Lottie Butcher – Drama Teacher, Primary and High School
As a drama teacher at a Montessori school, it is a privilege to be in the midst of a production that so clearly reflects the philosophy we live by every day. Our Primary School production, The Dream Factory, brings together approximately 150 young performers in a vibrant Kiwi adventure inspired by six much-loved children’s stories. It is a celebration of imagination, storytelling, and community in its truest sense. Side Note: The show is Term 3, Week 3 – If like me you have a slightly chaotic parenting style and need this written down in your diary.
What has been especially powerful this year is not only what is happening on stage, but what is happening behind it.
The Drama Tāwari rangatahi have stepped into a leadership role as the backbone of our backstage team. They are working as stage managers, developing and running a tech team, and taking responsibility for lighting plans, sound cues, and the organisation of the performance space. They are painting and preparing set elements, designing posters and tickets. As well as creating props and shaping the visual world of the production with care and creativity. This mahi is not only meaningful in a performance context, but it also contributes directly to their NCEA Level 2 credits, giving academic recognition to authentic, purposeful work.
Alongside them, the Kawakawa Drama ākonga are contributing in equally significant ways through prop making and design. They are discovering that props need to be sturdy, fit for purpose, and created within budget, while also serving the story by helping the audience step into a believable world. In doing so, our ākonga are developing far more than creative skills, they are learning problem-solving, budgeting, collaboration, and perseverance as they bring ideas from imagination into reality. They’ve also mastered the delicate science of achieving the perfect PVA-to-newspaper ratio in papier-mâché, a life skill I’m sure we can all agree is absolutely essential.
There have been moments during these busy creative workshops where I find myself simply observing rather than teaching, lighting plans being written, props being constructed, set pieces being painted, and decisions being made around me and importantly without my intervention. In these moments, I am reminded of Maria Montessori’s words:
“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.’”
This is not absence; it is emergence. It is the point at which responsibility, trust, and capability take root in the rangatahi themselves. What they are contributing has value. It has real value. They are not rehearsing participation in a community; they are actively building one. For our younger performers, seeing the older ākonga invest their time and energy into the production reinforces the value of their own work.
For our adolescents as they move through the third plane of development and rapidly toward adult society, experiences like this matter deeply. They are not only learning how to be individuals with skills and interests; they are learning how to be members of a community who can take responsibility, collaborate, and contribute meaningfully to something larger than themselves. There is beautiful optimism in this, an understanding that their place in the world is not passive, but active and influential.
This is where the magic of a Montessori learning community becomes visible. In the making, the doing, and the trusting of our ākonga as they step into genuine responsibility. And in doing so, they reveal exactly what education at its best can be: not preparation for life, but life itself.
