Michael Dorer

New AMS Board President Looks Ahead and Abroad

Michael Dorer assumed the presidency of the board of the American Montessori Society in April at the organization's meeting in Houston.

The director of the Center for Contemporary Montessori Programs at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, he is past president of the International Association for Montessori Education. He trained through both AMS and AMI, helped establish the first Montessori charter school, taught in a public adolescent program and has traveled widely within and outside the U.S. working with Montessorians.

These are excerpts from a conversation with Public School Montessorian editor Dennis Schapiro.

Changes on his watch

There won't be a sea-change in AMS. It's on the right track right now.

I'm thrilled with our executive director, Rich Ungerer. Wonderful guy. A great administrator and a great leader for Montessori. He has done an outstanding job. He's open. He's questioning. He's willing to say when he doesn't know and ask the right kinds of questions. When the board has directed him to work on a particular area, those things get done. He's also a tremendously personable man. I'd encourage people to step up and get to know him.

AMS is well-positioned to serve its membership because we have a really good staff, which goes back to Rich as the leader of the staff. He's put that bar up pretty high. As president, they support me. They support students, parents, teachers, children, the magazine, our initiative. They field all sorts of questions every day and do a great job of it.

Montessori Life stands out as a superior publication. Kathy Carey and Carey Jones have made it a classy magazine. It's one of the best benefits of being AMS members.

Priorities for 2006-2007

We've got to get out of the New York office a lot. That's what I define as my role. I want members to talk to me about issues and problems. I hope to get out a lot this year.

We want to be more intentional in reaching out to what we are calling "regions." Where there is a Montessori group, there is a region and AMS is interested in working with them. Not that they have to be AMS members. We are trying to see ourselves are regional facilitators. We can bring resources, print materials, expertise, without the criteria of being a member.

We need a lot of research to be able to say we base our decisions on data. People are crying for research. People are doing research. It has to get out there.

I would like to see a new, juried research journal specifically aimed at researchers-no advertising. That generates more research and makes the research more public. I'm not sure AMS is the one to take that on.

NAMTA Journal has some of those characteristics. It's a great publication, but it's not looked at as a research journal.

AMS's growing international presence

It's exciting that a nation as populous as China wants to have Montessori. People in Nigeria, Maldives, Brazil, Israel and others need Montessori. When there is potential like this, there is also danger. The dangers are in the watering down, the weakening of Montessori. That can present a picture that Montessori doesn't work. It happened in the United States in the early part of the last century.

When I was in Taiwan I was told there are 30 materials company that have started up in mainland China. I looked at some of the materials -not all of them- and I was concerned that some were not at the quality level we are used to seeing. I don't want materials to reach schools and then fall apart, break, chip, look terrible in two months or a year.

If there is a niche to make a profit by making materials, that is a danger.

On the other hand, when I was in South Africa I saw material there being made by hand from found materials. They were astounding. No material company made those. They were made so their children could have a Montessori education. That was deeply moving.

I was told there is a teacher education course in China that goes two or three weeks. That is not sufficient to prepare a person deeply enough to be certified as a Montessorian. Someone is essentially taking advantage of the Chinese.

We're not going to be a police force. We hope we can lead by example, that we can have programs like Martha Monahan's Northeast Montessori Institute in China so people can go to an see what a quality Montessori program would look like.

AMS set up a task force to look at some of these things. We want to try to help define what a quality Montessori program is in terms of training, materials, working with children. We want it to be concise, readable but detailed enough so it can be a guide. I expect it will be a year or so before we have a document.

Collaboration

I'm interested in working with AMI. I've talked with them on occasion on a number of things. I have an AMI training background and I'm a member of that organization as well.

We want to work collaboratively with people in MCI and PAMS and other Montessori organizations. We need to speak more frequently with an undivided voice.

Too frequently we are going to legislatures, parents and newspapers as if each different organization carries a different message. Although there are iterations that are different, we have the same message.

We may have differences in some areas, but we have the same concern, which is the child. We have the same source, which is Maria Montessori. We have the same texts. Many, many things are the same. When we focus on what is shared, we can have a productive relationship. We can work together for the sake of the child.

Technology

We are going to see a lot more electronic things. A lot more will be web-based-information, training, advertising. We have a hard time with that now. Older Montessorians did not grow up with podcasts.

We have not come fully to grips with the role of technology with children. We cannot deny that kids are techno-savvy. That will play a big role.

Generational change

None of us is getting younger.

Montessori came back to this country in the late 50s and 60s through 1975 or so. A lot of these leaders were young then. A lot are still active. That's why we have the same players out there.

Since I got into Montessori education in 1969 there has been a tremendous professionalization of Montessori teachers. We've got colleges with undergraduate and graduate programs. More people see it as a calling than once did.

Some of us who have been around the block get fixated on ideas. We must have young leaders and young participants. We have to be able to hear new, creative ideas.

We're seeing younger people. There is a place at the leadership table for them. We may not be able to point out the new leaders yet, but they are developing.

Changing demographics

I think there is going to be a huge influx of children in public and charter school who don't fit the old mold of who goes to a Montessori schools. We're going to see a heck of a lot more children coming out of poverty, kids coming from single-gender families, from other countries. We don't know who all the immigrants may be.

These children come to us with traditions, morays, expectations, hopes, languages, religious and cultural practices, dietary rules.

Our teachers had better come to grips with that. I don't think it's possible for us as teacher educators to teach our students about all the populations they will encounter. We don't know who those will be. But we can help them to understand that the unexpected group will show up.

The Montessori Initiative

One of the big problems in the USA is awareness.

We have to get the man and woman in the street to know what Montessori is.

We are not doing enough to reach parents in the schools who may be saying "thanks a lot, but after about four years, it's time to send my child to a 'real' school."

AMS is supportive of the Montessori Initiative. We don't want to put an AMS label on it.

We hope all schools regardless of the letters on the door can use a magazine like M for parent education and the portfolios that are coming out for educational purposes. We worked with Bid-Give and Michael Jacobson. He's done a tremendous job with the magazine.

David Kahn [executive director of the AMI-affiliated North American Montessori Teachers' Association] had an article on Hershey school in the last one. If this were an AMS publication, I don't know if he would have felt as good about it. I'm delighted because I respect him and like his work. I'd like to see people like Phil Gang and Fil Meadows and a broad base of contributors, as well as AMS people. And if they're not writing, I hope they're reading. I know they want to read it in China-but they want it in Mandarin.

The Montessori Initiative can get schools excited. We get radio and TV ads created by Big-Give and subscribed to by a school and aired in its local community. And print too. It brings the concept of Montessori before a larger population.

Schools that subscribe will benefit, but so will a lot of other schools. AMS will gain, too. There is enlightened self-interest, but I don't believe we will gain by signing those schools up as member schools.

Signs of success

I'd like to look back and say we were successful in communicating what we do to more people and identifying what people want.

I want to hear from people in the field.

The e-mail is presid...@amshq.org