Extending the Hand of Kindness

An Established Private Program Reaches out to Teachers at a New Public School

By Elizabeth Slade

For decades there have been divisions within our Montessori community—AMI vs. AMS, Children’s House vs. Elementary, Creation Story vs. God with no Hands, the list goes on and on including a more recent split: private vs. public. The tension on this one has been felt at conferences, in journals, in person, as we try to sort out what is true and what is judgment. As we mark one hundred years there appears a shift, a coming together, a turn instead towards partnership. Here is one tale of collaboration between a seasoned private school and a brand new public school.

It is fall in Massachusetts and the doors of the second Public Montessori school in Springfield are opening for the first time. There are twelve Children’s House classrooms that hold 3-6 year olds and are fully Montessori, four Lower Elementary classrooms of just 6 year olds, and sixteen other traditional elementary classrooms housing grades 2-5. All but four of the 32 classroom teachers are brand new to the school and all of them have just come off of seven weeks of intensive Montessori training. From there they move into the demanding work of creating physical environments for the children. Part of this work is clearing away what remained from the end of the last school year. After five days of rigorous cleaning, every unwanted, dog-eared District text book, broken or unwanted cast away has found its home in the only non-student centered environment: the staff room.

In the opening weeks, as students fill the classrooms, people are excited, tired and overwhelmed. They need a place to retreat to for renewal.

Enter: The Montessori School of Northampton (MSN) an area private Montessori school that has just celebrated 30 years. At a staff meeting there in November, the Head and faculty of MSN ask about Gerena and how things are going. They hear about the hard work the teachers are doing to change a school culture and the struggles faced daily. Their response: “What can we do to help?” After a short conversation one teacher asks “Do they have a staff room to go to?” and from that moment it is apparent that there is a project ahead.

The MSN teachers immediately begin to mobilize, creating lists of what will be needed, soliciting their parent community, shopping, baking and sewing. They make a field trip to Gerena and take pictures of the space to hang back at their own school. Within a few weeks they are ready to implement their Extreme Makeover.

At the end of the day on a Monday in December, the MSN faculty pull up at the front of Gerena in their school bus and get off carrying mops and buckets, coffee tables and lamps, bags of supplies and trays of goodies. They make multiple trips up to the staff room. Then for just the shortest of moments they stand and survey the room: blank concrete walls, rows of old books, long brown conference tables (one missing a leg,) and a small kitchenette with cupboards containing a plastic fork and a mostly eaten bag of Cheese-its. Then without hesitation they take action. Rubber gloves, spray bottles and sponges fly, the vacuum roars, carts filled with the unwanted are wheeled out, the broken table is removed, and the transformation begins.

Two hours later MSN teachers sit around the lovely space and admire the beauty. The empty concrete wall is covered with a quilt sewn by the teachers with messages for the Gerena teachers.

There is a sitting area with two couches, a stuffed chair, two coffee tables, a magazine rack with Montessori publications and a Magic 8 Ball! There is an eating area with two rectangular tables covered in table cloths and surrounded by plants and lamps. The kitchen area is now fully outfitted with mugs, glasses, silverware, plates and platters. There are teas, cookies, coffee, baked goods and candy. On the table is a microwave, coffee machine, tea kettle and toaster. On the counter is a dish drainer, soap, sponges, paper towels, and underneath are abundant supplies.

The MSN teachers sit back, satisfied with their work while the final picture is hung. Something tangible and significant has been done to support the work of people bringing Montessori into public urban education. They have made an impact on the project by offering of themselves—their care of the environment, their knowledge of environmental design, their eye for beauty and their ability to make a sacred space. The staff room feels like a giant Peace Area, ready to hold the hard working Gerena staff.

The following morning the two principals, Susan Swift from the Montessori School of Northampton and Analida Munera from Gerena Community School, invite the Gerena Staff to a before-school breakfast. As each person enters they have a visible response to the change. Several people tear up and many exclaim. The transformation is significant, and the act of kindness is palpable.

Now, every day, the staff lounge at Gerena is alive. People make coffee each morning, eat lunch together each day, and even end the day there seeking advice from the Magic 8 Ball. They leave snacks and notes for each other. There has been an Appreciation Breakfast for Interns and a Baby Shower for two teachers. This is all the result of an established private Montessori school extending the hand of kindness to a new public Montessori school.

May each of us reach forward into the next century, and with the tip of our shoes erase any lines in the sand that separate us, that keep us struggling alone, that in any way inhibit us from bringing our very best to children. Together we can create beauty, we can provide sanctuary, we can walk forward into the hard parts stronger and more vital.