100 Years of Montessori
Let the Celebrations Begin
The “Montessori Centenary Conference” in Rome Jan. 6 and 7 involved more than 1,200 people from 45 countries.
The conference, organized by the Opera Nazionale Montessori and Association Montessori Internationale, commemorated the opening of Maria Montessori’s first Children’s house Jan. 7 1907.
Two months later, the largest-ever gathering of Montessori educators convened in New York City, with more than 5,000 attending the American Montessori Society’s annual conference.
Other celebrations have taken place and will continue through the year.
A Good Sign
Montessori educators in Houston gathered to consider a special promotion for the centennial. A full-page newspaper ad was too costly. Houston Montessori Center bookkeeper Amy Templeton suggested a billboard, and an idea was born.
Participants contributed what they could, raising the $8,000 reduced cost charged by Sign Ad. Elysia and Gretta Yeager helped the company staff with the design. And drivers in Houston saw the result and evidence of collaboration among Montessori educators. Those contributing to the cost, in addition to the Houston Montessori Center, were Alief Community School, Beresford School, Cathedral House, Children’s Garden, Children’s Hour, Early Discovery, Espirit Montessori School, Five Star Montessori, Garden Oaks Elementary, Innovative Montessori, Montessori Country Day School, Montessori House for Children, Montessori Learning Institute, Montessori Moments, Morning Glory Montessori, Pines Montessori, Post Oak Montessori School, Reece Academy, Riverbend Montessori School, School of the Woods, Sherwood Forest Montessori School, Southampton Montessori School, St. Andrew’s, St. Catherine’s Montessori School, St. Mary of the Purification Montessori School, Sugar Creek Montessori, Sugar Mill Montessori School, United Orthodox Synagogues Goldberg Montessori school, Westside Montessori School, Whidby Montessori Magnet, Wilson Elementary and individual Montessori educators.
NAMTA Exhibit Debuts
Kahn's Display Tour Begins in San Francisco
The North American Montessori Teachers’ Association unveiled its “A Montessori Journey 1907-2007” exhibit during the AMI Centenary Celebration and Refresher Course in San Francisco Feb. 14-17.
The exhibit, which includes Montessori materials, photos, written history and a mural made by current Montessori students, follows two paths—one historical path that shows how Montessori’s influence spread, and a contemporary path that highlights Montessori in current settings around the world. The contemporary section also touches on current issues in Montessori, such as peace and religious education, Montessori in public schools and developing countries, adolescent education and Montessori’s vision for the future.
David Kahn, head of NAMTA, said the exhibit was designed to show the evolution of Montessori’s ideas.
Two teams were instrumental in bringing the exhibit to fruition—an American team, which included members of NAMTA and the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota, was responsible for the research and writing of the exhibit, while a German team, which included the VS-Furniture company, fabricated the exhibit. According to Kahn, the German team felt strongly about participating in the exhibit, in order to celebrate their country’s Montessori past that was buried by the Nazis.
The exhibit’s stops were based upon requests of Montessorians in conjunction with their centenary celebrations and conferences. While the San Francisco stop did not bring in much of the general public (Kahn estimated about 90 percent of exhibit goers were from the AMI conference), other exhibit visits are expected to have more publicity and be in areas that will be more visible.
After stops in Houston, Washington D.C., Cleveland and Toronto, the exhibit will be housed in at the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota in St. Paul. Other stops are being negotiated as well.—Holly Hilgenberg
Celebrations in the United States
Duxbury, MA
Bay Farm Montessori Academy invited the community to its Family Festival Open House on January 6. The Centennial was celebrated with Classical Indian Dance performances, mask making, cake decorating, crafts and an international tea sampling. Lunch and desserts were served and the celebration ended with students performing “It’s All Greek to Me.”
Submitted by Susan Morrissey
Fort Worth, TX
Montessori Children’s House of Fort Worth, TX invited the local Montessori schools to the Botanical Gardens for their centennial celebration. Local Montessori pioneers were honored with a slide show presentation of the growth of Montessori in the area. Dr. Betsy Coe spoke on Montessori education and its relevance today. The celebration ended with refreshments.
Submitted by Amy Henderson
Juneau, AK
Montessori Borealis’ students started off their celebration by researching “famous” Montessori children, reading up on Maria Montessori’s life, sharing birthday cake and their ideas on what they can offer the world as Montessori children. Three weeks prior to their celebration, they displayed Montessori photos and materials at a storefront of the local mall.
Saturday was the “Big Day”—a “glass classroom” showed toddler through adolescent Montessori environments. The day included many activities—teacher presentations, more birthday cake, dramatic presentation, salsa dancing and more.
The school also worked with local media outlets to publicize the celebration.
Submitted by Chris Trostel
Victoria, TX
Students at F.W. Gross Montessori in Victoria, TX celebrated the centennial during National Montessori Education Week, from February 26 to March 2. Activities included the dedication of a Peace Pole, an Art Show, and “Give Me a Lesson,” where students presented lessons to parents, administrators and school board members. An outdoor picnic on March 2, complete with Texas flags, cowboy hats and boots (as the day also happened to be Texas Independence day), served as the culminating centennial event.
Submitted by Mary Tinsley
Memphis Montessorians Come Together
By Kay Jordan
Memphis, TN has several private Montessori schools and a public Montessori school. There have been efforts to create a Memphis Montessori Collaborative in the past, but the group has been inactive for several years. The Centennial of Montessori Education provided inspiration for renewed efforts to work together in order to increase opportunities for children, their families and Montessori educators.
After several months of planning, a citywide Montessori Centennial Conference was held the weekend of Feb. 2 and 3, despite bad weather and a snow holiday.
Double Tree Elementary School and Lamplighter Montessori School co-sponsored this celebration of 100 years of Montessori education. Parents, students and teachers from public and private Montessori schools came together for a renewed look at the Montessori method of education.
The Memphis City Schools’ Teaching and Learning Academy was opened especially for the opening meeting Friday night. The keynote speaker was Carol Johnson, superintendent of Memphis City Schools. Johnson spoke to an audience of more than 100. She spoke from a combined perspective of educator, former principal of a Montessori elementary school and the chief administrator of a large urban public school system.
Johnson paralleled the current writing Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Can Do by Laurence Steinberg with The Absorbent Mind and other speeches and publications of Maria Montessori.
The common themes of both writers are self-acceptance, self-control and self-expression. Johnson drew the conclusion that Montessori was a visionary whose ideas are being recognized today. She spoke about the changes she is initiating in the Memphis City School System, her new 4-R’s of schooling—not the old “Reading, Writing and Arithmetic” but Relationship, Responsibility, Respect and Results. Johnson encouraged the public and the private sectors of education to continue to work together.
On Saturday morning, Trinity United Methodist Church opened its education building for workshops for parents, students and teachers. Parents of Montessori students attended a round table discussion of Montessori curriculum and outcomes and a demonstration of basic Montessori materials. Teachers attended a workshop led by Dottie Sweet Feldman, 2007 AMS Living Legacy. She presented an overview of language development in a Montessori school. Students had a morning of multi-media art activities centering on the topic “Creating Peace.”
The conference concluded with a program developed in the students’ workshop. The students created silk hoop-paintings and used them in their program, along with the song “What a Wonderful World,” followed by a sign-language interpretation of “Peace is the World Smiling.”
Kay Jordan is coordinator of the Double Tree Montessori Elementary School
Celebrations around the World
Hangzhou, China
AMI will sponsor a China Centenary Meeting Oct. 27 & 28. The meeting, held in conjunction with AMI’s new training center, the International Training Center of Montessori Edu of China, will take place at the People’s Conference Hall of Zhejiang in the providence’s capital city, Hangzhou. The conference is open to anyone, and all AMI trainers, staff and executives are invited, all expenses paid, to come as Speakers or VIPs. The training center will begin classes in August 2008.
Denmark
The Danish Montessori Society will sponsor a “Nordic Celebration of the Centenary for the first Casa dei Bambini” from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 at Hotel Marienlyst in Helsingor Denmark.
It will include lectures and discussions in English and an exhibition of Montessori materials.
INFO: d.reb...@wanadoo.dk
include subject line “MONTESSORI CELEBRATION”
Rome, Italy
Approximately 1,200 Montessorians from 45 countries attended the Montessori Centenary Conference in Rome Jan. 6-7, 2007.
It was hosted by the Opera Nazionale Montessori (ONM) and the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI).
Conference organizers presented the International Montessori Education and Peace Award to Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome, in recognition of his efforts on behalf of student projects in Africa.
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Montessori Association of New Zealand is sponsoring Montessori Centenary Lectures and Gala Dinner on April 14 in Lower Hutt.
Centennial Draws Media Coverage
The Montessori centennial has brought considerable media coverage, including at least three prominent national publications.
Education Week
Jacqueline Cossentino’s Commentary, Evaluating Montessori: Why the Results Matter More Than You Think, was published in the Jan. 31 edition.
“Central to the Montessori system is a holistic view of the child and his or her participation in a complex world. That Montessori children read early or outperform their peers on standardized tests is, in fact, a byproduct of a system that seeks to make the most of natural developmental instincts in children. To emphasize the results, as impressive as they are, over the totality of the system is to miss the most important lesson Montessori has to offer the mainstream.
Montessori leaders must have both the knowledge and the will to do what it takes to ensure a full implementation of the approach. In theory, that means ensuring high-quality teacher preparation and properly prepared classroom environments. In practice—and in an age of high-stakes accountability—it means much more than that.
Ensuring full implementation means protecting the Montessori program from outside intrusion. It means establishing appropriate expectations among key constituents (parents, public officials, teachers). It means trusting the approach for what it is, as opposed to what it might be turned into. It means, perhaps most importantly, taking care not to view Montessori as a quick fix to the outcomes problem, the achievement gap, or any number of educational problems in need of solutions.”
Washington Post
Jay Mathews’ column, Montessori, Now 100, Goes Mainstream: Once Considered Radical and Elitist, Method Creeping Into Public Schools, appeared Jan. 2.
“The results of this experiment launched in January 1907 captivated the education world, inspiring a movement over the next century that has helped define child-centered education.
More than 5,000 Montessori schools are spread across the United States, at least 8,000 worldwide. Dozens have sprung up in the Washington region.
[Editor’s note: Contrary to Mathews’ report, it appears the actual number of operating Montessori schools in the United States is closer to 4,200.]
Montessori has had …tangible impact, with versions of her child-centered practices passed from preschool teacher to preschool teacher, some not even aware of the origins of what they are doing.
Nowadays, her advocacy of unstructured class time seems antithetical to today’s structured classrooms, with their emphasis on standardized testing and meeting the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind law.”
USA Today
G. Jeffrey MacDonald’s article, Montessori looks back — and ahead, appeared Jan. 24.
“For all their lack of orthodoxy, Montessori schools are achieving success, according to a study published in the September edition of the journal Science. Researchers from the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin-Madison found Montessori kindergarten students outperformed those in a control group in reading, math and social skills.
The Montessori label, however, is far from a seal of quality, because in the absence of any licensing agreement, any school can call itself Montessori…
“There are outrageous shortcuts being taken in the name of Montessori,” says David Kahn, executive director of the North American Montessori Teachers Association.”
Elsewhere
Many local papers also included coverage.
AMI keeps record of media coverage athttp://www.montessoricentenary.org/
Rome, Italy, The Study Tour: Excerpts from a blog written by Jacqueline Cossentino
Jan. 6, 2007
Well over a thousand representatives from at least 55 nations have gathered in Rome this morning to officially open the Centenary Celebrations of the first Casa dei Bambini.
After a rousing welcome from Pietro De Santis, President of the Opera Nazionale Montessori and Andre Roberfroid, President of AMI, a series of messages were read from local and international dignitaries. From the Mayor of Rome to the Italian Minister of Education to the head of UNESCO, greetings emphasized the past as well as the future of the movement—calling for all who care for children to take up Dr. Montessori’s lifelong commitment to the “cause of the child.”
Roberfroid offered pointed remarks for Montessori leaders and practitioners as well as those from “outside” the Montessori world who are present and interested. “You have a role to play,” he announced. Making a direct call for wider “dissemination” of the method, he said “if we believe the method is effective, we cannot be satisfied with it reaching only small numbers of privileged children.”
Jan 9, 2007
It wasn’t that easy to find, but there it was, tucked within that famous courtyard, with the obligatory laundry partially obscuring the sign.
It was late in the afternoon and the directresses were preparing to go home, but we did manage to get a few images of the inside as well. Of course, what is most striking about this “experiment’ is the proximity of the school to the homes of the children it served (it’s unclear whether or not the current students are also residents of the “condominium” as it’s called). A great deal has been made this week about Montessori’s regard for linking school and home. She aimed, through the Casa, to influence the homelife of these children, to make the education of the children, quite literally, the center of family life. Walking around the streets of San Lorenzo, and seeing the experiment still alive, really hammers home just how bold a thinker Montessori was.
http://montessoritrek.blogspot.com
|
