Susan Stephenson: Her world

I hope that it will be possible not only for the children of the wealthy and the well to do, but also for the children of paupers to receive training of this nature. You have very truly remarked that if we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won’t have the struggle, we won’t have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which, consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering.

Mohandas K. Gandhi
Speaking at a teacher training course given by Maria Montessori, published in Young India, Nov. 19, 1931

By Susan Stephenson

In 1963, traveling around the world on the first shipboard college program, I visited Falkland Road in Bombay, a sad place many of us have now seen in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. The children of poverty playing in the filth of these gutters were the inspiration for my life’s work in helping children—children of the rich, the poor and of the world. The Michael Olaf Company has provided the support for this work for more than 25 years, and the results of our work have ended up in many surprising places. Let me give an example:

In 2007 Rita Zener, AMI Montessori teacher-trainer, and I were at the airport in Chengdu awaiting our flight to Beijing. We had been attending a Montessori celebration marking the beginning of the 0-3, 3-6 and 6-12 teacher training that was soon to begin in China. Coming toward us we recognized André Roberfroid, the president of the Association Montessori Internationale, his wife and Michael Guo, who had organized the conference. Michael had been responsible for organizing not only the conference, but also the government-supported Montessori courses for hundreds of teachers. As André introduced me to Michael his eyes lit up and he grabbed both my hands, exclaiming: “You wrote The Joyful Child! That was the inspiration for my work!”

I was so pleased and replied excitedly, “Why don’t you translate it into Chinese and put it on the Internet for the sake of parents out in the countryside, to help them use Montessori information with their babies?” Then he said, in a hushed voice and a smile “Can I tell you a little secret?”

“Please do. I love secrets.”

He whispered: “I translated it two years ago. Do you mind?”

“No, of course not. It is my goal to help as many children as possible.”

Montessori has been the best method of help I have ever found because it respects the uniqueness of each child and provides the tools necessary to thrive in an unpredictable world. I have had all three levels of AMI teacher training (0-3, 3-6, 6-12) and have taught children from age 2 through high school using these methods. But my ability to reach out was the result of the founding of The Michael Olaf Company by our two teenage daughters, who named the company after their baby brother, and the Internet. They have provided a way to reach thousands of parents and school educators all over the world.

Today there are two editions of our combination book and catalog, one from birth to three (The Joyful Child) and one from 3-12 (Child of the World). For more than15 years I have consulted with Montessori teachers and teacher trainers to make the overview clearer, and have incorporated the answers to questions sent to us by school administrators, teachers and parents.

Schools provide copies of our catalogs to new or prospective parents to help them prepare children in the home for their Montessori school experience. The Montessori School of Lake Forest uses The Joyful Child as a textbook in their adolescent program, introducing the children to the human development in the first three years of life in order to begin the preparation for being parents. And we have been told that they are even used as exam reviews for teachers in training. I have heard personally from many principals and teachers that they have been crucial in helping provide a more complete picture of the development of the child from birth to age 12+.

As a result of the spread of these overviews through the Internet, I have been invited to present Montessori’s ideas and approaches to the governments of Bhutan and Albania, and to give workshops in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand and Holland. In 2002 I returned to India to volunteer to help the Montessori teachers at the Tibetan Children’s Villages in the exile settlements and to sponsor a child living there, providing for his education and upkeep through his school years. Since then my husband and I have helped in various ways, including the school for the blind in Tibet and a boarding school for poor mountain children in Nepal.

The text of the Michael Olaf catalogs has been translated into Chinese and Polish, and is being translated into other languages, always by people who want to share this overview of Montessori practice with others in their own countries. Recently I met with a professor at Columbia University in New York who is translating the text into Tibetan.

The products in these catalogues are intended to help parents think about the needs of children when purchasing toys and to help teachers find the items they need. We have seen the negative results of too many materials in the Montessori classroom—how they scatter the children’s energies and prevent concentration—and we understand the importance of teachers making their own materials in order to inspire love and respect of them by both adults and children. We especially understand the necessity of practical life materials to reflect the particular country, culture, the time and place of the child, so we limit our selections. Measurements are given, so parents and teachers who cannot afford to purchase these items can be guided in constructing their own, especially in third world countries.

Michael Olaf is a very small company, just five of us, but we consider ourselves a small part of a community of thousands around the world. And we are comforted by the fact that we are all contributing in our own way to the Montessori movement for world peace.

Susan Stephenson is a founder of Michael Olaf Company. She also manages www.montessori.edu.