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THE WHOLE OF MANKIND IS ONE AND ONLY ONE, ONE RACE, ONE CLASS, AND ONE SOCIETY.
-Maria Montessori
We Montessorians live by our heroic founder's words. I once observed a legit Montessori turf war occur at a school I worked at. Instead of the Bloods and the Crips, it was the AMIs and the AMSs. We rep our "colors" and have loyalty to our own organizations but can always find common ground with the life-giving words of Maria Montessori. Her words can defuse any conflict, settling the souls of Montessori groups in opposition, leading us to that peaceful stream of reconciliation.
More than 100 years after its founding, Montessori continues to be a system of education defined by its pedagogy of peace and its mission to elevate the whole child. We hear it all the time; we boast it in our Montessori professions. Although Dr. Montessori's educational philosophy continues to inspire educators and families across all color lines, the delivery of her Method remains mostly exclusive to a specific demographic of white upper-class children. And though Montessori education maintains its identity of peace, peace is not sufficient in the 21st century. Peace alone offers privileged individuals a false sense of comfort: the comfort of having life's necessities and, for some, having far beyond what they need. People who live with these comforts can be lured into an erroneous sense of I'm well, so others must be well.
While they are safe, have their needs met and then some, and generate healthy relationships with those from similar walks of life, the peace that they live overlooks a deeply burdened world, soaked in social injustice and home to a global majority who often lacks the surface-level basics. This privileged peace slams the door on the growth and development of mankind.
This privileged peace is not the same version of peace that was originally woven into our Montessori curricula. However, since many of us have skimmed the fat off of what Dr. Montessori meant to be full and sustaining, our modern by-product leaves us malnourished. To honor our matriarch's movement, we have a responsibility to fortify our Montessori turf by widening our lens to observe, examine, and create brave spaces of belonging for every individual from every walk...