Loving and Critical: Reflecting and Interrogating my Montessori Identity

My identity is wrapped up in being a Montessori teacher. Montessori is a method of education that has been part of my professional and personal life for over 15 years. I am the friend that always buys Montessori toys or materials as gifts for new moms and children’s birthdays. My three children have attended Montessori school since birth. I have worked as a Montessori early childhood teacher, a Montessori teacher educator, and a Montessori teacher education program director. Montessori education is part of who I am.

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As a white woman striving to do the work of racial justice and continuing to develop my critical consciousness (shoutout to Embracing Equity for supporting me in this journey!), I’ve realized the Montessori part of my identity requires a more in-depth interrogation. A deeper interrogation that wasn’t part of my Montessori training, nor did I experience it in many Montessori communities I have been part of over the years – a deeper interrogation that I thought I was doing all along.

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“We can admire Dr. Montessori for who she was—someone who smashed gender stereotypes and gender expectations of her time to build a radical and revolutionary educational method—while also accepting that she was imperfect

— Britt Hawthorne

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Dr. Maria Montessori was a human being. Human beings are fallible. Why do we so often hold Dr. Montessori up on a pedestal, a pedestal where she can do no harm? It can feel scary, even disrespectful, to question someone we so admire. But as Montessori teachers, this is precisely what we teach our students to do. To respect each other’s deepest personal and human qualities and to think critically, to use our voice and agency to find our place in society. The discomfort we feel in questioning Dr. Montessori is also connected to the subconscious ways in which we uphold whiteness in education - to the characteristics of white supremacy culture.

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Britt Hawthorne (2019) said, “We can admire Dr. Montessori for who she was—someone who smashed gender stereotypes and gender expectations of her time to build a radical and revolutionary educational method—while also accepting that she was imperfect” (p. 61). Are we listening to Britt’s call? Are we accepting that Dr. Montessori was imperfect? We have to stay with the discomfort we might feel. We cannot allow racial comfort to be “prioritized over engaging in the hard work of interrogating power and privilege” (Gist et al., 2019).

Part of this interrogation includes a loving critique of the things we love the most. As James Baldwin (1955) says, “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” We can be loving and critical at the same time.

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You can google Maria Montessori quotes and get over 2 million results. These quotes will often include attribution to Maria Montessori but will not include the full citation. I have spent hours looking for the true source of quotes, often finding the quote incorrect or not even finding a source for it. It’s as if Dr. Montessori is omnipresent. As Carly Riley has pointed out to me, this is similar to the way Dr. King’s quotes have been weaponized to make points he did not intend or how Dr. Montessori’s idea of peace education can be (and is often) conflated with anti-racist education. When Montessorians speak of Maria Montessori, you get the sense that they are speaking of a long-lost friend from childhood. I have heard myself talk of Montessori education as not just a method of education but a way of life. Without a doubt, Montessorians create community everywhere we go. We create unspoken norms that, if left unquestioned, center the dominant way of being and exclude those who do not assimilate to the dominant way of being.

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We work through an in-depth inner preparation on our path to becoming Montessori teachers. As a teacher education instructor, I often remind adult learners that this path to being a Montessori teacher is lifelong. Dr. Montessori (1967) writes of the teacher, “she must learn how to observe, how to be calm, patient, and humble, how to restrain her impulses, and how to carry out her eminently practical tasks with the required delicacy” (p. 151). We place so much emphasis on the characteristics of the teacher as defined by Montessori. In this quote, she states a guide must be humble, which is to be free from pride or arrogance. Are we practicing humility if we place Dr. Montessori on a pedestal? Tiffany Jewell summed this up well when she said, “decolonizing myself as an educator and mama is recognizing that I am not the only one with all the answers and to have some humility, to honor my humanity, nod to the past and look towards the future” (Willoughby, 2020).

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Christenson (2019) suggests “explicit teacher qualities have the potential to evolve into a seemingly inflexible social identity that may prevent Montessori teachers from exploring and accepting other ways of being in a classroom” (p. 48). As we read and internalize the image and role Dr. Montessori created of the “Montessori Teacher,” we have to reflect on what it means to each of us personally, what it means to the culture we grew up in, and to the culture we are currently in. If we feel we must exhibit the hefty characteristics of a Montessori teacher that Dr. Montessori described, then we must do so in all areas of our practice and our life, including in our learning of Dr. Montessori and her method of education. We must interrogate her thoughts, beliefs, so that we can not only develop our critical consciousness but also use the Montessori method in the way she intended - “to help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit” (Montessori, 2007, p. 69).

When we enter our training, we immediately begin reading the work of Dr. Montessori. This is undoubtedly an essential step in our journey. We should always read the work of Dr. Montessori! However, we must shift from reading her work as “the word” and move towards reading her work through a critical lens. Perhaps this level of critique comes naturally to you; maybe you are already critiquing Dr. Montessori and her method as you refine your own pedagogy and better understand your identity as a Montessorian. If not, I offer one way to begin.

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Let’s consider the lens of characteristics of white supremacy culture.

Below are five characteristics as defined by Jones and Okun (2001). The list of characteristics includes more than this, but we will only reflect on these five for brevity. Although, I encourage you to dig deeper on your own.

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Perfectionism

Perfectionism is interconnected to all characteristics of white supremacy culture. It is pervasive. It is the characteristic I have found the most challenging to investigate in myself. As I write this, I am contemplating all the ways perfectionism shows up in Montessori communities, and the thought that keeps coming to me is “but this is just my personality.” I’m very “type A,” I’m very organized, and on and on. Do you hear my excuses? I do. I’ve also seen my tendency towards perfectionism arise in my racial justice work. I have paused for far too long before saying or doing anything, out of fear of messing up. We can’t let perfectionism stand in the way causing us to get stuck in this awareness space. We must work through the four stages of developing a liberatory consciousness and take action (Love, 2000). For me, I am leaning on friends and colleagues to hold me accountable not only in the awareness of when perfectionism gets in the way, but also with what action steps might look like.

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Defensiveness

I remember the conversation I had with a friend several years ago, where I defended the “pull yourself up from your bootstraps” mentality. I’m embarrassed to admit this. Even as I type this now I want to launch into all the reasons I once held that mentality. Again, a friend held my feet to the fire as together, we interrogated this belief system. My defensiveness also speared its ugly head as I was processing the characteristic of perfectionism. I’ve observed the defensiveness in schools and Montessori classrooms when we ask, “why do you do it this way?” We can believe in the Montessori method AND be critical at the same time (see either/or thinking below).

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Either/Or Thinking

Your child can play video games AND go to a Montessori school. You can be committed to Montessori education AND engage in other evidence-based education practices. You can remain a member of your Montessori organization AND challenge its role in systemic oppression. We have to get outside binary thinking. We can admire Dr. Montessori AND critique her work. We can be “good Montessori teachers” AND use a critical lens to discuss the pedagogy.

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Fear of Open Conflict

We might feel we are not practicing “grace and courtesy” when we question someone we admire, a mentor, or someone in a leadership role. To move forward with a critical lens, we have to discern the difference between being polite and having difficult conversations. Ask the hard questions during your training or when joining a new school, push for a better response than “this is how it has always been done.” And when others push you with what feels like difficult questions, don’t let defensiveness get in the way (FYI: I wrote that sentence as a reminder to myself). I believe Dr. Montessori would want us to dig deeper – to think for ourselves and to be open to the gift of feedback that allows us to self-construct.

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Only One Right Way

What does “grace and courtesy” look like in different cultures? Dr. Montessori wrote about grace and courtesy through her white-centric European lens but also noted that her method of education could, with some adaptation, be applicable to all societies and nations of the world (Montessori, 1967). Are we shifting our lens as we work with children and families from different cultures? I recently listened to Maati Wafford discuss how grace and courtesy is filled with racism in our Montessori environments. We must understand that there is more than one right way to being graceful and courteous. Consider the child who sings while working or works best in community with friends. Is this disruptive or is this culture? Another way I have observed the only one right way characteristic is through the conversation of what “Montessori” is. There are many institutions and people who argue what it means to be a Montessorian. While it can be important to define the method for policy and accreditation purposes, we have to be careful of finger-pointing or telling folks they aren’t “Montessori enough.” It is harmful.  

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As Katie Kitchens shared in a previous Embracing Equity blog post, “It is past time for us to work toward becoming co-conspirators; we must interrogate our identities, heal our own wounds, and seek out communities where deep trust to be held accountable is prioritized.” As Montessorians, especially white Montessorians, we must move beyond binary thinking, fully humanize ourselves and Dr. Montessori, and push for deeper critical analysis, even when it is uncomfortable.

About the Author

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Heather Gerker, she/her/hers, is a doctoral student in Education Policy and Teacher Education at the University of Cincinnati. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 10 years in many capacities: as a Montessori early childhood teacher, teacher educator, and a teacher education program director. She is currently a Teacher Educator with Greater Cincinnati Center for Montessori Education and West Side Montessori School Teacher Education Program. Heather is deeply passionate about supporting teachers on their anti-bias, antiracist journeys.

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References

Baldwin, James. (1955). Notes of a native son. Beacon.

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Cross, B. E. (2005). New racism, reformed teacher education, and the same ole' oppression. Educational Studies, 38(3), 263-274.

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Christensen, O. (2019). Montessori Identity in Dialogue: A Selected Review of Literature on Teacher Identity. Journal of Montessori Research, 5(2), 45–56.

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Gist, C., Jackson, I., Nightengale-Lee, B., & Allen, K. (2019). Culturally responsive pedagogy in teacher education. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.

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Hawthorne, B. (2019). Dr. Montessori’s Racism. Montessori Life, 31(1), 61.

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Jones, K., & Okun, T. (2001). White supremacy culture. Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change.

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Love, B. J. (2000). Developing a liberatory consciousness. Readings for diversity and social justice, 2(470-474).

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Montessori, Maria. (1967). Discovery of the child. Ballentine Books.

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Montessori, Maria. (2007). Education for a new world. The Montessori series, Volume 5. Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company.

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Wafford, Maati. (2021). Oppression, Power & Privilege in Montessori Environments [Conference presentation]. American Montessori Society: The Montessori Event, virtual.

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Willoughby, V. (2020). On being comfortable with discomfort: Tiffany Jewell explains what it means to be anti-racist. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com?detailStory=tiffany-jewell-anti-racism-childrens-nonfiction-author-interview