Lakshmi A. Kripalani

When Peace Failed: The AMI-AMS Split of 1963

Editor’s note:

Tensions between Association Montessori Internationale and its U.S affiliate, the American Montessori Society, had been building through the 1962-63 school year, with communication between Mario Montessori of AMI and Nancy McCormick Rambusch and other leaders of AMS growing increasingly pointed.

In the first of this series of columns Lakshmi Kripalani recounted her preparation to leave India in 1962. In the second she described her first year as a Montessori teacher in Iowa. The recollections continue.

After completing the 1962-63 school year in Iowa, I eagerly awaited the opportunity to go to Los Angeles to attend the modern era’s second Montessori training course in the United States.

I tucked my albums and Dr. Montessori’s lectures under my arm and hopped in a parent’s car for the ride to the airport. We arrived early and decided to have a snack in the restaurant. We sat there chatting as the plane took off with my luggage. I had to get a new reservation that delayed my departure by 24 hours. The parent took me to her home and on the way she also bought me a toothbrush, toothpaste, basic makeup and a nightdress.

In California, I chose to stay in a house with the dozen or so trainees. When I arrived, they were exchanging views after dinner.

Among the group was Marjorie Farmer, who would do a lot of valuable work in South America. She did her internship with me the following year. Another was Lillian DeVault Kroenke. She became a consultant for AMS and produced her own magazine for the young children.

They all were enthusiastic about Montessori. They welcomed me warmly and I think I repaid their kindness by answering some questions that were to go unanswered during the course.

They wondered why I chose to stay there rather than in a hotel. I told them that I wanted to be in a group to acquire an American accent. They had a big laugh and asked which one I wanted to learn, the Texan twang or New Yorker’s accent. They advised me to keep my own.

The following evening they loaned me a swimsuit to jump in the swimming pool with them. They had the surprise of their life. I lost control immediately and almost drowned. They managed to pull me out. We all had such a scare that I never tried to learn swimming again.

Next morning we went to the center, all of us excited to learn. What I viewed was beyond my imagination.

Lena Wickramaratne and Nancy Rambusch, the leaders of the training, were at each other’s throats by the time we arrived.

Nancy had re-ignited interest in Montessori education in the United States. Lena (the outsider) from Ceylon was clearly assigned to keep her from starting too large a fire.

Lena, who would go on to train many teachers well in the United States, especially in the area of theory, had worked with Dr. Montessori in India. Her wealthy parents invited Montessori to live with them. As soon as Montessori was allowed to move from her war-time home in India, she went to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and helped Lena establish her school and gave a training. She was friendly with Maria’s son, Mario, and had a good knowledge of Montessori’s work.

However she sometimes did display a bit of a temper.

Although they were quite different personalities, Nancy and Lena might have made a workable team, but teamwork was not Lena’s assignment. Mario charged her with preventing Nancy from taking over.

Things were tense in that room from the outset.

I recognized Nancy from the picture that I had seen in the newsmagazine. I approached cautiously.

Nancy was embarrassed for me to see them at their worst. She took a deep breath and told Lena who I was. That made Lena more furious. She claimed that I could not have worked with Dr. Montessori, as she had never heard of me. She turned to me and curtly said, “Can you prove it? Do you have your albums?”

I did. But I was perplexed, not knowing where she was coming from. I showed her my album with Mario Montessori’s signature. She pulled it from me and started to copy Dr. Montessori’s long sentences for analysis exercises.

But it was other albums that became the flash point that day.

Nancy had brought from the AMS offices AMI albums that AMI’s original U.S. representative Betty Stephenson had left there.

Nancy could not have survived the training without these albums. She said that as she was being abandoned midstream, she copied the original albums to keep the course going.

Lena demanded she turn over not only the originals but also the copies. Nancy was not going to give in.

Clearly unable to win on that, Lena announced to the students that this would not be an AMI course and ordered those who wanted AMI training to leave with her. There was confusion and about half the students followed her.

As this was playing out, Lena mumbled to me that Mario had written to her not to work with Nancy as she was starting the American Montessori Society and asked me if I would join her in walking out. This was no statement of trust. She feared that I could rescue this course that she wanted to fail.

I had no plans to take sides, but I resented Lena’s manner. I could not understand a follower of Montessori screaming at students as she did. I did not understand the details. I merely wanted to know how things functioned in this country.

After some deliberation I decided to stay behind to see how the American Montessori course was going to be conducted and see how Montessori was going to be Americanized.

Lena threatened that I would lose my recognition with AMI if I worked with Nancy.

At this point I began to learn more of the tension.

Nancy explained to me that the parents at Whitby School in Connecticut were not happy with the way Betty Stephenson, dealt with the children in the classroom.

I did not know Betty. When Mario sent her to the states, he did not know if I was alive. I think back and wonder if he had known I was available, if it might have been me in the early days.

Lena appeared on the scene when Betty was in London during the holidays; Nancy hired Lena without consulting Mario and wrote to Betty that she should not return.

Betty, not surprisingly, must have complained to Mario. He apparently warned Lena not to work with Nancy at the risk of losing her affiliation as well.

Although divided, the course went forward.

I saw how difficult it is to understand and teach the basics of Montessori education. As the course proceeded without AMI leadership, few instructors were prepared to give clear direction.

At times the trainers did now know the basic exercises that Montessori had developed. A math professor from the University of Chicago knew mathematical concepts—he was a good mathematician—but did not know of Montessori’s insights into children’s ability to learn at various stages. I tried to explain the way I had learned it from Montessori but he merely made fun of my accent.

During the practical sessions I tried to help. Some changes seemed to be introduced only for the sake of being different. I decided not to intervene, fearing it would only create conflict.

I was not required to write any papers but I wrote them anyway to clarify some of the issues I saw emerging.

The only response I got to my attempts to clarify was that my approach would not work in America. I did not see it as proper to push it any further.

I suspected that some cultural adaptations merely covered up a lack of knowledge. But those awkward first steps began AMS’s journey of exploring the impact of culture on young people. It also set up a creative tension between AMI’s skepticism toward innovation and AMS’s more open investigation of it that has served the U.S. well.

At the end of the course there were oral examinations. My name was not on the list. I went to the office and asked if I would get the certificate. I was told that if I needed the certificate I would have to appear for the oral examination.

The next day I went to the center and awaited my turn to be called. In the afternoon Nancy came out and inquired what I was doing there. When I told her that I was waiting for my turn to be examined she laughed and said, “Who is going to examine you?”

I told her what the office had told me. She told me she would see that I got the certificate.

Thus I got the AMS certificate and took it with me back to Iowa.

Copyright 2005 L. A. Kripalani

Lakshmi A. Kripalani was trained by and has worked with Dr. Maria Montessori and Mario Montessori. She is an AMI Montessori teacher trainer and
consultant.

Dr. Montessori’s 1946 Lectures—Karachi, India, transcribed and edited by Lakshmi Kripalani, is now available through the Houston Montessori Center, 713 464-5791.

Miss Kripalani is available for lectures, workshops or consultations.

lkripal...@comcast.net.