Tommy's story answers what it looks like to center the child – when energy spent on control becomes available for curiosity. But it raises the question: how do two people sustain that kind of work — constant observation, flexibility, release of control — without burning out?

At the start of this school year, Leah and Kirsti, Teacher Leaders at Spicebush Montessori, a teacher-led Wildflower school in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, were facing a decision no educator wants to make. Tommy, a neurodivergent four-year-old, was pushing, scratching, biting, hitting, and throwing things at students and teachers every single day. Staff took turns helping him regulate, one exhausted teacher handing off to the other, all day long. An expulsion conversation was on

Wildflower NY Charter School is transforming learning in the Bronx, with rising NWEA math & reading scores and a joyful community!