Dear soon-to-be Montessori-trained teacher,

If you are here it is because you want to become an adolescent guide and haven’t decided yet which course to take on. Let me tell you why we decided to bring AMS training to Europe and why the 12 to 18 in particular.

Firstly as a School, we want to train all our team especially those who will be starting our adolescent project in 2025. We are a verified school by AMS and we seek to have the entire school accredited by AMS therefore our staff needs to hold a degree recognised by MACTE. 

MACTE recognised these training affiliates:

• American Montessori Society (AMS)

• Association Montessori International (AMI)

• Association Montessori International – USA (AMI-USA)

• Christian Montessori Fellowship (CMF)

• Independents Not In A Consortium (IND)

• International Association for Progressive Montessori (IAPM)

• International Montessori Council (IMC)

• Montessori Australia (MA)

• Montessori Educational Programs International (MEPI)

• Montessori Institute of America (MIA)

• Pan American Montessori Society (PAMS)

In which school will I work? 

As you can see there are many options for training to become a Montessori trained teacher.  Some training will be sufficient for the school you want to work for, but choose carefully, some schools will only accept MACTE-affiliated trained guides.

Association Montessori Internationale (abbreviated as AMI), and the American Montessori Society (abbreviated as AMS) are the two largest organisations that train teachers. 

AMS was Founded In 1960 by Nancy McCormick Rambusch and there are Approximately 100 training centers in the world.

AMI was founded by Maria Montessori in 1929 and there are approximately 65 training centers in the world.

I, myself went through the whole 12 to 18 AMI training. My view wasn’t to become a teacher, it was rather to better understand the Montessori views of the secondary program. Although the theory part is very complete, I was left with very little to chew on the practical side, especially tools for within the classroom. While AMI claims to be the closest to the vision of Maria Montessori, AMS has opened the door to adding more materials to the Montessori approach. In my training, everything was articulated around the farm and the work it provides to the adolescents. Which is great… when you have a farm. That is not our case, we are a city-based school and we want to use the city resources. Moreover, we felt like Montessori in secondary schools could happen without a farm, it is true that adolescents need to work and have physical tasks but there are plenty of successful Adolescent Programs in the world that are city-based. There is even a very good PhD thesis on that matter:

Redesigning & rethinking Montessori adolescent education: A hybrid model for the 21st Century   

How much time do you have? 

Becoming a Montessori teacher is a LOT of work. Think carefully about time and finances before committing. AMI trainings are mostly presential. Meaning that for 2 years, I had to be away from my family and work for a total of 12 weeks. It’s a very long time and various plane journey: four round trips from Barcelona to Sweden. It’s not the best for the planet and it’s a lot of money, you also have to have a budget for your accommodation and meals.

On the other hand, AMS training is mostly online, at the student's pace. You will only have to come to our training centre for two weeks in the summer. You are free to explore the delights of the wonderful city of Barcelona in the evenings and our center is a short walk from the nearest train station taking you to either the town or the countryside within 15 minutes. The syllabi are published and available to you before you decide to join the course. As the course is accredited by Xavier University you can ask for credits upon graduation.

Regardless of whether you decide to join our training program or another, keep in mind that Montessori Training is about changing the adult.

Wishing you the best on your Montessori Journey,

Tim,

Executive Director.