An Open Letter to the Montessori Community

This letter was published on Oct. 18, 2023.

The contents of this letter are as relevant today as they were a year ago. We invite our community to reflect on the intersections between our work as Montessorians to liberate the child and the movement to see liberated peoples around the world. The struggles are interconnected and require of us to engage, bear witness, share, listen, and learn.

• IMMEDIATE CALL TO ACTION: Sen. Bernie Sanders has just introduced joint resolutions of disapproval (JRD) to block $20 billion in weapons to Israel. Ask your senators to cosponsor now. https://act.uscpr.org/a/stop-genocide​

• STAY ENGAGED & BEAR WITNESS: @wizard_bisan1, @joegaza93,@eye.on.palestine, @theimeu, @mondoweiss, @aljazeeraenglish, @focuscongo, @congofriends, @sudansolidaritycollective, @sudan.updates, @tigrayupdate, @tigrayyouthnetwork, @hawaiiforpalestine AND MORE

An Open Letter to the Montessori Community:

Part 1: From Mariana

We work with and for children every day in our work in and out of Montessori classrooms. We work for a better tomorrow and to honor the dignity and respect the global child deserves. We call every child a “global child” because the characteristics of development are the same no matter where you are born. No matter what language you speak, what religion you practice, what clothes you wear, or climate you live in. This universal developmental path has made and continues to make Montessori education an international movement toward developmental education aimed to set children free.

When we talk about “peace education”, we are not talking about conflict resolution in the classroom. We are not talking about learning to share. We are talking about liberating the child from the oppression they live under daily in the lives of adults. The oppression of not being able to move freely in their educational environment, being tethered to a desk and chair for hours on end. The oppression of not being able to talk with their peers, being silenced for the sake of “listening” and “respect”. The oppression of the lack of self-determination: making choices for themselves and guiding their learning. Montessori education was developed explicitly to counter that oppression not through peace, but through liberatory education. As Kwame Ture, American civil rights activist, once said,

“There’s a difference between peace and liberation, is there not? You can have injustice and still have peace, isn’t that correct? Peace isn’t the answer. Liberation is the answer. So that’s what you should talk about, never peace. That’s a white man’s word. Liberation is our word.”

Montessori education has never been about “peace” as an absence of war. Rather, it is about establishing lasting peace through liberation and the rooting out of oppression. At The PEACE Program (Parent Education And Child Empowerment), our purpose is as follows: “We exist because the time is now for peace and peace is only possible through the liberation of the child from the oppressive systems that constrain their ability to develop as they are trying to.” And we know that the liberation we work for, believe in, and speak about is bound up with the greater work against ALL oppression. As Lilla Watson, a Murri visual artist and activist, said,

“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

We must stand with the Palestinian People and all oppressed peoples globally toward liberation and we must not stand for oppression, genocide, and massacre. Please join us in heeding the call to bear witness to the events in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Tigray, Lebanon, and more, and to spread awareness of the realities that oppressed peoples are facing by uplifting their voices and standing in solidarity with their fight for liberation.

- Mariana

Parte 2: De Andrea (en español)

Estos días no paro de pensar en qué diría María Montessori de todo lo que está sucediendo. De las vidas que se están arrebatando cada minuto que pasa mientras el mundo mira para otro lado. Ella que vivió rodeada de guerras, eligió como propósito de vida cultivar un sendero de paz. Cultivarla desde la infancia. Y sería devastador ver que cien años después el mundo está aún más enfermo y no ha cambiado nada.

También pienso en qué pensarán esos niños y niñas. En esa infancia robada. Una infancia que no entiende porqué los adultos les enseñaron que "no se pega" mientras matan para conseguir poder y territorio. Que les dijo "hay que cuidar las cosas" y ahora los misiles destrozan sus hogares, sus familias. Niños y niñas que no entienden porqué ante esta atrocidad, el resto de comunidades se callan y no hacen nada. Niños y niñas a los que se les habló de empatía en las escuelas, de compañerismo. Y ahora el mundo se muestra vacío de ambas.

No se qué pensaría María Montessori ahora mismo, pero estoy segura de que estaría alzando la voz. Sería altavoz del pueblo que es silenciado en los medios, en los gobiernos.

Sí, ella lo haría. Y por ello cualquiera de los que nos sentimos Montessorians, deberíamos estar haciendo lo mismo.

Demos voz al pueblo palestino.

Paremos esta locura 💔

-Andrea