on-1 coaching, online content and courses, and live talks for anyone around the world.
It’s been a blast, and I’m happy so many are gaining from my work.
Below are a few of the things I’ve been up to … I hope you enjoy.
- Listen to the Podcast
- See videos/read posts @ the Blog Roll
- Try out Montessori Discipline for parents
- Join me in a Read-Aloud of The Iliad
- Book a live or virtual Event