Peace & Diversity Through Montessori
When our friends at RBI Services/Community First invited us to partake in a tree decorating contest at Main Street Station called “Christmas Under the Clocktower”sponsored by Clocktower Realty and Eventful RVA, alongside nine other amazing local nonprofits, we naturally jumped at the chance!
With our tree we want to represent our amazing families, our dedication to our mission, and our hope for peace through our children to become all they are meant to be with the help of our amazing Montessorians.
Peace education is a major component of the Montessori classroom. Adults model peaceful and respectful behavior, and because Montessori classrooms are composed of mixed age groups, older students serve as role models for younger children.
Going hand-in-hand with peace education is the Montessori Grace & Courtesy curriculum. Students practice simple lessons such as how to greet others, say please and thank you, and tuck in chairs. At the core of these lessons is respect for others, self, and the environment. Montessori students engage in community service at every level – within the classroom for youngest students and outside the classroom and the school for older students.
Because of our mixed-age group classrooms (16 months thru 3 years in Toddler, and 3 to 6 years in Primary), one source of diversity is through age, ability-levels, and experience. Older more experienced students have the opportunity to assist and mentor younger students. Younger students learn from their older, more experienced classmates. Everyone is more comfortable with being who they are, since it is clear everyone is different.
Richmond is an amazingly diverse place with so many different cultures and backgrounds to learn from. This is seen in our classrooms, and we take great pride in how our organization has been able to find various approaches to ensure that our program is not only safe and affirming for all families, but approachable and affordable. We have found great success with our Sliding Scale Tuition Program and have been able to offer the Montessori pedagogy as an equitable educational opportunity for our community.
Handmade White Poppies represent our hope for peace.
Each hand is of a student in our program, who created their handprint through mixing paint to match their beautiful skin tones.
The Golden Bean Strands are part of a quintessential Montessori material, the bead cabinet.
The Sandpaper Letters under the tree, also another well known material, spell out “Hope.”
The Sandpaper Globe is a reminder that we are all on this Earth, connected to one another.
VOTE!
December 5th-13th
Voting begins. This first week the voting will only be done in person at Main Street Station so go down and see all of the trees (but vote for our tree 😉)
December 14th-20th
Voting can be done either in person or online. Be on the look out on our social media for how you can vote!
December 21st
The top two finishers will be announced on Community First’s Facebook Page.