Cristina Wager-Weisman, Music & Performing Arts Teacher

For those of you that do not know me, I am Cristina Wager-Weisman, a music and theater teacher, Director of Community Outreach, and a parent of three alumni of WFM. Every month, I reach out to our families with a newsletter containing gratitudes, event updates, and reflections about our school. I am moved by our beautiful children who explore our classrooms with curiosity and a love of learning. I am inspired to see how they collaborate with one another or work with such great focus, independently even at the youngest of ages. A contradiction it would seem, but young children can and do focus for long periods of time when the environment is right. I am in awe of how our teachers guide our students in an organic manner so as not to interrupt their excitement and joy for whatever it is that they are learning.

While I observe our beloved WFM function as it should, I am also witnessing traditional schools transition to be more progressive. I wonder how these schools will implement these progressive ideas and I know that we at WFM have already mastered it.

I have two high school students in my household, one of whom attends St. Peter's Prep down the street. As a progressive educator, his freshman year was a bit nerve-racking for me. Would the traditional classroom squash my son's love of learning? Would the teachers truly see the whole child? How is he going to learn if he is not allowed to make mistakes and is forced to sit at a desk all day long? Of course, he is a WFM graduate who had no trouble adjusting to the eight subject periods a day in a rotating schedule and the traditional grading system. During his freshman year, he finished his homework and assignments without any push from me. He took the rules of uniform wearing and tardiness seriously and never had a detention. He found afterschool activities and sports that he loved. I, on the other hand, had to bite my tongue sometimes and force myself to observe and not intervene.

St. Peter's Prep recently hired a new principal. I attended their curriculum night. In the new principal's welcome speech, I was surprised to hear a familiar educational tune — that the goal of education at St. Peter's Prep is not to be able to regurgitate information but instead to, "get them (the students) to think, to become critical thinkers." "Wow," I told myself. "Something progressive in this normally traditional High School?" Repeatedly throughout the night, I heard the same buzzwords from classroom to classroom; education is not about content but about critical thinking. I finally asked one teacher how they were going to get my child to think. He fumbled a bit as I completed his thought, "…through projects maybe?" I said. He quickly nodded his head and said yes.

Although I am extremely excited to hear that St. Peter's Prep and other schools are embracing progressive education, I know it is going to take them some time to truly implement it. But at Waterfront Montessori, we have been doing this since our doors opened twenty years ago. None of it is new to us: We know how to get our kids to think critically. We start when they are little and carry it through to their teens. Our students organize themselves, pursue their passions, collaborate and problem-solve.

Progressive education is no longer an option for all students. It is a necessity. Colleges are caring less and less about test scores and more and more about portfolios. They want to see the projects and the accomplishments of their applicants. I am not worried though, because graduates from WFM have the passions and motivation to overfill a college portfolio. It is why our eighth-grade students are more prepared for elite private high schools than their peers and why our alumni are taking their high schools, colleges, and post-graduate jobs by storm. They will be the greatest leaders, business owners, artists, and citizens that you can ever imagine because at Waterfront Montessori amazing things have happened here!

Did You Know: On Curriculum Night at Saint Peter’s Prep, one of our WFM graduates received a shout-out from the Principal — to roaring applause from the parent audience — for bringing Driver's Ed to Health class for all sophomores. You may not know this, but getting your teenager into a driver's ed course in Jersey City is quite challenging so this news came as a relief to many parents!