Introduction to the Refresher Course

Molly O’Shaughnessy, AMI director of training at the primary level, was one of the main speakers at the joint Annual Refresher Course, Tampa 2001. She gave the participants much food for thought, by stressing the importance of refresher courses and sharing her own experiences, reaffirming her commitment to Montessori and the need to keep on learning.

From the “Introduction to the Refresher Course” we quote...
...From my own experience with working with children, I eventually came to trust that to truly serve the child and provide for his or her needs, I always had to go back to the principles to guide my actions. So I thought ‘what do we mean when we say principles?’ This is something we hear over and over in our work: ‘the Montessori principles, let the principles guide our actions.’

...Montessori education should consist, therefore, of giving adults understanding and insightful principles, which in turn become directive principles, not just a series of how-to directions that simply convert the directress into a puppet or actress.

...You have come to a "refresher” course. You have different backgrounds and teaching situations. But no matter what the differences, there is one similarity among all of you - you are all a stake in the ground for children and the guardians of our Montessori principles, which represent our deepest faith and hopes. That is why you must keep your principles alive within yourselves and be constantly aware of yourselves as active guardians. We must all take the basic principles and then make important decisions based on them.

...I needed to go back to principles. I needed to be refreshed in the sense of encountering the prepared environment scientifically, through a series of decisions in relation to careful questioning as to how to apply principles. I needed to go back to a community.