Lander University

Montessori Life, Winter 2004 by Ervin, Barbara

A small classified advertisement on the last page of the Spring 2001 issue of Montessori Life sought an AMS certified early childhood teacher to serve as director of a university Montessori teacher education program. Intrigued, I Emailed my resume and thus began the journey that led to Lander University and Greenwood, South Carolina.

Like most tales worth telling, the history of Montessori at Lander is more than the record of any single individual. It is the story of many participants, all sharing a common vision of what schools for young children can be, and it cannot be separated from the story of Montessori in the public schools of the Palmetto state.

Lander University, located in the piedmont of western SC, is a small publicly funded institution of higher learning. It began as a Methodist women's college in 1872 and after several incarnations over the years it became state supported in 1973. With a student body of approximately 3,000, it primarily serves the residents of the surrounding seven-county area; most of those attending are first-generation college students. Lander's mission statement recognizes its role as a teaching institution and its responsibility to the public and local agencies. The Montessori Teacher Education Program at Lander University is an example of that commitment to serve the community.

It was in 1993 that a kindergarten teacher in New Zion, SC, convinced her school district administrators to allow her to begin a Montessori class in her school, serving the district's 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. The first public Montessori classroom in the state, it drew the attention of others who came to observe and hoped to replicate it. That kindergarten teacher, Linda Mims, later earned a doctorate and is now the director of early childhood for the SC Department of Education. When she assumed that position in 2001, Mims was able to have Montessori designated as an official early childhood curriculum.

In neighboring Laurens County, several Montessori classrooms were opened and district officials approached Lander's Dr. Marilyn Mecca, professor of early childhood education and longtime supporter of Montessori, and Dr. Phil Bennett, dean of education, about offering Montessori classes to their teachers on a contract basis. Lander's first Montessori classes began in 1997 under the direction of Dr. Sherry Sweet. In 1998 the Self Family Foundation, generous supporters of both Lander and of initiatives to improve education in the piedmont, awarded Lander a grant to establish a Montessori teacher education program. The program continued for several years, and Lander offered courses to teachers in the seven-county area and throughout the state.

Solving the Problems

A perennial problem for the program was the inability to recruit and hold a permanent onsite director and instructor. Dr. Mecca and Dr. Bennett decided that affiliation with a more widely recognized organization would help the program stabilize and grow. They decided to affiliate with AMS and undergo the MACTE accreditation process under its auspices. I was hired as director of Montessori programs in August 2001. By that time the self-study had been written with the assistance of paid consultants and was wending its way through the review process. With a full-time director in place to help guide it through its final stages and the capable assistance of Dr. Ann Epstein as consultant, the date of our onsite visit was set for February 2002. I'll admit some trepidation when we learned that a New Yorker, Dr. Marlene Barron, would head our team. Could someone from Manhattan relate to our rural southern culture and setting? That concern turned out to be unfounded-not to say that the on-site team didn't put us through our paces. Dr. Danny McKenzie, our current dean of education, and I spent 3 long days rewriting sections to meet their requests; and at the end we not only had a stronger document, but I had a clearer understanding of the unique nature of a university-based MTEP.

University programs are different. Lander's program is certainly less flexible and informal than those I attended (MECR and COMET). Assignment due dates are limited by the academic semester, and incomplete grades can be carried for only a given number of months. Written work is subject to well defined assessment criteria. Lander's MTEP is fully integrated into the academic program and our students must serve two masters, the university and AMS/MACTE. The tradeoff, of course, is that our students receive university credit leading toward a degree and, in the case of graduate students, a step up the state pay scale.

Students in Lander's Montessori program are fully admitted to the university and meet the same requirements as those in other programs such as business, nursing, or theater. Undergraduates havecompleted Lander's admission process to the education program, meaning they have passed PRAXIS I, undergone a screening that includes a personal interview and writing sample, and maintained a minimum GPA. They must take all classes required of early childhood majors, as well as the additional Montessori methods classes. They student teach in a public Montessori classroom to obtain state licensure, and after graduation they secure a position in a Montessori classroom for a year to complete the practicum phase for AMS certification. Graduate students may be admitted as degree or nondegree students, depending upon whether they choose to pursue an MEd alter completion of the core Montessori courses. Degree candidates are required to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) within the first 12 hours of coursework. These students are generally employed in districts that have Montessori programs and receive tuition assistance. The Self Family Foundation, our longtime benefactor, helps state school districts underwrite tuition for their teachers.