Abstract/Notes: In this article, the author shares some of his recollections around the birth of the American Montessori Society (AMS), beginning in the 1950s. He explains the way AMS evolved in its earliest days which reveals something of who its members are now and how they have been part of the 50-year journey. He adds that by recounting the past, members of the American Montessori Society are able to connect what happened in the first days of AMS with the mission of the Society today.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: Based on a series of papers presented at a symposium on "Montessori in Contemporary American Culture", held in Arlington, Va., in April 1990, and sponsored by the American Montessori Society.

Language: English

Published: Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, 1992

Language: English

Published: New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1968

Language: English

ISSN: 0148-8414

Language: English

Published: Chicago, Illinois: W. H. Sadlier, 1934

Language: English

Language: English

Published: Johnstown, Pennsylvania: Mafex Associates, 1970

Language: English

Extent: 21 p.

Archive: Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Library (Mansfield, Connecticut)

Abstract/Notes: America’s Early Montessorians tells the history of the introduction and implementation of Montessori education in the United States, through the careers of Anne George, Margaret Naumburg, Helen Parkhurst, and Adelia Pyle who Maria Montessori trained as directresses. The chapter provides parallel biographies of George, Pyle, Parkhurst, and Naumburg before their enrollment in Montessori’s training courses. Anne Everett George (1878–1973), the first American trained as a directress, was America’s pioneer Montessori educator. Born in Missouri, George became a private school teacher and taught in Maryland, New York, and Chicago’s Latin School. Adelia McAlpin Pyle (1888–1968) the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer, James Tolman Pyle, was born in New York and educated by private tutors. She was fluent in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Helen Parkhurst (1886–1973), who was born in Wisconsin, earned her degree in education from the Wisconsin State Normal School in River Falls in 1909. Parkhurst taught in public elementary schools in Wisconsin and Washington and became the Director of Primary Training in Wisconsin’s State Normal School at Stevens Point. Margaret Naumburg (1890–1963), born in New York, received her elementary and secondary education in private schools including the Horace Mann School and the laboratory school at Columbia University’s Teachers College. She was awarded her B.A. degree in June 1912 from Barnard College and did graduate study at the London School of Economics.

Language: English

Published: Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

ISBN: 978-3-030-54835-3

Series: Historical Studies in Education

Abstract/Notes: The chapter addresses how the relationship between Maria Montessori and Helen Parkhurst redirected the Montessori movement in the United States. In 1915, Parkhurst was an assistant to Maria Montessori who was lecturing at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Parkhurst designed and served as directress of the highly popular glass-walled Montessori demonstration classroom exhibit at the Exposition. Supplanting the Montessori Educational Association, Montessori established the Montessori Promotion Fund to publicize her method, manufacture and market her materials, and finance her travel to America. When Montessori returned to Europe, she designated Parkhurst to supervise all aspects of Montessori education in the United States, overseeing all Montessori schools, and establishing college programs to prepare Montessori teachers for certification in public school systems. Parkhurst worked as Montessori’s American surrogate for four years but in 1919 decided to pursue her own independent career path. She devised a progressive innovation featuring instruction in education laboratories which became known as the Dalton Plan.

Language: English

Published: Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

ISBN: 978-3-030-54835-3

Series: Historical Studies in Education