Hope and Promise

February 1, 2023

This past Friday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. Today is the beginning of Black History Month. In between, in a stark reminder that hate and violence are both past and present, television and radio brought news of mass murder, conspiracy-ignited rage, police brutality, and ethnic hate. So many people living with so much pain.

In striking juxtaposition, I had the honor last week, along with Biff Maier of Lexington Montessori School and the Montessori Elementary Teacher Training Collaborative, of representing Montessori at a convening hosted by Education Reimagined of educators, researchers, youth developers, business folk, and funders committed to creating an education system that builds love and health—where children are seen, valued, listened to, and have agency in their own learning and lives. A truly learner-centered system.

A few members of the group have had direct experience with incarceration in the US penal system. They spoke movingly and with certainty about how their lives would have been different if someone had seen and embraced them during their years in school. One spoke to how her life changed the moment she started in a learner-centered environment. They are all committed to stopping the pain by creating a different path for those coming up behind them.

Montessori is one model of learner-centered education, and a model I love. Others in that room came from learner-centered models that they love. There is a growing world of people who want for children what Montessori wants for children–more seeing and less telling, more love and less pain. Many people’s understanding of a humanizing education is shifting. I spend less time now than I did a decade ago talking about why we need Montessori and more time talking about how we can get it.  It is still the case that too few children experience a learner-centered, humanizing school environment, but I feel a change coming. I am honored to be in this work with you.

The child is both a hope and a promise for [human]kind. 
–Maria Montessori

In unity,

Sara Suchman, Executive Director