Montessori
Celebrating the Inspiration
Continuing the Commitment
1907-2007
January 6th, 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of the first “Children’s House”. It is a time for celebration and renewal of our own commitment to this tremendous way of educating.
Bringing the Celebration and Commitment together.
The greatest learner in each environment is the guide – always learning, always modeling, always giving. And this celebration year is a great time to encourage the commitment of your guides by sending them to conferences and training. Our challenge is that we never seem to have enough money to meet all the wonderful opportunities available to us; therefore, we have created a celebration program to kick off this great centenary year.
First, we have created “Monty”, the Montessori bear (You can see him on our web site
www.crossmountainpress.com) Monty proudly bears a quatrefoil on his chest and celebrates 100 years of Discovery 1907-2007. Monty is part of a collection from the Beary Thoughtful Co. (
www.bearythoughtful.com) that offers a wide variety of gift bears for every occasion. What better occasion than the 100th anniversary of Montessori?
A small Montessori school (less than 40 students) in Texas did a quick two week campaign (during the summer no less) and raised almost $1000 to send their staff to a training seminar. The director reported that it was so successful and so well received that the parents are even wanting to do it again this fall.
Our second celebration item is a T-Shirt commemorating Montessori’s “Follow the Child”. These will be wonderful walking billboards attesting to a century of discovery. Can you imagine the impact on your community when hundreds of Montessori students help proclaim the celebration? Whether they wear them on the 6th day of every month (The first Children’s House opened on January 6th.), or every Friday, or the whole first week of January, they will be a living testimony to the enduring blessing of Montessori’s inspiration.
Third, if you want a nice warm feeling in the celebration (and one that will continue on for years), we have created a mug with our familiar quatrefoil. (The quatrefoil must be like the secret handshake – only Montessorians seem to know what quatrefoils are. Welcome to the club!) Mugs will make great gifts.
Fourth, we have created a banner (34”x64”) to proclaim the anniversary message of “Follow The Child”. The banner is brilliantly colored with the Montessori “World”, the flags of the world, and the children of the world. The banner printed on the finest Salvadorian cotton is not only a beautiful banner celebrating 100 years of Discovery but is a veritable piece of artwork. (And you can buy extras to take to the beach.)
The Past and the Future
Every child should be a Montessori child. And as we celebrate this wonderful anniversary, we have an opportunity to help our communities “discover” this unique way – not only to teach and to learn – but to live. And in gratitude for the legacy we have been given, we can take this opportunity to make Montessori education even more widely known, embraced and celebrated.
The Celebration Program
The program is designed to ask parents to sell only one item – the bears.
The parents are asked to buy one item – the T-Shirts for their children.
The parents are offered the opportunity to give a mug.
And each classroom would benefit from a Celebration Banner.
For active parent groups, one of each item would make a great teacher appreciation package.
