Victoria Matthews Knew It Was Time

By Victoria Matthews

In January 2004 I heard myself announce at a meeting of the staff of the Montessori School of Ojai (MSO) that I planned to retire.

Thirty-two years after founding the school, after years of teaching and directing the school in Ojai, CA, I would retire in June 2005.

I was a bit shocked to hear myself saying the words out loud for the first time but it was logical that my staff would be the first to know. I had directed the school using what my son called "the kitchen cabinet" style of administration. That is, when a serious issue came up, I would "talk it over" with the teachers. (I had been fortunate enough to have staff with 10 to 25 years of experience each at the school.)

Afterwards, I went home and told my partner.

The decision to retire from a school that is so central to one's life is no small thing. MSO began in 1972 and had grown by this time to 100 students, toddler to eighth grade with a staff of 25 teachers, specialists, office, and daycare.

I had discussed the possibility with my family. I listened to my son-in law, who said that if I did not get out of the way, the babyboomers on the staff would never have a chance to run the school.

There were other factors, too.

After years of renting, MSO purchased its present 10-acre school site in 2001. This had resulted from a 5-year capital fundraising campaign. We had been leasing the property from the local school district for some 20 years. The enrollment was up, the staff was superb, even the buildings were freshly painted.

The school was healthy. It was a really good time, an "up" time for the school.

My secretary of 20 years left. We were in synch all the time. When she left, there was no one to pick up the slack.

Including an earlier four years of public school teaching in a junior high and then high school, I taught for 36 years. I'd taught all grade levels, started the middle school, taken the school through some rough times. There wasn't much left I hadn't done.

But what now? I loved working with children but I was also wondering what else could "move me."

The first thing to hit me, and move me, was that I wanted to leave the school feeling good about its future.

To run a school effectively, I think, is to pay attention to details. It is handling issues immediately whenever possible, and following up on decisions made now. Our name, "directress," was aptly stated by Maria Montessori.

As Montessorians we work to maintain a classroom in which children are involved in their learning. I worked on developing a sense of order and creating a beautiful environment. I wanted the children to be comfortable and feel secure. Gardening became important for them and for me. This in turn led to a sense that we are all connected in nature. Then peace became important, peace in the classroom, in our immediate surroundings, and extending to the whole world.

Because as teachers we are part of the environment, I wanted to improve myself. For 32 years in the classroom I got to research and learn subjects as wide-ranging as ancient history, biology, needlecraft and even how to tie a bow. I learned how to observe and listen to what children or parents had to say before acting, instead of just lecturing as I had done in my earlier years. The joy of work became an integral part of the process.

Transition

I don't consider myself a great administrator, but I have pretty good common sense. Although I didn't, I think everyone else thought of it as my school-they thought I had a financial interest in it, which I didn't.

There is no way teachers, even those who lived through several crises with me, can fully understand all the tensions of running a school.

I knew we wanted the transition to go smoothly. If the teachers don't own it, the process will be more difficult. A lot depends on how much they think of the school as their school, on how long they've worked, how much trust has been built up, how much they know about the work of operating a school.

Recessions come and go, and they are scary. Enrollment goes down and you know the economy is in trouble before the economists.

There are always going to be challenges with board members, parents and teachers. There are issues with government, with planning and finances.

There are the predictable tears and anger.

At that January 2004 staff meeting I asked, "Who wants the job of directing the school? Go home and think about it and come make your case if you are interested."

The following morning Janet Lindquist-Lang, a kindergarten teacher who had 14 years of experience, said she wanted the job. She was the only one to apply.

For the next 18 months we worked together on the transition. She came early and stayed late and picked things up. She has flexibility and organizational skills, and she is great on the phone - something I never was.

During the year, she was still full-time in the classroom. Every time something came up, one of us would cover for her in the room and let her handle it. She and I met every day and talked throughout the day. She would laugh and say, "I had no idea of how tough it would be."

We were incredibly fortunate that we didn't have to go outside. One of the reasons Janet took the job is that she thought she could continue the school with the values we have.

Other teachers have stepped up to fill the gaps. One works with employees more. Another is running the development part more. They all realized it was a transition and they needed to do more.

Because we had enough time to prepare, we could just let things happen and problem solve. We built up as the year and a half went by.

And, when I actually retired last June, the board of directors hired me as a consultant working six hours a week for the next five years. I am available to the new director by phone as well as going to the campus once a week while school is in session.

It has been such a smooth transition that most parents don't even realize that a change has taken place. A reason it has been so smooth is I was able to create my own space in an adjoining building for conferences and just to feel like I still have my own space.

Reflection and Redirection

For the last eight months I have been reflecting. I was 30 years old when I completed the 18-month full-time course at the St. Nicholas Training Centre in London to become a Montessori teacher. (My husband and I were also raising three children under the age of four at the same time.)

Looking back through the years, I believe that I became a totally different person because of my involvement with the Montessori Method. Her method is child-oriented and it got me out of just focusing on myself.

Although retirement may mean less money, it still means I can continue working. Maria Montessori said, "An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the child's energies and mental capacities, and leads him to self-mastery." This surely applies to us as adults as well as to the child.

Now I work on other projects but always of my choosing and on my timetable.

There is Best Educational Systems for Teaching (B.E.S.T.), which was begun as a project with Jenny Burston in Perth, Australia. We wanted to have Montessori reading materials available for any teachers that found making their own materials, with so much else to do as teachers, too much. The first reading kits were finally produced in 1990. This is surely a worthwhile endeavor and I now have time to promote what I still feel is a wonderful project.

I continue to train teachers in the Montessori Method. I am rewriting the basic subject matter manuals from my years in London with Miss Homfray and Miss Child and adding color pictures to illustrate them. My teacher training classes were video-taped last summer and the editing is on-going. These would be available for instructors as well as students, maybe through distance learning. Included in this project is my re-reading of the basic Montessori books to review what I have learned in my years in the classroom, thus augmenting the philosophy section of the teacher training manuals.

Consulting at the school is a way for me to keep contact with old friends. The excellent new director of the school still wants to "talk things over" from time to time. Teachers ask about particular students in their classrooms, so I get that opportunity to "visit" the children as well.

Adding to all of the above work, creating an office space at home, increasing my knowledge of computers, WiFi, routers, and all-in-one printers and how to make them an asset also is a challenge.

Am I reading more, knitting more, walking more, seeing more movies? You bet! But am I still finding interesting work that continues to satisfy me and my ongoing love of learning. YES!

To contact me e-mail Sa...@BEST-edu.org.