Secrecy

I saw the documentary Secrecy this spring at a film festival. The film chronicles the levels of government secrecy since the Cold War era. Is it surprising that "classified" is more popular in the Bush II government than any before it? Not really. The film really sheds light on the sad legal history of making public docs a big secret by digging into a recently unclassified 1950s court case that has justified the government need for secrecy.

One of the experts from the film discusses the differing mentalities between the Cold War Era and the Digital Age. He argues that openly sharing information about terrorism and terror suspects diminishes secrecy, but can ultimately improve safety because it means more eyes and minds are aware of a terror threats. His point is that more information, more widely available will result in more people who can make connections that can lead to apprehension of criminals.

In this new age of digital information, we global citizens have extreme freedom of information. The internet makes an overwhelming amount of data available. It also makes that data portable and accessible from almost anywhere. It is in that spirit that I am choosing to post photographs and descriptions of my Montessori training albums.

I'm planning to keep the album information limited to mostly pictures. For one, I want to honor the fact that most of my lessons are under copyright protection from my training program. For two, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. And I am wary of losing data from my hard disk, it will be nice to have a web backup.

Still, I have struggled with why I want to make these photographs public. Aren't these my private efforts at learning and creating self-awareness as a teacher? What benefit will these photos provide to a public sphere?

It's easy, I'm making these photographs publicly available to share with the world what it is I care about with passion. I want the world to see more Montessori guides, schools, children, parents. Why not allow the world a glimpse into my interpretation of the lessons of Dr. Montessori?

It turns out that life isn't a 3rd grade spelling test. There are no more teachers berating me to "cover my paper." There are no Soviet spies wanting to steal away my Montessori secrets. There is just you and me and the spirit of Montessori.