AMI Montessori Oral Exams in Mexico City, Summer 2024
This month I returned to Mexico City to work as an oral examiner for AMI, the Association Montessori Internationale, at the 0-3 training center in Mexico City.
The first morning sunrise inspired an early walk (It was slow to adapt to the altitude) in a neighborhood filled with cafes and tiny restaurants and Pilates and yoga studios, beautiful old homes, and flowers and trees.
The teacher trainers are Maria Teresa “Chacha” Vidales and Teanny Hurtado, who have given Montessori courses at this level all over the world, presently in China and Greece. Here is a picture of the front of the training center/lab school.
The Training Center/Lab School
I made this short video of the Infant Community (IC) area of the training center. You will see a table and adult chairs set up for the oral exams. This is also the environment for the lab school where local children attend the nido, a program for babies in the first year of life; the infant community, for age 1 year to 2 1/2 or 3, and a primary class for ages 2.5 – 6+. Students in the teacher training course sometimes do their observation and practice teaching here.
I am sharing just a few pictures from this environment such as this language/music material with pictures of famous musicians that children look at as they listen to a CD of music that matches the picture. The young children choose this work at any time and operate the CD player on their own just by pulling a cord. It is always nice to see prints of my own paintings being shared in Montessori environments. If you would like to see others, and perhaps order a print for your own environment go to this link – CLICK: Susan’s prints
A child knows if the fish have been fed or not just by looking at the tiny plate to the left of the aquarium. The correct amount of food is set out by the adult each morning. This way it is not possible for the fish to be overfed. Plants are found everywhere there is space inside or outside, not just for decoration but for the children to learn to water them correctly, and dust or wash the leaves.
Beauty and attention to detail is obvious throughout the environment. Here is the table set up for baking bread. Children under the age of three years make tea, bake bread, peel tangerines, slice bananas, and carry out all manner of food preparation. They place the prepared food on a shelf until it is time to share their creation with friends for the morning snack or lunch, where the table is set like the one in this picture.
Even though this training center is in the center of one of the largest cities of the world, an outside environment has been prepared for both the children (the picture on the left) and a rooftop area (on the right) for students of the Montessori teacher training course.
On the first evening of exams Chacha and Teanny and Cristel Ruiz—the external examiner assigned through the AMI office in Amsterdam—and I went out for dinner to enjoy Mexico City and discuss the coming exams. Here you see a beautiful basket full of decorated chilies. This is because only during a short season in the summer a special dish called Chile en Nogada is available: chilies, pomegranate seeds, and a sauce made of peeled fresh walnuts (a vegetarian version just for us). The dish presents the colors of the Mexican flag: green, red, and white. You can see more at this link – CLICK Chile en Nogada
Graduation!
Finally, the long-awaited graduation. AMI Montessori courses are not easy by any means, but it is clear in the faces of these students who are singing to a room filled with their families and loved ones, that they are worth all the work!
To maintain the highest quality possible, Dr. Montessori herself created the Association Montessori Internationale in 1929 to oversee, and constantly improve, the training of teachers. One of the reasons this works is that the written exam questions are sent from the headquarters, and the AMI-assigned examiners come from other countries and have never met the students! So, the training center and the teacher trainers are being assessed just as much as the students, resulting in constant improvement and success. I shared the story of how I discovered Montessori and how, even though I had taught children from age 2 to 18 before taking the Montessori 0-3 training, this information on development in the first three years of life would have helped me understand and help my students at all ages.
All of us: school staff, examiners, and students who have come from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, The United States, Canada, and even Pakistan. The course is given in English and Spanish and if you are interested in planning ahead and attending the next 0-3 course in a fascinating city with wonderful teacher trainers and an exceptional environment here is the e-mail address:
CLICK: Mexico CourseContact
Culture in Mexico City
My friends know that wherever I am working I love to learn more about the art, music, culture and history of the country. And this inspires painting when I return home. Teanny and Chacha and I went to the modern Art Museum where we went after the exams a few years ago.
The sculpture and the painting absolutely measured up to my expectations.
The unique art installation shown above, about 15 feet long, was made of a collection of artifacts that presented, in the artist’s own words, la historia del universal. I was struck by how well it follows the five great lessons that are the outline of all the work in the Montessori 6 to 12 program: creation of the solar system and the earth; the evolution of plants and animals; the arrival of human beings and our creations; math and geometry; and language. I wish I had made an up-close video of every piece.
Exploring the City
Exams over and one more day to spend exploring Mexico City. I don’t believe I have ever been in a large city with as many trees as I see here. Also, architecture throughout the ages is fascinating; in this case a building from the art nouveau period of the 1920s. We went through several parts of Mexico City including an area called Roma and they asked me if I had seen the famous movie of this name. You can be sure I checked it out of the library as soon as I returned home. For more information on this movie – CLICK: Roma, the Movie
Our Last Evening Meal Together
For our last evening, I was asked where I wanted to eat but it was impossible to make a decision because Mexico City has restaurants and delicious authentic food from many countries of the world. But this little place, new to all of us and discovered on google.com, turned out to be a jewel. It was entirely food from Oaxaca including special very thin tortilla with veggies called a tlyuda, mole, and mezcal which is very smoky tasting, served with salt and lemon and raw veggies, then delicious hot chocolate and chocolate mousse for dessert. Enjoy the pictures here – CLICK: Oaxacan food
Two Angels of Independence
The Angel of Independence, most commonly known by the shortened name El Ángel and officially known as Monumento a la Independencia, is a victory column on a roundabout on the major thoroughfare of Paseo de la Reforma in downtown Mexico City. And the other is Maria Montessori who brought independence (of thought and action) into the conversation on human development and education throughout all stages life.
BOOKS
Montessori and Mindfulness is used in AMI teacher training courses as it explains why practices such as meditation and yoga, which can be helpful in TTC (teacher text centered) schools, are not appropriate in Montessori schools as they interrupt true concentration. More here: CLICK: M and M book
Montessori Cosmic Education gives examples, at all ages, of ways to express the natural compassion that often arises after deep concentration. More here: CLICK: Montessori CE
The value of Relaxation Revolution , especially for adults, described below.
Fulfilling the Montessori Potential for Infants, Children, and Adults
Here one of Montessori’s quotes on this subject that I share everywhere:
When the children had completed an absorbing bit of work, they appeared rested and deeply pleased. It almost seemed as if a road had opened up within their souls that led to all of their latent powers, revealing the better part of themselves. They exhibited a great affability to everyone, put themselves out to help others and seemed full of good will.
—Maria Montessori, MD, The Child in the Family
BABIES:
R.A.T (see below) is a very important element of this AMI Montessori 0-3 course. It is a type of meditation carried out each day. Anyone reading this who has a daily relaxation practice—religious or secular—understands the value of a such a daily experience in maintaining health, balance, focus, and compassion toward others. The result of this requirement for training was obvious in the support and closeness of faculty and students.
Here is more information about this practice. Respiratory Autogenic Training (R.A.T.) is a birth preparation method focused on breathing and deep relaxation that gives control to a parent giving birth. This method, practiced throughout pregnancy, conditions the mind and body to relax, even during uterine contractions. Dr. Silvana Quattrocchi Montanaro, an Italian medical doctor and Montessori 0-3 teacher trainer, introduced this practice to AMI 0-3 teacher training courses. I observed two women—who had been learning this practice throughout their pregnancy—giving birth at the Cristo Re hospital in Rome where Dr. Montanaro worked, and I have never seen such relaxed births.
SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS:
Several hours a day of deep concentration, with similar results, is present in any authentic Montessori environment for children and young adults art any age. The focus in Montessori is not on academics first, but on realizing the physical/emotional/mental/social potential of each student. Success in academics, or improvement in any skill or area of mastery, is a natural result of practicing deep concentration and making learning enjoyable. And so is a natural tendency to feel kind and helpful to others.
ADULTS:
In the 1970s I discovered the work of Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School who ushered in a new era of understanding in the field of mind body medicine. He researched the “relaxation response,” identified a physiologic reaction that is the exact opposite of the stress (fight-or-flight) response. His latest book Relaxation Revolution recounts research still going on in this area of neuroscience. It has been proven that relaxation and deep concentration during yoga, tai chi, meditation, repetitive prayer—and carried out daily in authentic Montessori practice—can counteract the harmful effects of stress. The book explains how the relaxation response, and other mind body phenomena, can produce healing in one’s body. It shows that the mind can influence the body down to the genetic level, that the mind has the ability to change the way bodies and genes function.
Concentration, Where the Magic Happens
This blog post contains more information on this area of Montessori practice: CLICK: Concentration
Concentration in Montessori Infant Communities in Japan and the USA
For parents and teachers with children from 0-3 in their care, here is one more blog post with plenty of ideas for creating an environment that supports concentration for this age – CLICK: 0-3 video
Blessings,
Susan
Home page, CLICK: Susan