Field Notes

Montessori in Education Week

Nienhuis, Heutink Merge

Free, Week-Long Intro in Savannah

Bronsil to Retire from Xavier Program

Montessorians Support Eddye Adarve’s Children

NYC School Head Convicted of Abuse

Parent Letter: Public Montessori ‘Exclusive’

Report: Whitby Plans to Use IB Program

Request for Help:Three-year Age Span Research Study

Montessori in Education Week

America’s educators got a look at how Montessori education fits into the public schools in a report by Linda Jacobson in the March 14 edition of Education Week.

Headlined “Taming Montessori,” the article looked at the effect of No Child Left Behind on Montessori classrooms. It included comments from several Montessori educators, but took examples primarily from the Robert Goddard Montessori School in Prince George’s County, MD.

It painted a picture of teachers and schools who were delivering good test results, but with some sense that they were not really true to the core principles of Montessori’s approach.

“I didn’t realize how different the NCLB mandates are from Montessori philosophy,” Jacobson wrote in an e-mail. “But the teachers I visited clearly explained how these theories are so opposite from one another. I could see that some of these teachers were definitely frustrated, but had accepted that to be a public school, this was what they had to do.

“I only got one comment from a reader on the story. [The respondent wrote that] ‘it was possible to do well on standardized tests and still be a Montessori school.’ I didn’t disagree with the reader. I think the experience from the PG County school I visited showed that.”

The article noted the toll of public schools’ focus on testing.

Among the quotes:

We see more stress on the teachers. It’s really against their philosophy to test their children… But if we don’t show that this program helps children perform, then [school system officials] will do away with our program.

[melding Montessori philosophy with NCLB demands is]“practically impossible.…How do you follow the child when you have to teach a standard?

“Testing booklets are foreign to Montessori students,” Jacobson wrote, “and many children have had to be taught that whatever they write outside the black box or in the margins of the test sheet is not going to be counted in their scores.” Ms. Johnson added that students also are accustomed to working together, and have to be told that they can’t help their classmates with tests.

“Some children even challenge the way certain test questions are written because they are taught to critique writing.”

The voice of accommodation came from Connie Murphy, former president of the American Montessori Society and principal of Bunche Montessori School in Ft. Wayne, IN. “When NCLB started, there was a big sigh, and teachers asking, ‘What is this going to do to our program?’ … But we just needed to embrace it.”

The article also focused on difficulties in finding teachers, and the NCLB-related definitions of Highly Quality Teachers.

The article is online at:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/03/14/27montessori.h26.html?levelId=1000&

Nienhuis, Heutink Merge

Nienhuis Montessori, the largest provider of Montessori equipment, agreed to merge with Holland-based Heutink, Rijssen in late April.

Karen Kenison, the branch manager of Nienhuis Montessori USA, reported the merger in a letter to the Montessori community. In a draft of that letter she wrote:

“We are pleased to announce that Nienhuis B.V. and all its subsidiaries have merged with Heutink, Rijssen of The Netherlands.

“Heutink has been an important player in the educational field for nearly 100 years. It is the leader in the Dutch primary school market and, over time, has acquired a prominent role in the international educational market with its brand Educo. Through the addition of Nienhuis, Heutink’s market position grows considerably and Nienhuis obtains a very solid partner. It is a win-win for all involved.

“What does this mean for Nienhuis? Greater opportunity, future growth and the ability to broaden the reach of Montessori worldwide. Our name will stay the same, our product line will continue to grow and our quality will remain top-notch. Our mission is and will remain: the publication, production, sales and supply of high quality educational (Montessori) material.”

Free, Week-Long Intro in Savannah

A free, week-long introduction to Montessori education, open to anyone, is being offered June 25-29 in Savannah, GA.

The event is presented by the Coastal Empire Montessori Community Organization (CEMCO) and supported by a grant from the Georgia Dept. of Education.

CEMCO has received a charter and the conference is part of the planning process.

Sanford Jones, a long-time Montessori educator, leader of Youth Opera USA, and a member of the CEMCO board, will be the primary presenter at the sessions held at the Telfair Museum.

Other presenters are Anne Monaghan, former principal of Ellis Montessori Academy in Savannah, former teacher Sandy Branam, Montessori parents Janie and Peter Brodhead and David Lerch, a founder of both the Juliana Group and CEMCO.

Information is available from George Bowen of CEMCO at 912 920-1977 or dln...@comcast.net.

Bronsil to Retire from Xavier Program

Elizabeth Bronsil announced plans to retire this summer after directing the Xavier University Montessori Teacher Education Program in Cincinnati for 29 years.

Since taking over as director of a program with 16 students, she has expanded is scope dramatically.

In addition to supporting the five-site Cincinnati public program, it has contracted to prepare teachers for public programs in Cleveland, Louisville, Indianapolis and Dayton. She expanded the program’s international reach, training about 100 teachers in Korea and about 50 in Taiwan.

She served on several committees setting standards for early childhood education in Ohio. She has been a leading advocate of expanded collaboration between Montessori educators and the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

“I’m leaving a job I love,” she said, “I’m going to miss the teaching. But it is time to go.”

She said she plans, with the help of her son, to begin a business serving parents of young children.

Xavier is expected to conduct a search for her replacement.

Montessorians Support Eddye Adarve’s Children

Eddye Adarve, husband of Lisa Ricke Adarve, co-founder of Montessori Made Manageable, died at the age of 44 on December 14 of complications due to a tragic accident.

Eddye had fallen from a third floor patio while working on renovations in their home office in Cincinnati. Although he was conscious when Lisa and the four children heard him calling for help, he slipped into a coma after an emergency brain surgery. He fought bravely for nearly three months, but his severe brain trauma led to multiple infections which in turn shut down his organs. He was able to spend the last week of his life at home in the care of his family.

Lisa Adarve said the nearby Mercy Montessori Center provided support to the family, including welcoming the Adarve children to the school within days of the accident.

Montessori Made Manageable has been a leader in correlating Montessori curriculum with state standards across the United States.

An education fund has been set up for the four Adarve children at Fifth Third Bank 2150 Sherman Av., Cincinnati, OH 45212, (513) 731-4800.

Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated, Adarve said.

NYC School Head Convicted of Abuse

The head of a Manhattan Montessori school was sentenced to 14 years in prison following her conviction for a sexual liaison with an underage student.

Lina Sinha, 40, was convicted of sodomizing a student multiple times, beginning when he was 13. That student is now 24 and a police officer. She was also convicted of trying to bribe a second teen to lie about their alleged sexual relationship.

Her attorney told reporters he would appeal the conviction.

Assistant District Attorney Florence Chapin said she would seek to retry Sinha on six counts pertaining to another student. Jurors deadlocked 7-5 in favor of conviction on a charge of statutory rape involving a second student who accused Sinha of raping him when he was 12.

She was convicted on 11 counts, including nine misdemeanors. Several involved filing false reports. Sinha had filed rape and assault charges against the police officer, charges the jury decided were in retaliation for his breaking up their relationships in 2005.

Sinha taught for 16 years at the Montessori School of New York International in Manhattan, established by her parents in 1969.

Parent Letter: Public Montessori ‘Exclusive’

Public Montessori programs have long struggled with admission policies. First come-first serve? Lottery? Waiting lists? Is previous Montessori experience preferred or even required?

Even when solutions seem to earn wide support, the tensions continue.

The issue went public when the Des Moines Register printed a letter from parent Elizabeth Barnhill in response to a March 28 article that noted a lack of diversity at a downtown public Montessori program. An excerpt from the letter:

The waiting-list practices of Des Moines’ elite public schools contribute to the lack of economic and racial diversity The Cowles Montessori School gives priority to students who have previously attended Montessori schools, i.e., its $170-per-week preschool.

The Downtown School allows children to be wait-listed years prior to kindergarten entrance. Information about such practices, which automatically excludes many children, is not generally available; affluent parents learn of such practices via word of mouth.

Parents with insider information are often not parents of color or the economically disadvantaged. It should be no surprise that these schools become public schools for the privileged.

Report: Whitby Plans to Use IB Program

The Whitby School, in Greenwich, CT, the country’s oldest independent Montessori school, announced plans to introduce an International Baccalaureate program this fall.

Head of school Michele Monson told a reporter from the local Greenwich Time that “the IB program won’t be a replacement for Montessori.

“It’s an issue of our (staff) being really clear about the alignment. It’s a whole philosophy,” Monson said. “We need to celebrate tradition, but we have a responsibility to Dr. (Maria) Montessori’s memory to keep going. She would roll over in her grave if she though we were resting on our laurels.

“The board is very much behind the initiative. If that means time and money for teachers to train, the board is behind that”

The article noted that, according to Monson, parents of the 350-student co-educational school are behind the plan. “We have a lot of families that are international in orientation.”

Ashwin Vasan, Whitby’s new board chairman, told the Time that the IB program “fits in beautifully. This made so much sense to us.”

Noting that children will live and compete in a global economic, Vasan added, “You’ve got to give them a very international curriculum.”

Monson declined to comment for this article.

Whitby’s preschool presumably would remain more traditionally Montessori in character. Because it takes at least two year to earn accreditation from as an Internal Baccalaureate program, Andy Shaw, who reported the story for the Time, said he believed changes would be introduced slowly over the next two years with the introduction of a middle school, as well as an elementary IB program.

Some high school programs have sought to meld Montessori and IB programs. If that is Whitby’s plan, it would apparently be the first attempt to meld the two at an elementary level.