Montessori is Waiting for Us…In the Future
The recent mentions in the Harvard Business Review and Forbes Magazine of Maria Montessori as an innovator and disruptor reminded me of a lecture I heard in 2010, when I attended my very first AMI International Trainers Meeting. At this meeting, held in Rome, we had the remarkable opportunity to hear presentations by several of the leading Montessori scholars from the University of Rome. Dr. Raniero Regni delivered an incredible lecture entitled, "Geopedogogy and the Nature of Childhood," which ended with the words, "To go beyond Montessori is to rediscover Montessori. Maria Montessori is waiting for us... in the future." Those words gave me chills when I first heard them and they have stayed with me ever since, taking on new meaning and importance as I think of them in different contexts.
I think of these words when I hear people saying that children are "different" today, or when people wonder how an educational method that is over 100 years old can possibly be relevant in today's world. I think of these words when I hear people saying, "Montessori isn't enough," and how quickly we sometimes conclude that we need to bring in specialists or supplemental curriculum. I am an ardent supporter of collaborating and sharing resources with experts in other fields, but I sometimes worry that we're losing sight of the depth of what Montessori education offers, when actually, we are leaders in the field of education, with an astoundingly rich and relevant developmentally-based philosophy and practical approach. – Sarah Werner Andrews