Notes

Free Montessori School Sharon Ma
Toronto Montessori Schools Served As the Reason behind Montessori in North America
File this under "do you realize:" Toronto Montessori Schools served as the de facto reason behind Montessori's spread throughout THE UNITED STATES. There are now a lot more than 4000 Montessori schools spread across the continent but they all owe something to the institution begun in a Toronto basement by a woman named Helma Trass.

Trass was a student of Maria Montessori in holland where Ms. Montessori began her institute for training educators in her philosophy and methods. Like many others, Trass emigrated from the Netherlands to Canada in response to Canada's key role in the liberation of Holland during World War II. Trass was actually surprised to get that the Montessori philosophy hadn't taken any hold in North America but she took the opportunity to found the Toronto Montessori Schools. The name was pluralized because there have been eventually two campuses, one in the suburbs and one near downtown Toronto.

Trass began the institution in 1961, working out of a rented basement in the Toronto suburb of Don Mills. montessori school sharon ma was 12 students. In 1964, she opened a campus in Richmond Hill (a Toronto suburb). Today the school she began has an enrollment of over 700 students including pre-school to grade 12. But in addition there are over a large number of schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Montessori is found in every province and state on the continent.

While Montessori has spread to every major city throughout THE UNITED STATES, it's also important to remember that not absolutely all Montessori schools are the same. Because the term is not copyrighted, anyone can appropriate the word and call their new school "Montessori," regardless of what lengths its curricula and methods might wander from Maria Montessori's original principles and teaching. That being said, there are several schools that pride themselves on close adherence to her ideals.

Parents searching for an "orthodox" Montessori school need to check if the institution they're considering is accredited by some of a number of accrediting bodies that arbitrate Montessori education. Accrediting bodies include the UNITED STATES Montessori Teachers' Association (NAMTA), The Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), The American Montessori Society (AMS) and The Canadian Council of Montessori Administrators (CCMA), among others.


Montessori's influence reaches far over the continent today, seen not merely within schools bearing the Montessori name however in nearly every classroom where teachers experienced some education in Ms. Montessori's philosophy and methods. The spread of Montessori in North America would not be the same if it were not for Helma Trass, the initiative she took and her ability to see far beyond the walls of her rented basement "schoolhouse" and her small high grade at Toronto Montessori Schools.

Here's my website: https://kingswoodmontessori.org/