The American Montessori Society Peace Committee has awarded the Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Grant to Greenspring Montessori School and a partnering parent group to fund a project that promotes peace education.
This grant was created by the American Montessori Society Peace Committee to honor the memory of Ursula Thrush. Dr. Thrush’s extraordinary dedication to fulfilling Maria Montessori’s vision for peace through children inspired many Montessori educators to include peace education in their classrooms and communities. Among her numerous achievements, Ursula founded the Maria Montessori School of the Golden Gate in San Francisco and helped establish The Science of Peace Task Force and the Montessori Peace Academy.
Greenspring Montessori’s grant submission was prepared in partnership with a group of Greenspring Montessori parent volunteers who have been gathering to discuss their own challenges and aspirations for their children as it concerns diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging. In addition to supporting one another, the parent group felt called to support the school in providing whatever education, resources, materials, and open dialogue was needed to support Greenspring in becoming the embodiment of peaceful society Maria Montessori and Ursula Thrush envisioned.
“The Peace Seed Grant Committee is impressed with the originality of your project and the deep thought that has gone into it. We are pleased to award this grant for a project that is consciously working toward understanding and further Social Justice among the many teachers, parents and students at your school. We are also impressed with the 19 different languages that are already a part of the school. The timing of this project is excellent!” -Award letter from Lesley Nan Haberman, Sonnie McFarland, and Judi Bauerlein
The Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Grant will support the school to:
1. Provide an introductory professional development workshop for Greenspring Montessori School staff to clarify what diversity, equity and inclusion is, how it is relevant to their work, and to begin to explore why diversity, equity and inclusion learning is critical to deepen their understanding of and ability to provide proper support for the varying needs of Greenspring Montessori School’s diverse student base.
2. Offer a workshop to Greenspring Montessori staff and parents on identifying and combating unconscious and implicit bias.
3. Offer a workshop to Greenspring Montessori staff and parents on age-appropriate best practices for talking with your children about race.
The grant activities will begin in fall of 2019 and will be complete by January 2020. These activities are a small subset of a larger body of work in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging that the school is committed to carrying out in the years to come.
Toni-Ann Williams, Olympic Gymnast
Attended from 1999-2010
“Something I learned from Montessori is leadership, even from a very young age. Having that independence and being able to take my own initiative – two values Montessori taught me – I became the first Jamaican Olympian for gymnastics.
Toni-Ann Williams is working to use her passion for social welfare and legal studies to not only open access to the opportunities gymnastics can provide for young Jamaican girls, but to ensure that the environment is a safe one throughout their journey.
The spark that started Toni-Ann’s journey to become the first gymnast to represent Jamaica at the Olympic Games began at Greenspring Montessori. “Before Montessori, I had done ice skating. Once I got to Montessori, when I was playing on the playground Ms. Vivian saw me [doing cartwheels] and jumping off the playset and told my mom I should look into gymnastics. And that’s how I kind of got started. She helped my mom figure out my focus.” Toni-Ann obtained dual citizenship when she was fifteen years old and went on to represent Jamaica in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Toni-Ann’s story was filled with destiny from before she was born. “My mom was my age, in her twenties, when she came to America. My parents hadn’t met – well, actually they hadn’t known they had met in Jamaica – until they came to America. They met each other through a mutual friend in the close-knit Jamaican community here in Baltimore. They got together and opened up a grocery store in Baltimore City and their relationship grew from there.
“In Jamaica, my mother had lived toward the beach in Jamaica – an ‘uptown girl’. My father lived in the poorer neighborhoods and he often had to steal to survive. When he came to America my father was retelling the story and my mom asked him, did you steal from this specific house? It turned out that my father had been stealing my mother’s family’s chickens for years and they had no idea who it was until they came to America and realized it was him! I thought it was a really cute story: he stole your chickens, then he stole your heart.”
Recent immigrants working hard to provide the best opportunities for their children, Toni-Ann’s parents sent her and her younger sister Maya (also a Jamaican gymnast and now an Arizona State University student) to Greenspring Montessori. Toni-Ann says, “They wanted a more open teaching mechanism than my older sister experienced at public school.”
Toni-Ann attended Greenspring Montessori for eleven years. After completing her Montessori experience and graduating Greenspring with the class of 2010, she attended high school at Roland Park Country School.
Montessori Moments
The Montessori model helped Toni-Ann open up and explore her passions. “I remember being really shy when I first came. Being able to interact with people of different ages, I was able to become more comfortable, involved with more sports, not afraid to play with the boys at recess, playing soccer, trying more things – it was a very open environment. I felt welcomed within each age group and within each gender – I became really comfortable and I was able to explore more of myself. [The school offered] a freedom to explore.”
Montessori also helped her become a confident learner. “Not only did I figure out my gymnastics career, also academically I got to explore a lot of different things I might not have done if I’d gone to a traditional school. Different books I got to read and being able to advance ahead of other people my age, being able to have the opportunity go ahead or stay back or whatever I needed to do, being able to explore my own academic journey on my own but also to have people guide me, as well.”
Bringing Montessori into the World
Toni-Ann took the challenge of balancing college school work, college gymnastics, and international gymnastics by the horns. “Something I learned from Montessori is leadership, even from a very young age. Having that independence and being able to take my own initiative – two values Montessori taught me – I became the first Jamaican Olympian for gymnastics.
“[Going to the Olympics] is everyone’s dream as a kid. I knew that I wanted to do college gymnastics, and I knew I wanted to compete for my family’s country, but I never ever dreamed that it would get me all the way to the Olympics. That was definitely one of my biggest accomplishments.”
Despite all her local, college, national and international gymnastic success, the accomplishment she is most proud of took place this year. “I tore my Achilles over a year ago and I was out for the entire season. This past January was my coming back season after the injury and it was very difficult for me. At the end of the season I [earned the title of] ‘All American’ – that’s top eight in the nation – that was a big moment for me. I have earned a lot of honors and recognition, but this one meant the most to me because I had struggled and stumbled and [through hard work] became top eight in the nation.”
Impacting the Future
Toni-Ann is combining her passions and talents to impact a serious need in the gymnastics community.
When the stories of sexual abuse throughout the gymnastics world came to light, Toni-Ann says it was a watershed moment to solidifying her vision for her future. “I’ve mapped out different versions of my life. I still want to be really involved in gymnastics. But there has been a lot of scandal and sexual abuse going on in the gymnastics world. I want to be a part of helping fix that, not only in the US but in Jamaica where that has been troubling for as long as I’ve known.
“I personally know a lot of the gymnasts who have spoken up – I’m friends with them and we’ve competed with each other for years. Even some of the competitions where they recalled the abuse happening, I was probably in the hotel room a couple doors down and I never knew any of that was happening to them. It’s heartbreaking to hear.
“I always had my focus on going back to Jamaica – a third-world country where my parents grew up – to help the gymnasts there. Gymnastics is not a sport that Jamaica recognizes, so [I am dedicated to] helping the gymnasts there realize their dreams. I was able to go to college because of gymnastics and a lot of Jamaican girls my age don’t have that opportunity. I wanted to go back and help them that way.”
Toni-Ann attends the University of California, Berkeley and is double-majoring in social welfare and legal studies.
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On any given day, you may smell an assortment of delicious aromas when you are walking the halls at Greenspring Montessori School. This is because students and faculty are often engaged in various cooking and baking activities as part of the Montessori curriculum. To support these efforts, we have a full kitchen in Emerson Village and we have kitchenettes complete with refrigerators, dishwashers, sinks, and prep space in each of the classrooms. Building practical life skills in areas of daily living is a cornerstone of the Montessori Method, and it is also proven to help students develop soft skills. These skills help children learn essential life tasks, such as working well with others, having empathy, and being trustworthy and respectful. To learn more about the importance of soft skills, please take a look at this new article.
Starting with our youngest students, guides and assistants work with toddlers to create snacks for their classroom. Whether they are carefully learning how to cut pieces of carrots using a crinkle cutter or making freshly squeezed orange juice, the children are actively involved in every step of the process. During the warmer months, many classrooms will also plant tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and more in their outdoor environments, so they children will become familiar with where their food comes from.
At the Children’s House level, students will help to plan larger meals and snacks, and the guides introduce new flavors with the seasons. Instead of always baking comfort foods such as oatmeal cookies or muffins, our guides work to come up with recipes that include fresh and natural ingredients. During the fall, one of our Children’s House classrooms baked acorn squash. In addition to learning about how to use the oven with a classroom assistant, the children also talked about the color of the vegetable, the texture, and the new and interesting flavor!
Additionally, cooking is often a big part of Spanish language enrichment at all levels. Spanish Dual Language Children’s House students work with a parent volunteer each week to prepare mango salsa, pan de elote (a Mexican dish similar to cornbread pudding), and arroz rojo y friojoles de la olla (a Mexican style rice and beans). This is a great way to introduce new vocabulary and new tastes to our children while celebrating other cultures!
In Lower and Upper Elementary, students will often incorporate what they are learning in the classroom with a new recipe. Students in Ms. Sarah’s Spanish Dual Language classroom researched different cultures and shared meals with their entire classroom as part of their presentations. One group made yellow dal, a traditional Indian dish with lentils, while another group created Dulcis Coccora, an ancient Egyptian dessert (Cleopatra’s favorite!) made with honey.
At the Adolescent level, our students have come up with creative ways to grow their student-run business with their work in the kitchen! Several years ago, they started Pizza Fridays, selling pizza by the slice (along with hummus and veggies) every Friday to the students and the faculty. In addition to honing their cooking and prep skills, they also learn to work together, stay organized, and manage money. In addition, the students have built a chicken coop, compost bin, and they are starting a class garden. It is their hope to eventually sell eggs and vegetables to the school community, and even use some of these ingredients in their own cooking.
The joys of cooking with children can extend into your home too. Take a look at our blog on setting up your Montessori kitchen at home and consider trying some of the following this week:
- Take your child to the farmer’s market and pick out one new type of fruit or vegetable to try.
- Flip through a recipe book with your child and let them pick a meal for you to make together.
- Start giving your child a task during meal prep – this could be anything from rinsing the vegetables, to cutting, and eventually even cooking the ingredients.
- Give your child the opportunity to begin cooking, baking, or prepping one meal a day on their own (the younger ones may need some support) – this could be making scrambled eggs for breakfast, packing their own lunch, or preparing a snack when they get home from school.
- Make sure to include clean up in your routine together! – our children love setting the table with real plates and glassware, washing their dishes, and sweeping up crumbs
- Plant a garden – visit the store with your child and pick out seed packets or seedlings together! Children are more likely to try new things when they are involved in growing it themselves.
