The Children's House: November 2014

Whew! I'm back from a rather quick trip to the other side of the world and amazed in many ways. My happiest amazement came at the proliferation of Montessori schools in Asia since my time there. It has been sixteen years since I boxed up and shuttered Montessori Children's House of Sai Kung outside of Hong Kong. It was one of a handful of schools in the region and now the Montessori community there has just hosted their first professional conference. What's even more amazing is the growth of Montessori (even elementary) on the mainland. Hooray! It looks like a wave of the future on the Chinese education scene. This, of course, means big things for the world. Maria would be proud.

My trainer at NYU, Marlene Barron, has done a lot of work to introduce authentic teacher training in China. She is featured in these two videos.

Shanghai, where I visited last week, has so many Montessori schools it was hard to choose which ones to visit. According to this video, Shanghai is leading a new "revolution" in learning in China.

Did you know?

Some Famous People Who Attended Montessori School as Children:
Jeff Bezos, financial analyst, founder, AMAZON.COM. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Cofounders of GOOGLE.COM. Terry Brazelton, noted pediatrician and author Julia Child, famous chef, star of many TV cooking shows and author of numerous cookbooks. Katherine Graham, owner/editor of the Washington Post. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, editor, former first lady (John F. Kennedy). Prince William and Prince Harry, English royal family. Anne Frank, famous diarist from world war II. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner for Literature. Actors George Clooney and Helen Hunt and musician Sean Combs.

Others with a Montessori Connection:
Alexander Graham Bell, noted inventor, provided financial support directly to Dr. Montessori. Helped establish the first Montessori class in Canada and one of the first in the United States. Bruno Bettelheim, noted psychologist/author, was married to a Montessori teacher. Erik Erikson, anthropologist/author. Jean Piaget, noted Swiss psychologist, made his first observations of children in a Montessori school. Alice Waters, restaurateur and writer, is a former Montessori teacher. Thomas Edison, noted scientist and inventor, helped to found a Montessori school. Mister Rogers, children's TV personality, strong supporter of the Montessori method

Montessori in China