How Montessori Students Transformed a Bus Ride
Updated: 12 hours ago
blue Montessori Kindergartener graduates Two Kindergarden graduates
In most urban areas, a public bus ride can be a solitary experience. Most people don’t talk to each other. Many disappear into their headphones. Children go unnoticed.
But when four young boys from blue montessori got on the bus for a field trip in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington D.C., their habits of curiosity, self-discipline, and trust made it different.
As soon as they sat down, these Kindergarteners began a lively discussion about every building, sign, bird, and body of water they saw. When a McDonald’s slid by, one boy announced that fast food wasn't healthy, and that he prefers mangoes and lettuce, then turned to ask his friends: “How about you?”
A brief banter broke out between two of the boys over a toy. A man in the back, who'd been listening the whole ride, leaned in with a grin: "I saw him take it." The boy handed it back, and within seconds they were back to debating which bird they just spotted. Even the teenager next to him, the kind who rarely lets his guard down, cracked a smile — pulled, like the rest of the bus, into their orbit.
blue montessori is a small, community-embedded Wildflower public charter school in Anacostia, founded and led by Clifford Bussie, who has called this historically Black neighborhood home for years. His students carried a piece of that school onto the bus that day.
1. Curiosity: Productive Chatter
At blue, books are embedded everywhere. The science shelf holds rocks, and right beside them sit books on geology and natural disasters. Questions and productive chatter at the work tables aren't shut down; they're encouraged. When a three-year-old struggles with an animal anatomy puzzle, a kindergartener steps in: "That's a wing, this is how this bird uses it."
2. Self-Discipline: Respect for Learning
Montessori is an intentional curriculum sequenced from concrete materials to abstract ideas, each mastered step earning the next. A student who struggled to finish what he started understood that advancing to the next reading group required real effort. Soon, he was managing his own cleanup and asking peers to quiet down so he could focus.
"You don't need to know everything, but what you know, you know," Cliff explains. "They master one skill and earn their right to the next. It creates a deep regard for learning."
3. Trust: In Self and Others
In Kindergarten, children either start accelerating or fall exponentially behind. A boy stood right at that edge—with an IEP, a quick temper with frustration, and potential that could break in either direction.
Because blue montessori is a mixed-age microschool, Cliff and the teachers have multiple years to get to know each child and make daily deposits of affirmation. When this boy struggled to count past five, they used toy cars as visual markers until he hit six. “Look at what you just accomplished. How does that feel?” When frustration took over, they'd stop to reset: Deep breath. Try again.
"He began to trust us and in himself," Cliff says. "Enough deposits, and his cup got full. He gained confidence. That is what makes or breaks a learner who isn’t at grade-level yet."
That security and love of learning is what let four boys turn a city bus into their classroom. For a few minutes, strangers became a community – just like at blue.
blue montessori is part of DC Wildflower Public Montessori Schools, a network of small, teacher-led Montessori public charter sites across the District of Columbia.
Are you interested in opening and leading public charter schools like blue or know someone who may be interested? Visit or share Public Charter Startup.
If you are interested in blue montessori for your child, learn more and apply at: bluemontessori.org
