Talking Montessori – Presentation at John Jay College and the Italian Cultural Institute

October is Italian Heritage and Culture month, and I was honored to be invited to give not one, but two, presentations on one of Italy’s greatest gifts to education, Dr. Maria Montessori. First up was a panel discussion at the Italian Cultural Institute where the educational legacy of Dr. Montessori was compared with that of Don Bosco. These two interesting figures shared a deep dedication to education and an unwavering belief in the powers that children possess. My talk focused on the history of Montessori education in the United States and the difficult there has been in getting Montessori-based practices into public schools.

One week later, I was the invited lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s annual Italian Heritage and Culture Month celebration. My talk included some overlap, but in this session I focused more on Dr. Montessori’s practice in treating children as agents of their own learning, as well as agents of social change.This led to a discussion about Peace Education and Dr. Montessori’s role in the birth of this important field. I’ll be posting excerpts of my talk here and/or on my blog at Huffington Post.