Homeschoolers

The Resourceful Heidi Spietz

What is a person who never taught a Montessori class doing, spending 20 years providing guidance to homeschoolers, parents and teachers across the country on Montessori education?

In the case of Heidi Spietz, the answer is “quite a bit.”

Spietz is a relentless writer, resource hunter and purveyor of ideas through American Montessori Consulting, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Her print books include three “Montessori at Home” titles—for preschoolers, 6-9 and 10-12 year olds— plus resource guides and books on teaching beginning French and Spanish. (See below for titles.)

She was among the first to recognize a sizeable market among homeschoolers for Montessori information. Her work reaches many of them, whom she estimates make up about half her audience.

Spietz was also among the first to use Internet resources to support Montessori education, with online resource collections, newsletters, chats and a moderated list called Montessori for the 21st Century.

It has not been an easy, or orthodox, road.

Spietz had taught medical terminology, Greek and Latin. She also taught at a private Christian preschool in the mid-80s.

“I started looking at different methodologies,” she said. “ I was frustrated that in so many classrooms children were all put in the same setting and were working at the same pace. It was difficult to watch.”

“I had a couple of students who were really struggling. There was the pressure from the principal for one child to succeed, and I didn’t like what was happening to that child. I could see the stress. The child just wasn’t ready.”

She began reading Montessori books. The Secret of Childhood, she said, was especially important to her.

“I had a liberal arts background but I never came across information on Maria Montessori. I wasn’t familiar with her methodology till that time.”

She made the leap and trained with Phyllis Wallbank through the College of Modern Montessori in London.

Although health problems were mounting, she finished her training course before she was diagnosed with lupus in the 1990s

“It had done a lot of damage,” she said.

“I’ve had health problems since childhood,” she said. “I missed a lot of school and had to play catch-up. Fortunately, I was able to do that.

“But when you persevere, it makes you stronger, and it makes you more aware of the challenges others face.”

She hasn’t been able to teach since 1986, but she has persevered.

“I knew I had to take a break. I couldn’t do a classroom. Tutoring became difficult when I had to adjust to medicine.”

In working in other environments, including tutoring foreign exchange students at California State-Long Beach, she expanded her sense of applying Montessori’s principles. “Once you’re exposed to the method and take training,” she said, “it becomes ingrained.”

“I had never considered writing a book before that,” she said.

“I decided to put together lesson plans, creative ideas, things I have submitted through training and ideas from my bachelor’s degree in psychology. There were not many people writing homeschooling books then. So I wrote this little book.” It was Montessori at Home: A Complete Guide to Teaching Your Preschooler at Home Using the Montessori Method, and a career was launched.

With positive reviews from Book List and Library Journal, libraries were buying. “Librarians don’t have Montessori training, but they are astute and do research,” Spietz said.

She is aware her route to prominence is unorthodox.

Most authors and experts on Montessori education operate through schools, organizations or teacher education centers. Spietz’s has been a more solitary route.

Although she is not in daily contact with Montessori classrooms, she works to maintain connections.

“I do bounce ideas. I engage in conversation with several people. I have friends I e-mail who are Montessorians—mostly still in the classrooms all over the United States. Some who have homeschooled.”

“Whether I am writing a book or editing a newsletter,” she wrote in an e-mail, “I always request feedback and suggestions from Montessori teachers and parents. Their collective input helps me to know if what I have written is relevant and consistent with Montessori in the 21st century.”

She describes her work as supporting the work of parents. “What I provide is a foundation as a parent sets up the environment,” she said. “I give it to them in the books, the resource book and the web site…so that they can have that experience in their home.

“I think my books speak for themselves. A lot of Montessori schools continue to order them.”

As reflected by her discussion group title, she is focusing her attention on how to adapt Montessori for the 21st century. Online technology is part of it. The Resource Center at the American Montessori Consulting links users to the websites of materials providers, who pay a nominal fee for what one described as extremely cost-effective advertising.

“There are so many websites and Montessori blogs, groups where people can go,” she said. “Type ‘Montessori’ into a search engine and how many millions of hits do you get? Some of those I don’t’ agree with. A parent should look at sites, read the blogs. You can tell if they have read her books and are trying to use that philosophy.

“Montessori would understand that children need to learn to use a computer. They would need lessons provided in the old-fashioned way. It is OK to provide supplemental materials. Children still need that foundation. You have to make sure your actions are in agreement with her principles. I have made a concerted effort to do that with Montessori At Home.”

Heidi Spietz’s Contributions

Online List

Montessori for the 21st Century, a moderated Yahoo list

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/montessori_twenty_first_century/

Website

American Montessori Consulting

http://www.amonco.org/

Bookstore, Resource directory, Lesson plans, Newsletters, Montessori 101, free pdf book, other free items

Books

Note: Author credit may be Heidi Spietz, Heidi A. Spietz or Heidi Anne Spietz

Montessori at Home: A Complete Guide to Teaching Your Preschooler at Home Using the Montessori Method—Print or CD, last edition 2005.
Modern Montessori at Home: A Creative Teaching Guide for Parents of Children Six through Nine Years of Age—Print or CD
Modern Montessori at Home II: A Creative Teaching Guide for Parents of Children 10 through 12 Years of Age —Print or CD
Basic French Vocabulary Book—Print or CD
Reading, Writing, and Spelling in Spanish I: A Complete Guide to Teaching Your Child Beginning Written Spanish—Print or CD
Montessori Resources—multiple editions, Print and a 2007 version on CD and an updated version on the web