Montessori in Romania and The Republic of Moldova
This is my fourth time working with a wonderful school—infant communities, primary and secondary classes, and an adolescent program—in Iași, Romania. Six months ago, a new building, bringing all levels of students together, was begun. Many people said it couldn’t be done. It was.
The night before the grand opening of the new building, the administration, staff, parents, and construction crew worked till after midnight to be ready.
The ribbon cutting ceremony!
The New School
Below is a picture of the school director Catalina Ivan, Judi Orion (director of pedagogy for AMI, Association Montessori Internationale) who has also worked with this Romania group for several years, and me next to Simona Nicolae who has almost completeed the process of becoming an AMI primary teacher trainer.
The Celebration
My latest book, Montessori for Family and Community, which was inspired by work here and has been translated into Romanian, was given as a gift to everyone present, 200+ copies.
Here is the link with information about obtaining the Romanian translation and the English version of this and other titles, CLICK: MFC Book
A New AMI teacher training program in the Republic of Moldova
Iasi, which is the second largest city in Romania used to be capital of Moldovia, presently the Republic of Moldova. Catalina drove Judi and me to the capital, Chișinău, for just one day to explore this country, where people are also interested in Montessori.
In one of the parks we found dancers – a delight. To see more, see the last part of the blog post about our trip two years ago, CLICK: Republic of Moldova.
The Mountains
The Montessori work very happily completed, we took off for the mountains to learn more about the country, an element of spreading Montessori that is vital for its success. The map above shows how close we were to Ukraine; we could see the land from the road. Also, since I took this picture of a map hanging on the wall of a home we visited, the Romanian names of several other countries can be seen: Serbia, Hungary, the Republic of Moldova, and Bulgaria.
Above is a picture of my hosts. Catalin Ivan was a representative of Romania to the European Parliament in Brussels. After many years of trying to help his country through political work a colleague introduced him to Montessori and he never looked back because he realized that education that prepares students to act and think independently rather than being trained to always obey or think and act under the direction of another, to be responsible for their action and studies, and to experience daily teaching and learning from each other, is the best preparation for Romania. His wife, Catalina, took some convincing, but she now completely agrees and has even received training at the AMI adolescent level.
In one of the villages, we were invited to see how everyone, at all ages, has a tradition of contributing to the family and having meaningful work such as one elderly lady weaving chair covers and making jewelry. I find this to be the case in many of the “primitive” places I have worked; traditions that we in the “modern” world would do well to emulate. We were treated to a homemade wine full of berries that was delicious, and more like a desert than a drink.
In Sighet we spent a lot of time at the International Center for Studies of Communism. Research that is invaluable in understanding how human beings can go wrong in so many ways, and trying to figure out how to make things better. For ore information, CLICK: Center
If you are on Facebook, I am able to share more pictures and information there than is possible on a blog post.
Wooden Churches of Maramures
Catalin took this picture of Catalina and me and we thought it is similar to a Monet painting. Twice before I have seen the beautiful churches in this country, in cities and villages, but this time we went to see the wooden churches in Barsana, a monastery and UNESCO world heritage site. Coming from a place, Northern California, where one board of wood can cost $100+ I was amazed and pleased to see the beautiful and very thick Oak planks used in this part of the world. For more information, and even a tour guide lecture (in Romanian), CLICK: Wooden Churches
The Happy/Merry Cemetery
On the left above is a regular traditional cemetery, but on the right a completely unexpected and delightful experience. The Happy or Merry Cemetery, created by Stan Loan Patras who agreed with many that death does not necessarily have to be always accompanied by gloom and grief. I agree! It is better to focus on the good things in one’s life, and this is done well here, each grave accompanies by a hand carved and painted image of the dead person, and a little story about their life, profession, perhaps written by the person before death, or by someone else later.
Some of the pictures and stories can be seen here, CLICK: Happy Cemetery
Above is a little video I took of the church connected with the cemetery, and below another video of my last night in Romania, taken from the window of my hotel room, a place where I have always stayed when in Iasi and where I have begun to feel very much at home.
An Unexpected and Very Good Result
Montessori for Family and Community is a book that was requested years ago by my friends in Romania who needed, “a short book that can be shared with the mayors of the very small villages in Romania where there are too few children at any one age to create a school.” Today the book is used by Montessori schools too busy to take enough time to fully explain the practice and value of authentic Montessori. It is used by teachers at any age to provide insight into Montessori before or after the years the children spend in his or her class. And it has been used as a perfect introduction to government officials, traditional educators, and others interested in an educational practice that has the possibility of preparing the population to meet an unpredictable future with confidence and skills.
More about this book, CLICK: MFC book
Thank you for sharing these travels with me,
Susan
Home page – CLICK: Susan
Very nice God bless you all