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 over 20 years later he leads an organization that helps parents and teachers around the world to achieve inevitable success — with less stress and more joy.
Jesse’s Story
I started out in my early twenties working in the front office of a Montessori school and teaching in relatively traditional elementary and junior-high classrooms. As I grew to become a Principal and 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 from 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 greater knowledge and greater experience I grew to be much more effective with children, enough that parents and colleagues were now coming to me with their challenges — and so I started working with them directly.
“For months I was struggling to get my 5-year-old daughter to consistently eat dinner. It was becoming infuriating. Within 10 mins of sharing my situation with Jesse he suggested a solution, and it has actually worked! We now rarely have food issues.”
“Your work has not only clarified my thinking, but has also given me new perspectives in areas where it never occurred to me to question myself. I find myself invoking your ideas during everyday situations and the results for children have been amazing. I have discovered a renewed motivation to set much higher standards for myself as an educator. ”
“You’ve really changed my approach to parenting and teaching. You’ve profoundly changed my life for the better, so thanks!”
Over the years since — aiding thousands of unique moms and dads and teachers and caretakers, 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 get her shoes on!”
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 people 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 live talks for anyone around the world.
It’s been a blast, and I’m stoked so many have gained from my work.
Today, I speak everywhere on parenting and child development, from Midwest America to the Middle East, as well as host The Montessori Education Podcast.
I’ve moved from the West Coast of Southern California to the East Coast of South Florida, where I head MontessoriEducation.com and, alongside my wonderful wife (and young son Ragnar), run La Casa, The Schoolhouse.
Reach out anytime.
- Host a Live Event. — Get 1-on-1 Guidance.