Montessori in Action Podcast

Welcome back to another year with Montessori in Action Podcast, celebrating authors as they release books in our Montessori community.

Mariana Bissonnette has written Babies Build Toddlers, a special parenting book that makes child development information both accessible and actionable for everyday readers. It explores the unfolding of the child during the first part of the first plane of development. A beautiful book, with a variety of illustrations that capture the lives of different families, it is the ideal gift for all caregivers of young children.

Erica Moretti’s book The Best Weapon for Peace: Maria Montessori, Education and Children's Rights explores changes in pacifist thought in the first half of the twentieth century in Europe through the work of Italian educator Maria Montessori. Upcoming interview

“For success in life depends in every case on self confidence and the knowledge of one’s own capacity and many-sided powers of adaptation.” From Childhood to Adolescence by Dr. Maria Montessori. 

This Anniversary episode is a celebration of one year together. It holds thoughts from previous guests as they look back at the past school year and reflect on what they learned. They offer a cache (a collection of something stored away for future use) of insights to take forward into the future.

Insights on:

Collaboration

Adaptation

Creativity

Hope

Energy

Thank you to the contributors for their reflections, their resilience and their commitment to holding children at the center. And thank you, listener, for all you are doing to forward this work.

Congratulations to everyone on the completion of this 2020-21 school year.

Contributors to this episode:

• Bobby Johnson, Dean of Students and Culture at Lee Montessori in Washington, DC

This episode is a conversation with Patrizia Mercuri, director of the Istituto Comprensivo San Donato in Sardinia, Italy. The school began as a traditional program until Mercuri was approached by parents with the request to begin a Montessori classroom. This public Montessori school, nestled within a larger public school, continues to grow each year and in the coming year will welcome 128 children.

Join us for episode ten, a conversation with long-time Montessorian, Jacqui Miller. In this engaging discussion, Miller shares both her history and her vision - bringing some big dreams forward for the Montessori community. Her dedication to education as a means to social change and community development comes through clearly as does her commitment to visionary leadership.

Our next episode is a conversation with Amelia Allen Sherwood, the Anti-Bias & Anti-Racism Director at Elm City Montessori School in New Haven, Connecticut. She shares with listeners her work at Elm City to promote equity and her vision for the Sankofa Learning Center. For more information about Amelia’s work, visit her website.

Ana María García Blanco es una educadora Puertorriqueña que es la pionera de educación pública Montessori en la isla. Actualmente, es la Directora Ejecutiva del Instituto Nueva Escuela, una organización no lucrativa, comprometida a la transformación social y educacional del sistema de educación pública a través del método Montessori.

Como una educadora con su licenciatura, maestría y doctorado de la Universidad Harvard, siempre ha creído que la educación es la clave para el cambio y el progreso social. Ella fundó la primera escuela pública Montessori en Puerto Rico, La Nueva Escuela Juan Ponce de León, donde fue directora durante 23 años. Ayudo reducir la deserción escolar, erradicar la violencia escolar e involucrar a las familias en el proyecto social-académico de la escuela.

In a conversation with Ana Maria Garcia Blanco, listeners will be invited into the world of public Montessori in Puerto Rico. As the Principal of the first public Montessori program on the island, other schools turned to her for support building public Montessori programs to serve their children. This led to the founding of the Instituto Nueva Escuela where she has been the Executive Director since 2009— now serving 46 public schools around the Island. 

As the winner of the American Montessori Society’s Living Legacy Award for 2020, Dr. Garcia was described as “An educator who has transformed the future of public Montessori in Puerto Rico.” In this conversation, she shares her passion and insight about the influence Montessori schools have had on the community and the influence the community has had on the Montessori schools.

In this episode, Mira Debs, author of Diverse Families, Desirable Schools talks about the impetus for her book, her findings and the community conversations that followed its publication.

Hannah Richardson and Katie Rucker, who joined us in August for Episode Two, meet again to discuss how their re-opening plans worked out this fall. They opened in two different ways and share successes and refinements to their program. Their insights, questions and suggestions to each other further explore the topic of how to continue offering a strong Montessori program during a global pandemic.

Our conversation with Hadar Peled explores public Montessori in Israel. She shares a vision of Montessori education as a vehicle for peace in a place that has endured conflict for generations.