Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: What can Montessorians learn from teaching in a war-torn country, and what can they hope to share with others in the process? These questions were much on the author's mind when she went to Sri Lanka in the summer of 2003. This article contains excerpts from e-mails the author sent home, chronicling her experience teaching two high school English classes in an all boys Catholic school.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: Collaboration with Institute of International Education

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: This article offers a brief history of the establishment of the American Montessori Society (AMS) and takes a closer look at its structure. The history of AMS has essentially been a search for standards and a search for community in its efforts to further the welfare of children in America. It has been an indigenous effort by American parents, and others who shared their concerns, to obtain the kind of educational and cultural development their children need for life today and for the life they will experience in their maturity during the twenty-first century. The AMS from the very beginning has been more a symbol than the reality of an adequately financed and staffed national organization. It is composed of professional and lay members and seeks to extend the use of Montessori principles and practices within the educational and cultural environment of America. (Contains 4 footnotes.)

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: with response from Irene Baker

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: The early 1960s was a critical, albeit chaotic, period for the revival of the Montessori movement, which had been recently rekindled in the United States. The success or failure of the movement can arguably be said to have rested squarely upon the backs of those founding members and early supporters of the fledgling American Montessori Society, (AMS) which, in its infancy, was trembling under the weight of its own potential success--a social, cultural, and spiritual phenomena that was enfolded within an educational philosophy and methodology. The organization was vulnerable, and there was no way of predicting its future success or failure. There was no question that someone was needed to handle office affairs, and the importance of bringing the right person in for that job, at that specific time in the history of AMS, could not be minimized--although the full weight of the consequence of that hiring decision 50 years ago can be understood only in retrospect. Help was urgently needed, and it was soon to arrive in the person of Cleo Monson. As it happened, Monson embodied the essential traits and skills paramount to accomplishing the job, and she would later be credited, by many who knew her both professionally, as the critical pillar upon which would rest the survival and success of the AMS. (Contains 1 footnote.)

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

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: At times, when I sit among thousands of Montessorians at a Nancy McCormick Rambusch Lecture during The Montessori Event, I visualize Douglas Gravel, at the time a student in the first American Montessori Society training course, bounding up the stairs inhaling a combination of chocolate chip cookies and the alcohol smell of the mimeograph machine, all while singing the Mighty Mouse theme song: "Here I come to save the day! In the early years of World War II, Cleo served as an assistant to the Minnesota War Finance Committee's publicity director and later came east when the U.S. Department of State sought skilled workers for overseas. After the war, Cleo obtained a position with the Committee for Economic Development, working her way up to office manager, with a staff of 50, where she remained for 13 years. Again, Doug and Maria's contacts proved useful; this time, Senator Christopher Dodd and his sister Carolyn Dodd (children of the late Senator Thomas Dodd) eased the path to the transfer, in 2006, of the AMS Archives to their current home at the Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center ofthe University of Connecticut Libraries.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040