-
Dr Montessori in USA
Dr. Montessori developed an international following, and in 1913 and 1915 she toured the United States, lecturing on her educational theories to enthusiastic acclaim. -
Period: to
Montessori method in Europe
Montessori movement continued to flourish in Europe, especially among Catholic educational institutions -
Montessori education revived in America
In the late 1950s Nancy McCormick Rambusch, a young teacher who had undergone Montessori training in London, became inspired with the idea of reviving Montessori education in America. Initially conducting classes from her New York apartment, she soon founded and became headmistress of Whitby, a lay-Catholic school in Greenwich, Connecticut, which became the flagship school of the American Montessori revival. -
Founding of American Montessori Society
Rambusch & Whitby gained a reputation & supporters; They also attracted the attention of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the guardian and promulgator of Maria Montessori’s ideals under the directorship of her son, Mario, who authorized Rambusch to act as AMI’s representative in America. This led, in 1960, to the founding of the American Montessori Society (AMS), with Rambusch as its first president. -
Nancy Rambusch
Nancy McCormick Rambusch was a leading proponent of modifying the Montessori method to fit American culture. She also firmly believed that aspects of the Montessori method had to be modified to accommodate the culture of mid-twentieth-century America and its children, and that the movement should not be confined to private institutions -
AMS as Independent Organization
strained relations with AMI, which felt that Dr. Montessori’s principles were universal and could not be modified without destroying their integrity. Despite good-faith attempts on both sides, the philosophical differences could not be reconciled, while additional controversies over finances and control deepened the rift. Ultimately, in 1963, AMI withdrew its recognition of AMS as a Montessori society, and from that point until the present AMS has existed independently of AMI -
Period: to
AMS office in New York
In 1963, six months after Monson arrived, Rambusch resigned as president and embarked upon a distinguished career in children’s education that continued until her death in 1994. Also in 1963, the national office of AMS moved from Greenwich to New York City, where it has since remained. -
AMS reorganized
Cleo Monson was hired in January 1963 as Executive Secretary to reorganize AMS’s office, but her administrative abilities soon rendered her indispensable as the coordinator of virtually all the society’s activities. In 1973 she became the first National Director, a position of pivotal importance that she essentially created and that she held until her retirement in 1978. In her own way she was as responsible as Nancy McCormick Rambusch for the existence of AMS