Support the Montessori Foundation Fund

The Montessori Foundation is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the advancement of Montessori education around the world.

In 2005, we are seeking contributions to help us establish an independent Center For Montessori Research, staffed by a specialist in educational and child development research, which can serve as a clearinghouse to compile and disseminate information about current research findings that validate the positive results of the Montessori educational approach, and which suggest patterns of Best Practices in Montessori program design and teaching.

Our second major project for 2005 is to fund the development of a public relations campaign to promote public awareness and interest in Montessori education in general. This will be a campaign carried out by Montessori schools, educators, and parents at the local level, using media and strategies compiled into a Public Relations Program and Media Kit.

The Montessori Foundation was established in 1992 by several senior leaders of the American Montessori Society to create an independent source of assistance, encouragement, and support for Montessori schools as institutions throughout the international Montessori community, regardless of their affiliation with any of the existing Montessori organizations. Joyce St. Giermane has served as Executive Director, and Tim Seldin as President, from the Foundation's inception.

The mission of the Montessori Foundation is to nurture, inspire, and support the development of strong, successful Montessori schools throughout North America, and to promote Dr. Montessori's dream that the movement which she began would become a worldwide community of children and adults working together to build societies around the world that revere the dignity of the human spirit, based on kindness, compassion, sanity, and nonviolence.

The Foundation works with the entire community of Montessori schools regardless of affiliation, reaching out to parents, educators, and schools who are interested in learning more about the insights, research, and approach pioneered by Dr. Maria Montessori.

The Foundation reflects a heritage of international education and a commitment to the highest standards of Montessori program and curriculum development, the implementation of cutting edge educational technology, the development of a strong sense of community and family friendliness within our schools, and a return to Dr. Montessori's focus on building a better world by helping children discover their capacity to live in peace and learn not only how to earn a living, but how to live oneís life.

The Foundation's mission is based on our belief that Montessori stands for something much larger than how Montessori schools teach reading or the way we structure our classrooms. We believe that Dr. Montessoriís work is based on a philosophy of life. It is based, as we see it, on four pillars:

Nurturing the curiosity, intelligence and creative born within essentially every child, while encouraging a habit and passion for excellence.

Teaching universal values, which include kindness, compassion, nonviolence, truthfulness, forgiveness, celebration, generosity, and the courage to think for oneself and to resist peer and social pressure when your hearts tells you others are wrong.

A sense of connectedness to the world: a basic global understanding and perspective, a reverence for living things, and a sense of our connection to those who lived before us and those generations not yet born.

And a instilling a tradition of service to others in this world.