Montessori in China

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.