The American Montessori Society (AMS) is a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
-based, member-supported nonprofit organization which promotes the use of the
Montessori
The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...
teaching approach in private and public schools.
AMS advocates for the Montessori method (popularized by
Maria Montessori
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( , ; August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori e ...
) throughout the United States, and publishes its own standards and criteria for its accredited member schools. AMS supports research and public policy that advocate for Montessori education.
History
Founder
In the 1950s, the cultural climate around American education was changing as people become discontent with the status quo. Among those seeking alternatives was
Nancy McCormick Rambusch, a young teacher from New York City.
In 1953, Rambusch's quest for a better approach to educating American children took her to
Paris, France
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
for the Tenth International Montessori Congress, where she met Mario Montessori, Maria Montessori's son. Mario worked in the movement, as head of the
Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), an organization she had founded to support the movement.
Mario urged Rambusch to take coursework in Montessori education and to bring the Montessori method to the United States.
Within a few years, Rambusch was conducting Montessori classes for her own children and others, in her New York City apartment. In 1956, the Rambusch family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. There, Rambusch became involved with a group of parents who wanted to be involved with their children's education. In 1958, they founded
Whitby School
Whitby School is an independent, co-educational private school in Greenwich, Connecticut, that was founded in 1958 and is accredited by the American Montessori Society (through Grade 2, non-traditional age groupings), the International Baccalaurea ...
—the first Montessori school to open in the United States since the initial flurry of interest in the early 20th century. The board selected Rambusch as head of school.
Rambusch was appointed the American representative of the
Association Montessori Internationale by
Mario Montessori
is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cr ...
. Six months later, Rambusch founded the American Montessori Society.
Beginnings
The goals of AMS mirrored those of AMI: to support efforts to create schools, develop teacher education programs, and publicize the value of Montessori education.
In 1961, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine featured Rambusch, Whitby School, and the American Montessori revival in its May 12 issue. Parents turned to AMS for advice on starting schools and study groups. Additional publicity in the media, including ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'', the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', and the ''
Saturday Evening Post'', as well as the publication in 1962 of Rambusch's book, ''Learning How to Learn'', led to growth in the number of American Montessori schools and students.
From the beginning, Rambusch and AMS worked to advance Montessori education into mid-20th-century American culture. AMS insisted that all teacher educators have a college degree so that the coursework could, potentially, be recognized by state education departments. AMS also broadened the curriculum for teachers and sought to connect with mainstream education by offering Montessori coursework in traditional teacher preparation programs.
Rambusch believed there was a need for cultural accommodation. Professor John J. McDermott, a colleague and friend, agreed, arguing that the popular idea of the universality of children displayed a basic naiveté about the interrelationships between a culture and the child's development of consciousness. McDermott also stressed the need to move Montessori into the public sector so that it would be available to all children, regardless of their circumstances—a conviction that remains a vital underpinning of the organization, along with a belief in the need for adaptability.
Archives
The American Montessori Society Archives are housed at the
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the
University of Connecticut
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...
in Storrs, Connecticut. The multi-media collection reflects the activities of the AMS going back to its earliest days, and also provides historical information about Montessori education.
Affiliated teacher education programs
Teacher education programs affiliated with the American Montessori Society provide courses for people who want to be Montessori teachers.
Use of Montessori terminology
In 1967, the US Patent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that "the term 'Montessori' has a generic and/or descriptive significance."
Montessori education
The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...
Therefore, in the United States and around the world, the term can be used freely without giving any guarantee of how closely, if at all, a program applies Montessori's work. The ruling has led to "tremendous variation in schools claiming to use Maria Montessori's methods."
See also
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Montessori in the United States
The Montessori method was practiced in the United States early after its invention. While the name is not trademarked and there is no central authority for the method, the American Montessori Society (AMS) was established in 1960.
History
After 1 ...
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Association Montessori International of the United States
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Maria Montessori
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( , ; August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori e ...
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Montessori education
The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...
References
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* ''American Montessori Society, Inc. v. Association Montessori Internationale'', 155 U.S.P.Q. 591, 592 (1967)
{{Authority control
Montessori education
Private and independent school organizations in the United States
1960 establishments in the United States