Home Podcasts Breaking the Paradigm
Breaking the Paradigm

Breaking the Paradigm

Radically transforming education 63 Episodes Jun 28, 2026

Breaking the Paradigm is a media organization focused on transforming education through Montessori and learner-centered pedagogy. The podcast explores how these approaches can create a more humane, equitable, and liberatory world. It features discussions on educational reform and innovative teaching methods.

Episodes

The Ideal Is a Process, Not an Outcome: A Conversation on Montessori and Letting Go with Taylor Henry Jun 28, 2026 2865 I’ve spent my career being told that shooting for the “ideal environment” for adolescents is impossible; that we must be “pragmatic” and make compromises when necessary in our work.What if the problem isn’t reality but our understanding of if? What if the “ideal environment” wasn’t a state of finality or achievement, but a never ending process that could begin immediately?In this episode of Breaki
Palestinian Liberation Is Collective Liberation: A Conversation with Suzanne Yatim Jun 7, 2026 3438 Are you willing to be inconvenienced for someone else’s liberation… And your own?My guest, Suzanne Yatim, is a Palestinian-American actress, writer, filmmaker, and co-owner of Montessori Thrive. Her directorial debut, Breathe, filmed in Palestine, is currently in post-production. She’s also the bestselling author of Post Pardon Me, a dark comedy exploring motherhood and mental health. And when the
The Power of Possibility: Designing an Inclusive Montessori Environment with Dr. Paige Krabill May 24, 2026 2837 What is the best way to support students with diverse learning needs?It’s the question that almost every educator I know is asking.There’s a massive apparatus of intervention and support built around labels, diagnoses, and deficit-based thinking that was designed for conventional classrooms where compliance and uniformity are the goals. It’s referred to as the medical deficit model.When that appar
The Montessori Method, Continued: An Invitation to Change the World May 10, 2026 2312 I was honored to deliver the keynote at this year’s Montessori Educators of Alabama conference around their theme of “Better Together.” I wanted to use this time to sit with a question that’s been nagging at me for years: if Montessori education is so revolutionary, why haven’t we achieved the world of peace and justice that Montessori described? Why, nearly a century into this work, are we still
We're Losing the Tech Conversation Because Students Aren't a Part of It Apr 26, 2026 3732 There’s a quiet truth most schools are avoiding right now: our students are navigating AI, social media, and digital life every single day; and if we’re not in that conversation with them, something else is.Probably AI itself.That was one of the most clarifying moments from our recent webinar with Dana Anderson, Building a Positive Tech Culture at Your School (and Why It’s Not About AI Bans and Ph
Letting Go to Move Forward: The Unfinished Work of Montessori with Kathy Leitch Apr 5, 2026 3508 What if the biggest obstacle in Montessori is moving past our fear?Kathy Leitch, executive director of the International Montessori Council, joins Breaking the Paradigm to explore what it really means to carry Montessori forward as a living, experimental method rather than a fixed recipe. With decades of experience in Montessori schools around the world, Kathy makes a case that’s both provocative
From Compliance to Emergence: Rethinking Peace Education and Montessori Teacher Preparation with Tammy Oesting Mar 22, 2026 3604 What if peace education has nothing to do with teaching kids to be calm?Here’s the provocation from Tammy Oesting in her third Breaking the Paradigm apprearance: Peace education isn’t about mindfulness exercises or conflict resolution scripts. It’s not the “kumbaya approach” where we shield children from the world’s hard truths. Real peace education creates conditions that produce a new human who
45 States, Two People, One Mission: The Work of the Montessori Public Policy Initiative Mar 15, 2026 2300 What if the most powerful thing Montessori educators could do for children right now isn’t in the classroom, but in the halls of Congress?Mixed-age groupings. The three-hour work cycle. Observation-based curriculum. Teacher preparation rooted in human development. Everything that makes Montessori transformative deserves to be reflected in the laws, funding streams, and regulations that shape what’
What If We Just Listened? Live from the Student Power Summit 2026 Mar 15, 2026 2790 What if depression and anxiety in young people aren’t signs that something is wrong with them, but proof that something is wrong with what we’re doing to them?This is a special three-part episode recorded before, during, and after the Student Power Summit in Los Angeles: a conference that truly and authentically centered student voice. Students from across the country weren’t just in attendance, t
Composting Modernity: Unlearning the Stories That Are Unraveling Our World with Raj Chawla and Andrew Kutt Mar 1, 2026 3606 What if the crisis we’re facing isn’t something to be solved, but something to be composted?Raj Chawla and Andrew Kutt joined me for a conversation that asks us to slow down long enough to feel what’s actually happening beneath the surface of our world, our systems, and ourselves. What Raj illuminates so beautifully is that the assumptions driving our global unraveling: separation, domination, the
What Will Adolescents Do When We're Not Watching? Feb 1, 2026 3506 This was our first ever live stream with Breaking the Paradigm, and Kelly and I tackled a question that keeps coming up in our work: What are we really afraid adolescents will do when left unsupervised?The answers people give, ranging from mischief to far more absurd fears, reveal something deeper about how we view adolescents: That there is a fundamental mistrust that erodes our ability to truly
Education, ICE, and Montessori - Live Stream Recording Jan 25, 2026 2183 Yesterday, ICE murdered another innocent bystander, Alex Pretti. He was a US citizenEarlier this week, they took a 5 year old hostage in order to detain his parents. They are legally allowed in this country.Last week, they murdered Renee Good at point blank range outside of her home.These aren’t isolated incidents- it’s a call for those of us who are pushing the education revolution forward. Check

Recommended