Each year new “Montessori” schools or programs appear across the globe. These schools vary tremendously, often successfully embracing the uniqueness of each community. Still, many differ significantly in their commitment to Montessori pedagogy, despite the term’s use in their name or program descriptor.
Like anything tremendously successful, there will always be some that choose to loosely label, without maintaining the integrity associated—the knock off syndrome. But like any knock off, you do not get the same capacity, product or in this case experience that you hoped for because of compromises.
One of the overarching principles of Montessori education is the importance of maintaining all the qualities Dr Montessori herself wrote about and promoters of Montessori today continue reinforcing. Montessori education is a systems approach to learning at all ages. Although extremely adaptable to different children, ages, circumstances, it is generally more effective when all the principles, rather than a couple of cherry-picked ones are implemented.
More than ever, the recent pandemic, makes explicit our planet is one extensive system, and what happens in one place impacts another dramatically. A system understanding includes economics, education, and indeed the environment and health. The rapid deployment of organizations and governments to address the crisis from a systems perspective is what has mitigated even greater disaster. Inherent in mandates requiring isolation is the human tendency toward connection.
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