Montessori Comes to America by Phyllis Povell

Author:Phyllis Povell [POVELL, PHYLLIS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7618-4928-5
Publisher: UPA

In the spring of 1962, Nancy published a book Learning How to Learn: An American Approach to Montessori. She described the reaction to this first book to placing Montessori education into a contemporary American setting, “Letters and people poured into Whitby from across the United States, demanding insistently that writers and visitors be given help in starting Montes-sori schools and teacher training programs.”68

Nancy resigned as Headmistress of Whitby School in 1962, in order to devote more time to the day-to-day functioning of the American Montessori Society. The aforementioned Jack Blessington became Headmaster, where he remained until 1973 when Paul Czaja assumed the position. By 1966 with an enrollment of two hundred students, Whitby announced its plans to build the first Montessori high school in America by the following winter with the goal of doubling its enrollment.

On December 19, 1962 in a letter to Mario Montessori, Nancy resigned as President of the American Montessori Society effective July 1963. Hurt and disappointment are evident in her words, “This year for the first time, I received remuneration from the Montessori Society. In years past, I received none. I would prefer a relationship in which I could help in whatever way possible without continuing to assume the problems and absorb all the abuse that has been showered on me from every quarter.”

She continued the letter with an explanation which displayed her honesty and integrity to Montessori and the Montessori Movement. She spelled out her beliefs, “It would have been easy for me, ten years ago, to have returned from Europe and submerged the name of Montessori and promoted these ideas in some other way. It was not my intent to do so. I think this would be criminal neglect of the genius of Dr. Montessori, as well as an intellectually dishonest move.” Furthermore the letter revealed she was disheartened by the fact that she gave not only her time, “but that of my husband and children, over almost a decade.”69

Royall O’Brien, at the tenth anniversary of the American Montessori Society, echoed the same themes, “Often misunderstood, even by those who followed her, often told ‘it couldn’t be done,’ often abandoned . . . Nancy never gave up, never compromised, never retreated.”70

Although very involved with the teacher training program and the promotion of Montessori education, Nancy knew it would be wise to have a degree in early childhood education so she entered Teachers College Columbia University. In 1963 she received a Master of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education. She began a PhD program, but did not finish it there.

In 1977, she received her Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled, Intuitive and Intentional Change Agentry. It is an autobiographical detailing of her exploration into the literature on change and a description of her intuitive understandings during the reintroduction of Montessori to the United States. It also includes her acquired knowledge resulting in her intentional efforts to actuate change in three other situations.

While pursuing her doctorate, in the academic

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