I thought I would share with you my journal entries from our Bangkok trip. Each day the students complete reflections in their journals and in the evening we have a community meeting where we share our highlights for the day.
My pearl of wisdom from yesterday was that the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) has as their first goal to spread Montessori and to ensure access for all families not just affluent families. I feel I can make a difference with this goal by continuing to provide places in our school and this means continuing growth without loosing the feel of a small and nurturing community. If I can continue to do this we will have more people in our society who are courageous like Cohen, Lilee, Carmen and Amelia. The young people in our school can go forth and change society by tackling the big issues these guys mentioned.
The last two days of the Congress everyone settled into a great rhythm, up early for breakfast, walking to the conference centre and networking constantly. So much choice and inspiration was provided by the sessions offered and I felt honoured Cohen chose to attend my session. I am delighted to have made connections with a school in Amsterdam for Cohen to do an exchange along with a French school for Kiera. I also have a great direction for a Japanese school for Carmen. I love that so many of our students have been inspired by Lilee and Amelia’s adventure along with this Thailand experience.
My highlights from the last day was “Bringing Montessori to nomadic tribes” about a mobile school in Kenya which was presented by Terry Koskei. The school buildings are tents and they pack all the Montessori equipment in their backpacks to move to the next location as the children they teach are from the Samburu tribe that are moving locations with the seasons. This shows Montessori can occur anywhere and is a story I will definitely be sharing on the tours of our school.
My second highlight was “The local community and the Montessori School”. Sep Kamvar spoke about how he was establishing Montessori schools in shop fronts and this interested me because of what we have done in Port Kennedy. On the Wildflower Montessori School site https://wildflowerschools.org/how-we-work/ it states “Wildflower is a community of very small Montessori schools that share certain values and operating norms and seek to live into a set of nine principles”. We’re developing a set of processes that help potential teacher-leaders explore the alignment between their own approach and these principles. This exploration is supported by teacher-leaders and other partners within the Wildflower community who offer assistance and advice. An important aspect of the exploration process is determining and sharing how your school will implement Wildflower principles, values and norms. Wildflower schools can operate in many settings – including as independent non-profits,”
I can’t wait to read more as I believe this concept is perfect for creating more Montessori places for WA students.
Arriba Arriba Mexico in 2026 here we come for the 30th AMI International Congress!
Kind regards,
Vanessa Aikins