PJ Media

I sent the following to Oprah regarding Montessori preschool education. Who knows perhaps you might decide to send a note to Oprah too.

Dear Oprah:

Thanks for discussing “What is happening to our kids” with Bill Cosby. Today it seems we have more pre-prison environments than nurturing environments. The path that Maya Angelou, Senator Christopher Dodd, and many others are following can solve this problem. Would you be willing to do a show about Montessori education with Maya Angelou?

Here is a little bit of information about Montessori education:

• Maria Montessori was the first woman medical doctor in Italy. She was not a teacher. She was put in charge of caring for children living in extreme poverty who had been destroying things in their environment; children no one wanted or cared for. When designing an environment for them she made sure that the children’s long and short muscles were used. She also made sure they learned hygiene, grace and courtesy, and how to care for their personal and natural environments. Academics, well, it was, secondary. Yet her students, once considered idiots, began to excel in academics and passed the same tests as normal students.

• Cincinnati, Ohio has a “you live here you go here” Montessori elementary school

• Thirty-seven states have at least one public Montessori classroom.

• This year Senator Christopher Dodd was the honorary chairman and Maya Angelou was a keynote speaker at the American Montessori Society’s centennial celebration in New York City.

• Those with ties to Montessori education include: Hillary Clinton; Senator Sherrod Brown; Ohio Senator Ray Miller; Inez Tenenbaum, a Democrat and the previous state superintendent of education of South Carolina; Jackie Kennedy; Anne Frank; the Catholic Church, Prince William and Harry and many individuals and countries from every continent – Africa included.

• I believe we can strengthen “social” security around the world and inspire peace from the ground up like JFK and the Peace Corps once did by using Montessori education. I, and many others, believe Montessori early childhood education does this by educating in an everyday, practical life, working environment America’s Founding Father’s vision of the “Blessings of Liberty” along with their declared vision of the right to independence from the liberty of those who abuse, create chaos, and terrorize.

• Below is a clip from a Cincinnati Enquirer Editorial that illustrates why we need to celebrate Montessori education in America.

Friday, April 23, 2004
Clark is a school to celebrate
________________________________________
Editorial
Imagine a school where every student graduates, almost all go on to college and all leave high school with 50 hours of service invested in their community. Stretch that picture to include a school of nearly perfect racial balance where students exceed state testing standards by 20 percentage points and where 100 students fill up waiting lists hoping desperately to get in.
That, in a nutshell, is Clark Montessori, the nation’s first public Montessori high school. That it is a Cincinnati Public School is reason enough to look again at a school district that, through years of struggle, has managed to also produce its share of gems.
Clark Montessori is one of them. This year it turns a decade old, with a community celebration planned for Saturday. Clark brings recognition to the school district and to Cincinnati , drawing envious educators from as far away as Korea to study its ways, and carrying on a local tradition of innovation in Montessori education. . . .

• My personal vision is to create a Montessori Children’s House Trust Fund that would purchase Montessori classroom materials for any public school district wanting to convert to Montessori education.

• Below is an article I wrote about the issue of liberty in America, Montessori education, and my vision of the Montessori Children’s House Trust Fund. I think it would put a smile on America’s Founding Fathers’ faces and they would still be proud of the country they created.

The 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Declarations: Will they be Enough?

When America’s Founding Fathers declared their independence they had been suffering under “a long train of abuses and usurpations”. They declared that in addition to their right, it was their duty to throw off those who governed with a clear “design to reduce them under absolute Despotism.”

They wrote it was necessary to “assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.” Then they declared that they held “these truths self-evident” not only for themselves, but “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Today, once again, Americans face abuse, but this time, it is not from a king. Today America suffers abuse from an assortment of self-righteous groups with fringes that have “a design to reduce” individuals under absolute tyranny and terrorism – socialist idealists, Christian idealists, Islamic idealists, and others.

A declaration, now, as it was then, is just a statement of facts and beliefs. It’s inspiring, but it isn’t enough to obtain one’s independence or achieve civil order outside despotism. To achieve civil order America’s Founding Fathers needed a constitution, an enforceable set of rules and principles to govern and they wrote a strong Constitution.

Today as we face religious abuse, social abuse, economic abuse, sexual identity abuse of all sorts, and abuse from unknown terrorists, will the 2008 presidential candidates’ declarations be enough? Today as we face personal abuse through identity theft that involves both economic and character abuse, will the 2008 presidential candidates’ declarations be enough? Can they help America achieve civil order and overcome today’s abuses? Can they strengthen an aging Constitution? The Preamble of which reads:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Abuse wasn’t a “Blessing of Liberty” for America’s Founding Fathers. It isn’t a blessing of liberty for us either. Yet our Founding Fathers wanted to secure the “Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” the future generation.

Bartleby.com defines liberty as: “The condition of being free from restriction or control.” And, “The right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one’s own choosing.” How can we the people better secure the Founding Fathers concept of the “Blessings of Liberty” to ourselves and future generations without inviting chaos, abuse, and terrorism?

Can the 2008 presidential candidates address the issue of liberty and pull America together “to form a more perfect Union” or will the liberty of creating chaos, abuse, and terrorism continue to be the new ego-high, addictive, underground, drug in America?

We know that education through fear and terrorism, and that education through guilt and psychological reduction do not create the “Blessings of Liberty” or the freedom of assembly. These methods have been tried and tried again. They create division and distrust and alienation.

While an education method that creates an environment that secures the “Blessings of Liberty” to ourselves and our future generation, one that fosters freedom of assembly; one that pulls together the ideals of the different political divisions; one that touches Hillary Clinton’s heart, Edwards’ ideals, and Obama’s diversity; one that touches the heart of the Christian Right, the people of the Jewish faith; and one that touches the heart of those concerned about the environment would strengthen our Constitution.

Fortunately there is a method that addresses and pulls these all together. It’s called Montessori education.

Today, education has become a political issue not only for academic concerns but for how the teaching of liberty is conveyed. Today politicians themselves use or endorse Montessori education. Senator Clinton’s daughter was educated in a Montessori school according to the BAMA Montessori School’s website. Senator Christopher Dodd was the honorary chairman at the 2007 American Montessori Society’s Centennial Celebration. Equal access to education taught under this understanding of liberty has become today’s civil rights issue.

Montessori education was first created for children living in extreme poverty in Rome. Today the wealthy have adopted the method. Today Montessori’s acceptance is diverse. Maya Angelou was a keynote speaker at this year’s American Montessori Society’s Centennial Celebration. Anne Frank was educated in Montessori and her school still stands. In state after state there are Catholic Montessori Schools and in Brooklyn the Catholic Charities have recently adopted the method. In public education thirty-seven states have at least one public Montessori classroom.

Today, Montessori education environments are connecting us globally like the Internet did through a set of common communication protocols and like our Constitution connected and united America. In 2009 the Association Montessori Internationale will hold their global Congress in Chennai, India . Twenty-six global Congresses have been held since the first Congress in 1929 in Helsingôr. The last was in 2005 in Sydney, Australia. People from thirty-six countries and six continents were in attendance. In 2008, in Washington, D. C., the American Montessori Society will hold its annual conference.

In addition to the “Blessings of Liberty” another active integrated part of Montessori education is the care of the environment. And the Montessori classroom materials are environmentally friendly. Many can be made from recycled materials, reused year after year, and most are made from natural materials.

Today, it is still our right and our duty to throw off those who terrorize and abuse. And today, we still have the opportunity to adopt methods that create a more perfect union. We are also fortunate today that if the political process doesn’t address the issue of liberty adequately we have the right to create a better environment. A good first step would be the creation of a Montessori Children’s House Trust Fund that would use interest to purchase Montessori classroom materials for any public school wanting to convert to Montessori education.

Many Americans who desire to break the stagnate political climate might embrace this independent initiative. Others might embrace the opportunity to honor the memory or desire to bring back the gentle energy of those who attended Montessori schools – Jackie Kennedy; Julia Child; Anne Frank; and Katherine Graham, former Washington Post owner and editor.

Individuals who attended Montessori schools – Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon; Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google; Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Prince William and Prince Harry and many others might also become inspired to support this independent initiative.

And if individuals who are now learning about Montessori education are people who have a vision and the means to change the world through humanitarian efforts, not only people like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Oprah, Al Gore, Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel, and Bono, but the average American citizen, people who dream like America’s Founding Fathers of securing the “Blessings of Liberty” while declaring independence from the liberty of those who abuse, create chaos, and terrorize, these individuals might become inspired to support this independent initiative.

Our political process has the ability to address this emerging equal access civil rights issue. In the meantime, please join me in this humanitarian vision to start a Montessori Children’s House Trust Fund because I don’t believe the 2008 Presidential Candidates’ declarations will be enough. Do you?