Baan Dek

Spotlight Marlene Barron

Spotlights

We’re so glad to Spotlight Marlene Barron, a Montessorian with decades of experience across continents. In her words, her dream is, “to bring quality Montessori education to children everywhere by preparing teachers and working with parents to better understand their children’s needs and capabilities.”

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Your background, your interests, your dreams?
My Montessori career began in 1964 when I was a young mother living on Staten Island, NY. I accidentally tuned into a radio broadcast in which some parents were talking about their children who attended a Montessori School in California. I was amazed and intrigued.

marlene barron montessori spotlight children

I shared what I remembered with my friends, parents of other three and four year olds. We quickly decided we needed to know more. One friend, Ruth Selman, volunteered to go into Manhattan to find out more about this new educational approach called Montessori. She found the AMS office and met with Cleo Munson.

She returned even more enthusiastic, and we decided to open a Montessori School. We were young, full of energy, and determined to provide the best for our children. We put a notice in the St. Island Advance, the local paper, and found a room in a church. Over 50 families attended that meeting. Some were parents of teenagers, some were pregnant. All had heard something about Montessori education.

“The pendulum is about to swing back to a more natural, respectful approach.”

We organized into committees and formed a steering committee composed of the first person who signed up on each list. In a few weeks, we had found a room in a newly built Catholic parochial school, and AMS helped us find a teacher. We hired a teacher from Holland and bought materials from Nienhuis. I remember going down to the NYC docks to bring huge crates through customs. It was a complicated, exhausting process as we brought in ‘trinkets’ – this is what the materials were called back then.

Our school began with 40+ children in 2 half day classes. I volunteered to be the assistant teacher as I was continuing my masters program in social psychology at Hunter College. Within weeks I fell in love with being in the classroom. I dropped out of Hunter College and decided to go for my Montessori credential at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

marlene barron montessori spotlight children binomial cube

In the spring of our first year, the Catholic school informed us that they would need the classroom the following year for their expanding student population. We began a frantic search for a new space. I probably visited every available building that meet the licensing and building requirements on Staten Island. To this day I can describe those buildings.

Finally we found a building, Butler Manor, that had housed a drug treatment group. This group was leaving because of protests by their neighbors. That summer of 1966 was crazy busy. Ruth Selman and I drove on the New Jersey turnpike at 60 miles an hour for 45 minutes each way. Our instructors were amazing, and included Nancy Rambusch and Ruth Oblinsky. We were given the album, one album only about 2 inches thick. I still have it today. The emphasis was not on rigid presentations, but on experimentation and inquiry.

“We were young, full of energy, and determined to provide the best for our children.”

During this time, we also moved the school to our new building. We had some minor renovations to do and needed to scrub the building. And, of course, set up the classroom. We opened in September with 2 half day classes. During those years, no one would think of sending their child full day to a school. Mothers were home at work. We hired a teacher and I began my internship.

Moving forward through the decades, the school expanded to 2 sites and including a lower elementary class. I became a teacher educator at the CHAMP (Central Harlem Association of Parents) Montessori Teacher Education Program and completed my masters degree in early childhood & elementary education.

Marlene Barron Montessori Children Asia Teachers

In 1979 I moved to the West Side Montessori School ( WSMS) in Manhattan and remained there until my retirement in 2007. During those years, we moved CHAMP to WSMS and I founded the NYU Montessori Project. I earned a PhD in emergent literacy and spent 8 years co-directing the NYU Summer Abroad Program in Oxford, England. I became active in AMS (I was treasurer and then president of the board), and I became a MACTE commissioner. I also participated in AMS/MACTE onsite reviews in both the U.S. and in Asia. After my retirement in 2008, I worked as a consultant, focusing on Africa and Asia, and finally on China. I soon became the director of the EMTTA (Etonkids Montessori Teacher Training Academy) in Beijing China.

Today my focus continues to be in Asia both through EMTTA and the volunteer work of Montessori-Asia group.

Marlene Barron Montessori Children Asia Teachers

Current interest include continuing to help prepare young teachers, to improving the quality of Montessori education by consulting with more experienced teachers, and of course, eating healthy.

Q: Now that the hardest question is out of the way: What’s your favorite color?
I don’t really have a favorite color. I like bright greens – and as a New Yorker, I wear a lot of black.

Q: Do you have a favorite book? How about a film?
Favorite films: Casablanca and The African Queen, and Star Wars (the original one). Favorite book genres: International espionage novels and crime novels with women heroes.

Marlene Barron Montessori Children Asia Teachers

Q: When you close your eyes late at night, and imagine waking up and starting a new adventure: What is that adventure?
The adventure is traveling in a remote part of Asia on a motor bike. It use to be traveling in the Middle East, but that is no longer on my bucket list. You need to understand that I don’t know how to ride a motor bike. But this would be my favorite adventure.

Q: What first appealed to you about Montessori?
What first appealed to me was the encouragement of initiative and independence – coupled with ‘grace and courtesy’ and a solid intellectual base.

Marlene Barron Montessori Children Asia Teachers Washing Leaves

Q: What advice do you have for new Montessori adults?
Observe children, keep regular notes and reread them regularly, read everything you can get your hands on, and experiment. New teachers should remember that it takes years to become a Montessori teacher – so relax and enjoy the journey

Q: Did you have a “Montessori Moment?”
Every day is filled with Montessori Moments. My list of “Montessori Moments” includes: the excitement in a child’s eyes when they discover something, watching the compassion when one child supports another child, observing children’s determination and stick-to-it-ness (what is today called grit), sharing in the smiles on parents’ faces.

Q: What’s your favorite Montessori quote?
This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life and leave it free to develop. The Discovery of the Child

Marlene Barron Montessori Children Asia Teachers

Q: What advice do you have for new parents trying to incorporate Montessori at home?
Don’t push. Don’t rush. Your job is to open the world to the child, not to push the world into the child.

Q: What do you think is the best introduction to Montessori?
Nancy Rambusch’s book, Learning How to Learn: An American Approach to Montessori

Q: What continues to inspire you about Montessori?
Children, teachers and parents.

Marlene Barron Montessori Children Asia Teachers

Q: In what ways do you envision the future of education?
The pendulum is about to swing back to a more natural, respectful approach.

Q: Where do you see Montessori in the next 100 years?
In 100 years, there still will be Montessori education – and we will be able to recognize it!!

“This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life and leave it free to develop.”

Written by:

Baan Dek

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