Susan Mayclin Stephenson

7^th Annual AMI Montessori Congress, Bogota, Colombia

Upon arrival in Bogota, Colombia, in October, 2024, for the 7^th Annual AMI Montessori Congress I was greeted by Humberto, an old friend who knows I have suffered from altitude sickness (Saroche in Spanish) twice and that drinking coca tea or chewing coco leaves can prevent, or helps alleviate, the symptoms! He brought extra and we shared with everyone coming from low altitude.

This was the first trip to South America for Lynne Lawrence, General Director of AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) so our hosts arranged an amazing visit to the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt (and emerald) mine 660 feet underground. For more information on this creation (one of two on the planet, the other in Poland) CLICK: Salt Mine

The Congress Begins
There were many wonderful speakers over these two days, including Lyda Franky and Martha Lucia Amador, co-directors of FEMCO, the AMI affiliate in Colombia; Diego Roselli, neuroscientist; our old friend Eder Cuevas from Mexico, Diana Vargas Gutierrez, Ana Camila Jimenez Borbolla, Jackie Medina Novela, and Piedad Gonzalez.

My first talk discussed “When a little Montessori is better than none, and when it is not.” Examples of the first include orphanages, materials used in programs with people with severe disabilities, and sharing information in many situations. When it is not enough is when one wants to call a Montessori class, school, or teacher training program, “Montessori” when it would be more appropriate to call it “Montessori-inspired.”

It is clear that we need this distinction because anyone can use the word Montessori with no oversight and this is confusing to the public. There are people today who have not graduated from the multi-year AMI teacher trainer program (created by Dr. Montessori) but are training teachers; there are AMI teacher trainers delivering courses that are not AMI and so participants do not earn AMI diplomas; and there are many schools called Montessori schools where teaching is still done in groups, afternoon naps are required, and many other differences.

During my first talk I shared the details (number of children; adult:child ratio; the role of an assistant; the daily schedule, etc.) from the AMI affiliate in the USA, to give Montessori-inspired schools goals to reach for. To see these school recognition standards, CLICK: Montessori school standards

It is relatively easy to provide Montessori buildings and Montessori materials, but real Montessori is only possible with well-trained Montessori teachers. So both Lynne and I spoke about the Corner of Hope Montessori program in Kenya where the families, displaced and without homes because of war, worked together to build the first true Montessori classrooms, sometimes tents with dirt floors. And the teachers made all of the materials as part of their AMI primary diplomas. This is an example of authentic Montessori where the training of teachers was a higher priority than buildings and materials. Also it was wonderful to see all 13 of my titles on display and to meet people who came to the congress because they had read some of them.

Lynne talked about the wide variety of the many AMI programs that are going on around the world. I had thought I was informed about the work of AMI but I was inspired and thrilled listening to her and how AMI is constantly changing to meet the needs of families and children today. Since the focus of this congress was on observation, she spoke at length about observing children’s level of concentration. My second talk was called “Concentration, When the Magic Happens,” so I also showed concentration graphs (work curves) like the one in the picture.

The conference ended with a show by a talented magician and then dancing—a variety of elegant, wild, and hilarious dances in beautiful costumes, and two dances by children.

University Lecture
Both Lynne and I had come to help bring AMI quality education to this country in any way that we could. So just as the conference was beginning, we learned that we were scheduled to give a talk to ASCOFADE, a group of the heads of all the education faculties throughout Colombia. This was to occur at University Externado, at 9AM the next morning. Since we had had no time to even look at the outline of our talks, we took the list of questions back to Lynne’s hotel room, divided them up, and then (I returning to my room) stayed up most of the night preparing our lecture. Staying up wasn’t that difficult because insomnia is one of the symptoms of altitude sickness and we were used to chewing coco leaves to get back to sleep. We just waited till the work was finished

The talk went very well and there were excellent questions from the audience, many of whom are both education professors and parents. The picture shows us with Cecilia Dimate (next to Lynne) president of ASCOFADE, and Eliana Hernandez, who was the Director of the Association of Universities in Colombia, and is now principal of a public school in Bogota. She clearly already knew a lot about Montessori and did a marvelous job of summing up the points in the allotted time.

Since I knew that these heads of education departments were going to want to go home with ideas to share with teachers immediately, I had printed out the chapter from one of my books that told about a challenge I had accepted years ago to “bring Montessori” to a private British-Peruvian girls school in Lima, Peru. The paper I wrote when asked to share my obvious success with the other Peruvian teachers included ideas on the physical space, the class schedule, and the role of the teachers (modeling behavior, teaching children how to help and teach others, for example) all possible to implement within the program, and with no Montessori materials. If you are interested in this subject here is the file created for Colombia education departments:
CLICK: Montessori ideas for traditional teachers
Or read it in the book, available on Amazon, Aid to Life, Montessori Beyond the Classroom, CLICK: Book

University Psychology Department Meeting
In the afternoon it had been arranged that Lynne and I, Lyda Franky, Martha Lucia Amador and Alvaro Franky (all of FEMCO) were to meet with Luis Manuel Silva Martin, head of the department of education at Ponticia University Javeriana. Luis had earned his PhD at the National University of Ireland, so it was a treat to be able to communicate in English. We discussed many ways that AMI Montessori could work with the psychology department, and we came up with a plan. Since there are no completely authentic Montessori classes in Bogota so far, but many Montessori-inspired classes, the first step is for the members of FEMCO to help establish and identify classes where psychology students could observe and learn about Montessori in real life rather than from books. There were other ideas discussed, and I am sure something positive will come from this meeting.

Last day!
Again, since this was Lynne’s first time in South America, there were some important cultural experiences arranged. The gold museum was a wealth of beauty and history and culture; then a walk to the central plaza; then the famous 7^th street (carrera 7), thought dangerous by many especially at night, but a fascinating gathering of music, art, food, political marches (one of which we witnessed) and objects to purchase. I bought a refrigerator magnet of a driver’s license of Pablo Escobar, the famous drug lord, and tried to watch the Netflix special about him later at home, but couldn’t, too violent and sad. We kept our phones hidden and wore no jewelry. I think it was worth it.

Note: I am watching the Netflix special Bolívar, a 2019 historical drama depicting the life of Venezuelan liberator Simón Bolívar. There are 60 episodes and it is a good history of the struggle between the Spanish invaders and revolutionaries throughout South America. Lynne had already watched it! I also recommend The Motorcycle Diaries, based on the true story of two young university students—a medical student and a biochemist—out for adventure, and how what they see traveling through South America changes them.

At the end of the exciting 7^th street stroll we were treated to a traditional last meal at a restaurant just inside of the door of what was a cathedral in times past. It is called “The Puerta de la Tradition”. This has been a wonderful, fruitful, and exhausting time, but so worth it.

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THANK YOU so much to everyone at FEMCO and AMI in Amsterdam  for arranging all this work and the cultural experiences.

Blessings,
Susan

Home page, CLICK: Susan