What is AMI

AMI (The Association Montessori Internationale) brings together affiliated training centers around the world. All affiliated centers offer qualification courses leading to the AMI diploma - a document recognized and recognized all over the world. confirming quality and authenticity. The courses offered by AMI prepare adults to work with children at the following development stages:

• Assistants to Infancy (Early Childhood Assistant) (0-3)
• Primary Preschool() (3-6)
• First Plane (I developmental stage) (0-6)
• Elementary (School – II developmental stage) (6-12)

Work is currently underway to document knowledge regarding Montessori education for the 12-18 age group and to introduce and share knowledge and train teachers for this stage of human development All training centers provide highly qualified AMI teachers. AMI teachers have substantive support from a teaching team of experienced advisors who ensure that the principles of Maria Montessori's pedagogy are upheld. Students are examined by independent examiners selected by AMI, who also ensure that the highest standards and integrity of AMI course programs are maintained. Some AMI training centers also serve their local communities by conducting courses off-site at the AMI training center.

Scientific Pedagogy

The pedagogical integrity of AMI is a guarantee of the highest level of perfection in the practical application of Montessori pedagogy. It is an exact model of how Maria Montessori imagined her method. AMI Pedagogical Standards ensure that AMI authorized schools offer a program that enables children to develop their physical, intellectual, social and emotional potential. At the same time, AMI ensures that the method is consistent and consistent with the content of AMI training courses around the world. The Scientific Pedagogy Group (SPG) continually researches, analyzes and reviews current research on child development and education and ensures that AMI courses meet the highest possible implementation standards. SPG also collects information about Montessori children and practices from all corners of the world to ensure consistency, consistency and universality of initiatives.

About AMI from the preface to "On the Formation of Man"

About the formation of man comes to Polish readers on the 90th anniversary of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI, International Montessori Association), founded by Maria Montessori and her son Mario. The association's mission is to support the natural development of humans from birth to maturity and to enable children to transform society that will lead to a harmonious and peaceful world. To better understand the significance of this event, we must go back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1929, Maria Montessori's scientific discoveries spread around the world; Together with her son, she organized and conducted teacher training courses in the method, visited schools, met with method activists gathered in national associations, without even for a moment losing sight of children - the youngest citizens of this world. More than twenty years passed between the opening of Casa dei Bambini in San Lorenzo and the creation of AMI; these were years of extraordinary upheaval in the sphere of education. In America, John Dewey's progressive trend, the project method and the Dalton plan, developed. On the old continent, the Geneva center led the way, led by Decroly, Claparède and Freinet. It is also impossible to ignore Jean Piaget and his epistemological approach to child development, based on experimental psychology. In On the Formation of Man, Maria Montessori enters into a polemic with the above-mentioned Decroly and Claparède. They intensively promoted the global reading method; According to them, full words are supposed to be easier to read because they symbolize something and have some meaning. Maria Montessori did not agree with their proposal, she perceived it as a civilizational regression, giving up the intellectual achievements of man, such as the alphabet, in favor of pictures. She criticized Claparède for his idea of removing core studies from school curricula and replacing them with games and outdoor activities. But she didn't stop there, on the contrary: she questioned his position even further on limiting children's intellectual overwork. Her experiences showed the child's undying enthusiasm for work, work adapted to his or her psychological characteristics. Montessori materials were combined with Fröbel's gifts and unjustified conclusions were drawn about the child's mental capabilities, which outraged her. By scientifically describing the child's natural development, she created a holistic method that allows supporting the child's efforts in the process of self-construction. Unlike theoreticians or experimenters, she did not propose selective solutions, but a comprehensive approach to education as a support for life and a tool to achieve peace in the world. Maria Montessori lamented the unauthorized use of the method, its distortion with a selective interpretation and its combination with others, e.g. Fröble, Decroly. He writes with regret: "The official world of education has also distanced itself from our work." The common denominator for the concepts created by the thinkers and practitioners mentioned here is the child's activity, which has become a kind of focal point of the movement called New Education Fellowship, an organization bringing together the most outstanding personalities in the world of new education - education for peace. In 1925, on the initiative of the above-mentioned Edouard Claparède, Pierre Bovet and Adolf Ferrière, the International Bureau of Education (IBE) was established in Geneva, as a center for international studies and research on education. It seems natural that a personality of Maria Montessori's stature, with a crystallized scientific vision supported by tangible evidence, would be included on equal terms in this organization. Unfortunately, the IBE's statutory assumptions prevented private entities from joining the organization, which excluded Maria Montessori. Therefore, she asked the highest authorities of the Italian state to represent Italy in the IBE, but even here she did not find adequate support. Torn by extreme nationalist influences, Italy was not even interested in peaceful movements; what's more, fascistic youth groups, citizen militias and other organizations that indoctrinated the youngest citizens under the guise of education were growing in strength. It became clear that if Maria Montessori's ideas were to be properly represented, an organization must be created that would be able to take care of this. On August 20, 1929, at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, on the Øresund Strait, which is the border between Sweden and Denmark, in the castle known from Shakespeare's Hamlet, almost two thousand delegates from forty-three countries met at the New Education Fellowship World Congress. This event was accompanied by numerous smaller events, including the first International Montessori Congress. It was then that, at the express request of Maria and Mario Montessori, AMI - Association Montessori Internationale was established with the following goals: to protect the integrity of Dr. Montessori's method and its dissemination and activities and for the rights of the child - the forgotten citizen. The name Association Montessori Internationale itself was created in French, as indicated by the word order and the final "e" in the word internationale. Maria Montessori wanted the acronym formed from the first letters of the association's name to be read with the French - ami, creating the charming word "friend". AMI was created for several important reasons - one of which was the apparent need to protect the originality and integrity of Dr. Montessori's discoveries. The author expressed her justified fear that her idea would perish, invalidated by compromises made for the popularity of the method or by simplifications that would make it easier to accept. It was during the first Congress that the already noticeable movements towards adapting the method to social expectations became the main topic of considerations and discussions. The Montessori Congress in question was held under the title "Illustrazione dei principi e della pratica del Metodo" (Presentation of the principles and practice of the method) and set the symbolic direction of subsequent AMI congress meetings - refreshing the acquired theoretical knowledge and correcting errors resulting from everyday practice. In the article Che cosa è l’A.M.I. Mario Montessori reports that every August, around Dr. Montessori's birthday, practitioners, supporters and colleagues gathered around her wherever she happened to be. For a month, they refreshed their knowledge of the method, enriching it with new observations. After returning to their country, each delegate was responsible for further dissemination of the knowledge entrusted to him and compliance with the implementation of the method according to the updated rules. In 1930, an honorary committee was established at AMI, composed of famous personalities, scientists, and politicians who could contribute to spreading Maria Montessori's discoveries in a religiously and racially neutral way, while supporting AMI's efforts to become a member of the IBE. The most important statutory goal of AMI has always been the protection and preservation of the integrity of the method. Twenty-two years after the opening of the first Casa dei Bambini, numerous courses, lectures and publications, it was obvious that Montessori education was an important issue. However, the growing number of national and even local associations generated far-reaching inaccuracies in the application of the method, which made the need for action to improve its consistency even more evident. Nothing and no one in the world could prevent any school from being named "Montessori", no matter how far the practice of such a school might deviate from the pedagogical assumptions of the author's ideas. There is a noticeable tendency to simplify or, conversely, complicate the method, or to use some of its elements randomly. Depending on the country, one specific element was usually particularly emphasized, while the overall vision of the pedagogical concept was deformed or even lost. Such a distorted reception of the method had implications in everyday practical use in schools. The most common modifications include imposing a lesson plan, dividing mixed-age groups into younger and older subgroups, incomplete equipment in classrooms or introducing other educational aids in addition to Montessori materials, allowing children to have unlimited freedom disguised as "freedom" or, on the contrary, disciplining children. a system of external reinforcements, enforcing obedience imposed by a strict approach. The most important fact, which may escape the attention of outsiders, is also the greatest obstacle to the correct application of the method. The Montessori method must be implemented intact or not at all. The materials themselves without Montessori principles have no significant significance or educational value. Meanwhile, AMI's activity in Europe was brutally interrupted by World War II. Maria and Mario Montessori, then staying in India at the invitation of Dr. J. Ewart Smart, became personae non gratae as Italian citizens in the territory belonging to the British crown. Despite the internment, they managed to organize twelve courses for teachers. By the time they return to Europe, Montessori activity will be firmly established throughout the Indian peninsula, from Pakistan to Ceylon. After World War II, Maria and Mario stayed permanently in Amsterdam and it was there that they opened the AMI headquarters at Koninginneweg 161, where it is still located today. After Maria Montessori's death, her son, grandchildren and colleagues continued her work, gradually expanding her activities to other countries around the world. Dr. Montessori's granddaughter, Renilde, explained in 2005 at the general meeting of AMI delegates that "the most important tasks of AMI are, above all, maintaining the vitality of the method and the continuous development, now and in the future, (...) of universal awareness of the life requirements of children, actively participating in the development of highly conscious, responsible men and women.” That's what thanks Thanks to the intense efforts of Dr. Montessori's great-grandchildren and many generations of teachers and supporters of the method associated with AMI, we now have the opportunity to pass on the brilliant legacy of Maria Montessori to parents, teachers and students in Poland. Since 2015, also thanks to my many years of efforts, the AMI office in Poland has been working to further promote the authentic Montessori method in the country by presenting the original works of Maria Montessori in Polish translations, scientific conferences, courses for teachers and parents, and meetings of certified graduates. Today, AMI is the only Montessori organization with a global reach, with an active voice in the UN and UNESCO. Therefore, we are celebrating not so much the ninety years of AMI's existence and the implementation of its lofty and down-to-earth goals, but above all, the service to children, which we can undertake thanks to the determination and perseverance of these two people with whom it all started - Maria and Mario Montessori.