Janet Laing was born and educated in Zimbabwe, completing a Diploma in Hotel Management and then going on to study The Montessori Method of Education with Montessori Centre International, London (2.5 – 12 yrs and then the trainers certification). With her llate husband, she started ‘Vadikidiki” (Little People in Shona, 3-5yrs) which she ran for 15 years. Janet was also involved in Montessori teacher training and fundraising to establish a Montessori Preschool into an orphanage. Other projects included upskilling the staff at 15 preschool centres on the Eastern Highlands Tea Estate. The centres were put in place by the company to provide day care for the children of the tea pickers. In 2003/4, she migrated to Perth and began doing relief at the Montessori schools before commencing at Blue Gum Montessori as a 6-9 directress. Over the past twenty years Janet has worked as a directress and school principal finishing up at Casa Mia Montessori School.
Janet shares her retirement speech:
The question asked of many Montessori educators is ’How did you get into Montessori?” with many other unsaid questions left hanging.
I owe my Montessori life to my parents, my late husband, and our daughters and naturally all the children I have worked with since 1983, across two continents.
Mum and Dad, both adult educators, had well formed ideas on education based on their own life and education experiences.
Mum had attended a Montessori school in England to her primary years before moving to the USA. Dad had attended Abbotsholme in Derbyshire, England, founded by Scottish academic and educationalist Cecil Reddieas – an experiment for his progressive and educational philosophies and theories. Dad was a strong proponent of A S Neil – Summerhill and I can certainly remember many instances when I was allowed to wander free and held accountable for my actions.
My parents migrated to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) at the end of their university courses after leaving Great Britain at the end of the WWII. My father was an agricultural officer for the government, and we lived an itinerant life in tented camps as we moved from location to location.
In my primary years I was schooled by my parents with the government correspondence school (school on the air) due to our living circumstances rather than a preference. My Mum was not a patient teacher. Our agreement to do all the schoolwork for the week on a Wednesday, when the lessons were given over the radio, was a great relief to Mum and to my immense satisfaction.
For the reminder of the week, I trailed the staff and my Mum learning about cooking, sewing, flower arranging, listening to music, and hearing and reading stories. The weekends were reserved for my Dad. An amateur botanist and zoologist (his first degree), the weekends were spent travelling to various locations and game reserves exploring the countryside. We collected botanical specimens to press in between sheets of newspaper in Dad’s home made plant press. Dad would sketch parts of the plants, note the location, companion plants, insects, birds and animals.
On those days, we ate our prepared picnics under the trees, laid out on the kaross – an African blanket made from soften skins sewn together. The food was always simple sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, fruit in season and cordial.
Photographs were a luxury. At least 36 pictures needed to be taken to complete the film, when it would be carefully extracted and sent away for printing. This took at least three weeks by which time there were many more plants and trees to be identified. One of my birthday presents was a Kodak brownie camera. A great little camera to capture a location but not very useful for botanical close ups. This challenge continued to plague us for many years. We greeted with excitement Dad’s purchase of a polaroid instant developing camera. Fun though it was, the camera was only ever really useful for recording the shape of the tree.
Dad’s passion for plants never ceased over the years. Once he had a handle on the trees of his adopted country, he turned his attention to the aloes and succulents. In their last garden in Zimbabwe, Dad created a botanical collection of plants he and Mum spent many weekends finding. Mum patiently providing the picnic and knitting or crocheting whilst she waited – sweet peas and roses being her sole interest in plants. Each visit to their home, necessitated a walk around the garden to view the additions to the collection and admire the growth, flowers and seed pods.
Dad’s passion extended to the vegetable garden. The daily harvest going into the kitchen for Mum to process. Mum was the queen of preserves – jams, marmalades, tomato sauces and best of all the bread & butter pickle served with cold meat and on bread – a tradition from my Dad’s Yorkshire upbringing.
Mum’s passions ran more to housekeeping skills. For our primary years, Mum knitted our socks and cardigans; made our clothes and used the scraps to create glorious hexagon patterned quilts. One of my first tasks was to tack the fabric onto the newspaper templates before hand stitching them into a larger hexagon.
Embroidery was one of Mum’s great passions; she made us smocked dresses and introduced us at an early age to stitching samplers. We all left home with tablecloths, monogramed napkins to accompany the crocheted table mats and put to onside for the time we left home.
Mum, the daughter of an engineer whose hobby was making jewellery, had studied ballet in her youth and briefing studied architecture at university. Line and form were important to her, and this showed in her flower arrangements. Mum relied solely on the flowers and plants produced in Dad’s gardens a further challenge. She imparted her knowledge to us encouraging us to do the fresh flower arrangements in the house and to enter flower arrangement competitions in the local agricultural shows. I do remember establishing line and form being very challenging using a scrunched up bit of chicken wire in a vase.
These nostalgic memories serve to illustrate the education my parents gave me, ensured that when I went to boarding school aged 12, I was a confident and social girl, armed with all the skills needed to survive in a community including polishing silver! A frequent consequence for my wayward behaviours although the altar wine was never removed! Imagine!
When Philip and I started our family, our thoughts naturally turned to education and in the way of many we reviewed our own educational experiences. This gave me cause to begin to research the methods of education and in the process, I came across Dr Montessori’s The Secret of Childhood. The writings resonated with me and naturally as I discussed my reading with my parents, I began to understand the environment I had been brought up in and the common sense of Dr Montessori’s approach.
I commenced my formal Montessori Studies with St Nicholas Montessori College, London in 1984. My studies continued over the next nine years beginning with the diploma 2 ½ – 5yrs, followed by 5-7yrs and culminating in 7-12yrs diploma. I was able to complete the Montessori Early Childhood Teaching Training Certificate with Montessori Centre International (St Nicholas and London Montessori) in 2003 and on arriving in Australia convert my training into an MWEI Diploma of Education 3 – 12yrs, Cert IV in Assessment and Workplace Training.
In 1985, Philip and I opened our preschool – Vadikidiki – the Shona word for little people. For fifteen years, myself and a Montessori teacher Desirée, ran a Montessori programme for 25 children from 3 – 5years old – children go into formal education in Zimbabwe in the year they turn 6. All the wooden didactic material was made in Zimbabwe out of the hardwoods; the maps were made under our direction by a lady whose made jigsaw puzzles; the maths beads were wired together by a Mum who is a dentist, and the nomenclature cards were made regularly by Desirée and myself. On my trips to London and Dublin, I would purchase equipment such as the dinosaurs for the Great Story of Life and the moveable alphabets
Both our daughters, Desiree’s daughters and many of our friends’ children became part of Vadikidiki. The community came together annually to celebrate their children’s development in the Christmas concert and picnic in our gardens.
For the business end of the school, I relied heavily on my training in Hotel Management undertaken when I left school. This training and experience has been the mainstay of my volunteer and principal work.
I am blessed to be in contact with many of the children who we worked with at Vadikidiki. They have gone on to become parents, doctors of environmental science, engineers, teachers, actors, economists, OTs, chefs and more and without fail are implementing the Montessori principles in their family lives.
During this time, the Montessori community in Zimbabwe was growing from strength to strength. We fund raised for four years to put a Montessori preschool into the Emerald Hill Children’s Home – many of the children were orphans due to the AIDS pandemic.
Naturally, training was essential, and I was involved as a lecturer and practical examiner on behalf of The Montessori Academy of South Africa for a diploma course; presented and examined for a workshop run by Montessori Centre International.
In 2000 it was necessary for our family to make some difficult decisions about our future in our beloved Zimbabwe and part of the process was the closure of Vadikidiki. In this interim period, I facilitated the upgrade of eleven preschools on Eastern Highlands Plantations in Zimbabwe. The focus was on training the teachers in the Montessori Method of Education through the use of practical life activities in the main.
In 2003 I migrated to Australia and began my Montessori life as a 6-9 directress in Blue Gum Montessori; moved into the principal’s position in 2007. In 2014, I took a position as 6-9 directress at Riverlands Montessori and finally finished my Montessori career as principal of Casa Mia Montessori in Bassendean at the end of 2021. I treasure the letters, cards and emails I receive from students and parents letting me know how I have been able to contribute positively to their lives.
My Montessori time in Australia has been a very different experience from the African time.
In Africa, my time was spent with 3-6 year olds, training adults, volunteer work and management; there were very basic regulations, and all schools were privately owned.
In Australia, I have worked with 6-9 year olds, school boards, state and federal government funding and regulations and management.
The children of Africa are children with no overlays – they are as Dr Montessori described. We could easily observe the sensitive periods and tendencies and put in place the prepared environments the children needed.
The children of Australia are children with many overlays – it is sometimes difficult to see where they are in their development and the challenge is to provide the environments they need and satisfy the regulations.
I am so grateful to my many friends across the educational sector; value the support of so many colleagues and organisations. I could not have paid it forward without them.
It is my wish for many people to have the marvellous experiences I have had in my Montessori life.
Go well and safely.
Janet Laing
