MontessoriPublic — Print Edition went out in the mail today. It’s a 24 page newsprint tabloid size paper designed with an eye to the former Public School Montessorian and packed with public Montessori news and information you won’t find anywhere else. Well, some of it — we reprinted several of MontessoriPublic’s top hits of the last nine months (the Furman study and the DERS), along with a book chapter from John Snyder, a new piece on Accommodations in Primary from Julia Volkman, and a column on Assessment by Jackie Cossentino. You can view or download a copy here.
MontessoriPublic owes an obvious debt to Dennis Schapiro, the long-time editor and publisher of Public School Montessorian, who passed away in 2014. We were excited and grateful to debut the publication with Denny’s widow and children at the 2016 MACTE Symposium in Alexandria, Virginia last weekend. Print copies have been mailed to individual subscribers, teacher training centers, private schools, and, in quantities sufficient for one per teacher, to public schools in the Montessori Census.
If the response is positive, we might just go back to a quarterly schedule, putting out an issue in March in time for the AMS Annual Conference. How will we know? Email us at [email protected] to give us feedback: What did you like? What could you do without? What would you like to see? If you’re at a public school, did we send you enough? Too many? If you have something to contribute, or if you’re an advertiser and you would like to reach this dedicated, passionate audience of Montessorians, let us know.
One more word about the Census—I won’t say it’s the last word, because you’ll probably read about it again here. If you’re school isn’t in, or isn’t up to date, head on over to the Census page and make sure it’s right. (You’ll need to put in an email and set up a login if you’re new, so it’s best to have someone official at the school take this on — that way, the school can keep the information up to date.) Be sure to have the number of teachers updated. We use that information to determine how many copies of the newspaper to send.
David worked in private Montessori for more than twenty years as a parent, three-to-six year-old and adolescent teacher, administrator, writer, speaker, and advocate. In 2016 he began working with the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector. David lives in Portland, Oregon.
