Tuesday, April 22, 2014

A Call to Action (by Jill Wilson)

I often think of the old proverb that says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.  The second-best time is now.”  The same holds true for so many things in my life, and especially for advocacy of Montessori.  I just returned from the AMS National Conference in Dallas, Texas and I have been spurred into action.   It became overwhelmingly obvious to me that our children need more Montessori programs.  But at the same time, Montessori programs are struggling when it comes to legislative and regulatory challenges at the federal, state and local levels.  Many of these policies are weighted against and adversely affect Montessori classrooms and practices.  For instance, in many Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, quality Montessori programs are given low scores due to the lack of building blocks, stuffed animals and toys in the classroom.  It is up to us to educate legislators to what is a quality Montessori program.  The best time to begin grassroots advocacy was 20 years ago.  The second best time is NOW!

Big movements are happening in the Montessori circles.   The circles are beginning to overlap and they are big enough to include everyone.  In order to impact policy, we need everyone from the large national organizations to the smallest local schools and classrooms.   Montessori Forward andThe National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector are two websites that are bringing together multiple Montessori organizations to collaborate and disseminate valuable information. AMS and AMI/USA have joined forces to support state organizations in developing their voice, strengthening their platform and providing them with the necessary tools needed to succeed.  

The Ohio Montessori Alliance is the state organization created to do these things (and more!) for children and Montessori schools in Ohio.  As they state on their website, “The OMA is a call to action and a commitment to community.”  I have been called to action and now I am calling on you, too.
So, what can you as a parent, teacher or administrator do?

1.  Invite your state representative and senator to your school.  No agenda, no issues to discuss, and no speeches, but just a casual visit as an introduction to some Montessori constituents.  Not only does this provide an opportunity for the politician to be awed by the Montessori environment and touched by the children working, but also it aides in raising an awareness of just how many Montessori schools may be in the district.  Contact your state representatives here:  www.ohiohouse.gov andwww.ohiosenate.gov/senate/index


2. Be Counted!  At the CMS and/or AMS conference, you may have seen and heard people talking about the 2013-14 USA Montessori Census.  This is a collaborative project to strengthen the US Montessori Community.  The information gathered through the census can be used by the general public and researchers, as well as federal, state, and local governments, in making important decisions about education reform and the proper role of Montessori in that reform effort.

Currently, there are only 30 schools listed in the state of Ohio – a small fraction of what is really out there. There is strength in numbers and every Montessori school along with every Montessori student must be counted.  With current accurate numbers of schools and students, we can make a greater impact on policymakers!

Please do your part to add your school right now!  Go to www.MontessoriCensus.org  You will be asked to create an account.  The census has 30 questions and will take you less than 15 minutes to complete. Questions are asked on four broad areas:
  • Demographic Information
  • Leadership
  • Affiliations and Accreditations
  • Program
You will also have the opportunity to provide a brief overview of your school and to provide a photo of your school. The ideal size for the photo is 220px by 220px, and photos must be less than 1 MB in size.
At the very least, just add the name and address of your school to get it on the map today and do the rest later.

3.  Get Connected!  In addition to showing the SIZE of our community, our CONNECTIVITY to one another is equally crucial!  The more we can link together, the more capable we'll become!  Reach out to other schools, organizations, and communities, linking your networks together.  Our power would grow exponentially if each of us shared this newsletter with 5 people in our network, and asked them to forward it to 5 people in their network, and so on.

If all of those reading this do these three things, here is what I envision would happen:  The next time a piece of legislation comes up, the question is asked by many legislators, “How does this affect the 45 Montessori schools, 5000 students and 10,000+ voting parents in my district?”  That is powerful.
If you find yourself called into action and want to do more than these three things, please email the Ohio Montessori Alliance president, Laureen Golden.

There is not a moment to spare.  Change is going to happen and it is up to us, individually and collectively, to ensure that it changes to our benefit, not detriment. 

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Rising Together for Children

We are living during an exciting time, in which a major resurgence in the Montessori Movement continues to gain momentum, fueled by a collective longing for quality Montessori education to become an option available to all children. The possibility for real change is growing, but is not to be taken for granted.  Twice before, the popularity of Montessori education in America has swelled...and then waned.  In order to rise together in time to leverage this "third wave" of intense interest to create lasting change for children and society, we must define who "we" are, and cultivate "the experience of belonging" for all in our community.

The Montessori Community: Defining Who "We"Are
We will rise together as a powerful and unified whole once we become clear on who "we" are.  Is who we consider to be "in" our community defined by their role? school? setting? type of training? location? similarity of values and ideas?  When we encounter Montessorians who are different from us (in role, school, setting, type of training, location, or way of thinking) do we recognize them as "self" or do we ignore them, or perhaps treat them as "other"?  Wisdom from the Mindfulness Community helps us realize that we train our attention to include or exclude.   Our community can harness the healing power of inclusion by cultivating our awareness and creating intentional choices that expand who "we" become. 

"Belonging" to the Montessori Community
Rising together to catalyze real change for children and society requires us to move beyond the notion of "community as a collection" of schools or individuals (connected mostly in name only), to one that is focused on "the experience of belonging"
  1. "Belong can mean to be related to, and a part of something.  It is membership, the experience of being 'at home'".
  2. "Belong has to do with being an owner. Something belongs to me. To belong to a community, is to act as a creator and co-owner in that community."
  3. "Belonging can also be thought of as longing-to-be.  Being is our capacity to find our deeper purpose; the capacity to be present, and to discover our authenticity and whole selves. Community is the container within which our longing to be is fulfilled." (Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging, Pg xii)

Imagine what being a part of the Montessori community might come to mean for each of us when we prioritize the experience of belonging!  This is the vision that guides the development of the OMA.  We define a "Montessorian" as anyone who feels touched by Montessori education (students, alumni, family members, guides, administrators -- anyone who has discovered and feels moved by Dr. Montessori's work), and invite all such people to join us in creating a community that feels like a "place for you", in which you are a co-owner, and in which your deeper purpose may be fulfilled.  Use our newsletter, FB page, and website to give feedback about what is, and is not, working for you...Connect your community with the statewide community (which connects with our national and international community) by sharing our newsletter with your networks...Save the Date: We will gather together as a statewide community the Weekend of September 27, 2014...Participate in the development of this conference so it is most meaningful to you and supports you in the issues you care most about...Envision the possibilities of what we can create together...Welcome each other as fearless learners, inventors and discovers, agents of change, who, together, will surf this “third wave” to ensure the developmental rights of all children are understood, nurtured, and secured.