Deerfield Montessori: 4 decades, 4 schools, 1 global vision - Part 1 - Chicago Montessori Learning

I recently contacted Carolyn Kambich to learn more about an outreach program that one of her four schools, Riverwoods Montessori, was participating in to collect books to be sent to Montessori children in Uganda. For anyone familiar with Montessori, they know that meaningful community service projects which involve the children and provide a benefit to someone other than themselves are common and a part of every school year. However, after learning more about Ms. Kambich's 44 year journey to building a strong Montessori community in Chicago's North Shore and a Montessori Outreach program in Uganda, I knew there was much more to this story than a community book drive.

The beginning of a Montessori vision in Chicago's North Shore

Montessori education first became popular in the United States around 1910, shortly after Maria Montessori opened the first Montessori school in Rome, Italy. Unfortunately, due to a variety of political and social factors, the popularity of Montessori waned until a second wave of interest sparked in the 1960's and built the foundation for what today is a popular and very successful educational philosophy.

In 1966, Carolyn Kambich, then a young mother, heard a speaker at the Deerfield Preschool Mother's Club talk about the Montessori Method of education. Inspired, she organized a Montessori study group using Learning How to Learn, a book by the American Montessori Society founder, Nancy McCormick Rambusch. Soon after, Ms. Kambich received a phone call from another mother, Terry Fine, who was looking for a Montessori school for her own daughters. Ms. Kambich recalls that pivotal moment.

When Terry, who had been referred by the Midwest Montessori Teacher Training Center in Chicago, called to inquire whether we were starting a Montessori school, I replied that we were simply studying how we could help our pre-school children at home. My husband Tony and I, graduates of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, were both teachers. I soon realized, however, that the one thing that we did not have at home was all the other children, "the mini society of the Montessori environment". After several conversations with Terry, we decided to put an ad in the newspaper under "Miscellaneous for Sale", as we could not yet advertise as a school, to see if there was any interest in Montessori education in our Deerfield area.

Montessori as peace education

Maria Montessori's original vision for educating children included providing an awareness and respect of other people and their cultures as well as a love and appreciation for nature, the environment and all living creatures which would promote peace and harmony worldwide. Ms. Kambich goes on to describe the overwhelming response they received as Montessori education became a visible representation of peace education.

Two hundred calls later, we were surprised to see the great interest in this new philosophy of education for peace. Peace was in the forefront of the sixties. We kept detailed phone logs of all who called and sent out monthly progress reports printed in purple on the old ditto machine.

Carolyn and Tony Kambich, along with parents Terry and Shelly Fine and Mike and Thelma Kaplan worked tirelessly to open a Montessori school for the community. Ms. Kambich recalls how they first began.

We had been joined by two other families, became incorporated as a school, rented the meeting hall in the educational wing of the Trinity United Church in Deerfield, hired a Montessori directress, Miss June, and began the journey as a non-sectarian American Montessori school. Terry and Shelly Fine designed beautiful custom made furniture in light pink, light blue, light yellow and orange. The chairs were chrome with naugahyde padding to match the shelving units (and created) a very cheerful and elegant environment for the children. Mike and Thelma Kaplan organized the legal work. We sent out applications and announced that the first 50 people to send in their application and the full year's tuition could register for the school. We promptly got 50 applications, sight unseen. We held an open house just before Labor Day so everyone could meet each other, and the school began with a morning class of 25 children 3-6 years of age and an afternoon class of 25 children. All children attended 5 half days per week. With the average family size in the 1960's being three to six children, it seemed we could not open half day classes fast enough.

As community interest in Montessori grew, so did Deerfield Montessori. Tomorrow, read part 2 in this 3 part series.

Click on the Subscribe button at the top of this article to receive Parts 2 and 3 and other Montessori news via email.

Click on the slideshow below to view more pictures of Deerfield Montessori school sites.