GENERATIONS BIRTH YEARS AGES
Greatest 1901 to 1927 95 – 109
Silent 1928 to 1945 74 – 94
Baby Boomer - “Boomers” 1946 to 1964 55 – 73
Generation X - “GenXers” 1965 to 1980 40 – 54
Generation Y - “Millennials” 1981 to 1996 25 – 39
Generation Z - “iGens” & “Centennials” 1997 to 2012 7 – 24
Generation Alpha 2016 to 1 – 6
Also, looking at generation populations, NBC Nightly News
anchor Lester Holt, stated, “The Millennials, they’re taking over according
to the folks at Pew. Based on population estimates, there
are now 75.4 million Millennials in the US versus 74.9 million Baby
Boomers, meaning Millennials, not Boomers, are now the largest
generation in our country.” 3
It is important to keep in mind that while the most prominent
generations are the most populated Millennials and Boomers, we
One of the overall changes that has had a significant impact on
generational differences over the past 50 years is technology and social media.
have to be sensitive to the GenXers who are caught in the middle of
these two generations. Many are the children of the Boomers and
they have children who are Millennials and iGens.
One of the overall changes that has had a significant impact
on generational differences over the past 50 years is technology
and social media. I remember in the 1990s, when I was driving a
van to take a group of students to an athletic event, I made certain
that I took the portable phone that was the size and weight of a
brick with me. Today, so many things have changed . . .
• I have to remind myself that the iPhone I have in my
pocket should not be used while I am with my grandchildren;
modeling respect and proper human interaction is
important.
• I look forward to when I talk to AND view my distant
grandchildren via video chatting.
• I pay for my groceries at the check-out register by tapping
my phone next to a device near the register.
• I no longer use a paper map to nd out how to navigate to
a new location. My phone will talk to me—with precise
detail—through the trip.
• When I am trying to recall an address of a restaurant, I hold
up my phone and say, “Hey Siri. . .”
If you told me in 1955 when I was the age of an iGen child
that this was how things would get done, I would have thought you
were crazy.
Keeping Montessori Moving Forward
Assuring Its Preservation and Growth
As I reflect on the generations as they are defined today,
I cannot help but think how similar they are to how Maria
Montessori lived her life. As one of the first female physicians in
Italy, she moved society and the medical profession forward like
today’s Millennials imagining life with technology, constantly
pressing humanity to grow and learn. Then there is the stability
she brought as she transitioned from medicine to child care and
education, much like we see in our GenXers raising their families
with both parents working away and yet, making sure that their
children have the best care and education possible and striving
to make the international world a part of everyone’s life. Maria
Montessori would be the quintessential Boomer with the experience,
knowledge, and wisdom to move life along in spite of wars,
struggling economies, and social changes. She had it all in one
miraculous lifetime, and today, with all three of our adult
generations working together, they will continue to move
Montessori education forward the way Dr. Montessori did in her
82-year lifetime— from August 31, 1870 to May 6, 1952.
As our current generations evolve in this second decade of the
21st Century, we in the 100-year-old Montessori world are navigating
to make sure that her principles and pedagogy stay intact in
spite of all of the many differences and changes that have taken. . .
and are taking place.
I believe that some of the top priorities of Montessori education
were—to name a few:
• Always staying focused on the child; supporting planes
of development in three-year cycles so the older children
can model for the younger children in the same level.
• Showing, not telling, the child a lesson.
• Watching the child’s engagement after a lesson has
been presented.
These priorities are the same today and will be the same in
2030. In order to preserve Montessori for another 150 years, we do
have to be sensitive to who is and will be leading our schools.
Probably one of Maria Montessori’s biggest accomplishments—
to me—is how she prevailed in international education
over 100 years no matter what the generation was at the
time, bucking the sage-on-the-stage approach to teaching with a
guide-on-the-side philosophy. One of my favorite Montessori
quotes is, “The greatest sign of success for a teacher. . . is to be
able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’
3 Holt, Lester (April 27, 2016). NBC Nightly News
©MONTESSORI LEADERSHIP | WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG/IMC | VOLUME 22 ISSUE 4 • 2020
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