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Friendship on the Spectrum: A Conversation on Autism

Friendship on the Spectrum: A Conversation on Autism

by | Dec 16, 2021 | Health and Development

Join us Sundays at 4:30pm for new episodes of The Early Link Podcast. Listen live at 99.1 FM in the heart of Portland – or online anywhere at PRP.fm.

This week, host Rafael Otto speaks with Jenna Deml, our producer at Portland Radio Project, and two of her lifelong friends, Kai Russell and Justin Semke. All three of them happen to be on the autism spectrum, and today we have a chance to hear their stories – about what it was like growing up on the spectrum, how they have remained friends for so many years, and their experience in the education system right here in Portland.

Guests:

Jenna Deml (she/her) is a podcast producer and radio DJ currently studying for her Master’s in Multimedia Journalism at the University of Oregon Portland campus. Her undergraduate degree was in both Psychology and Theatre Arts from the University of Puget Sound. So it is safe to say Jenna has always had a love for the arts and storytelling. In her free time, she likes to play Dungeons & Dragons, flex her trivia knowledge on a website called Sporcle, create Spotify playlists, watch the entire Studio Ghibli catalog on repeat, pet every cat or dog she sees, or read classic sci-fi/dystopian literature.

Kai Martina Russell (they/them) is native to Portland, Oregon. They hold a degree in English Fiction Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and are employed in the retail industry. Their dream is to write and illustrate (and possibly compose for) an original fantasy/science-fiction extended universe, drawing inspiration from the many roleplaying games they and their friends have acted out over the years. Kai draws meaning in their life from stories, nature, and their beloved friends and family.

Justin Semke (he/him) graduated from the Art Institute of Portland, and has been looking to become an 3D Environmental artist. He is also quite the fan of Kamen Rider, and loves creating stories with friends. He is a staunch optimist and tries to make the people in his life smile whenever possible.

 

Summary:

The three friends begin by recounting how they each met one another at different points throughout elementary school. They then disclose what lead to their diagnoses; what they remember about it, what changed for them, and any struggles they had at the time. The conversation shifts to their respective experiences in the education system here in Portland, and what the institution needs to improve on in order to better serve neurodivergent children. Since Kai identifies as genderfluid, they note and comment on the correlation between neurodivergence and gender-nonconformity, and how this ties in to their own personal journey. Closing out the conversation, the three each state what they would say to their younger selves, and comment on who and what makes them the most empowered to be their truest creative selves.

Additional Resources:

Identity First Language

Asperger, Nazism, and Reclaiming the Autism Spectrum (made by Jenna Deml)

Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network

Transcript

[00:00:00] Rafael Otto: Welcome to the Early Link Podcast. I’m Rafael Otto. Thank you for listening. You can always catch us on 99.1 FM in the Portland Metro on Sundays at 4:30pm or tune in at your convenience, wherever you find your podcasts. That includes iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music. Today, I am speaking with Jenna Deml, our fantastic producer at Portland Radio Project, and two of her lifelong friends, Kai Russell, and Justin Semke. All three of them happened to be on the autism spectrum. And today we have a chance to hear their stories about what it was like growing up on the spectrum, how they’ve remained friends for so many years, and their experience in the education system right here in Portland.

Jenna, Kai, and Justin, welcome to the podcast. Great to have you here today.

[00:00:48] Jenna Deml: Yeah. Thanks for having us.

[00:00:50] Kai Russell: Thank you for having us.

[00:00:52] Justin Semke: Thank you so much.

[00:00:53] Rafael Otto: Very much looking forward to the conversation. Jenna, you are all in your twenties now and you’ve known each other since elementary school. Tell me the story about how the three of you got to know each other.

[00:01:06] Jenna Deml: So, I was in second grade. I had just transferred to Edwards Elementary School. It was my first experience in public school. I was getting to know everybody, but I think I’d also just been diagnosed at that point. And I didn’t really, how do I put this? I hadn’t really seen other people like me who had also been diagnosed as on the spectrum. But in class, I remember this particular person who was labeled as a problem child, which was Kai. And in retrospect, I feel like, really bad for how myself and the other kids in the class treated them at that point. Our teacher in particular did not like Kai’s disruptions. Kai, you remember like you would do these like laser battles with your fingers. Was that right?

[00:02:00] Kai Russell: Oh, no, no. Uh, it was… I mean, sure lasers were involved, but it was more of an early form of live action role play, I guess, just using my fingers as puppets or like action figures, kind of. Like I would walk my pointer and middle finger along a table and have that stand in for like a human, I would use the other pointer to give that same, uh, finger person like a sword or something. I would use my arm as all my fingers kind of, coming together, like jaws as… a dinosaur and then maybe put my other arm across it to form wings and make it a dragon.

[00:02:40] Jenna Deml: But what literally everybody else in the class heard was like, *imitates exploding noises* and then our teacher, teacher Nancy, would like, grab Kai by the collar and be like, “Kai, you’re going out in the hall,” or “Kai, you’re going to the office.” And all of the kids in unison would be like, “Kaaaaaai, be quiet.” So that was how initially, like my relationship with Kai was, but…

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First in the Nation Health Metric Aims to Address Social and Emotional Health

First in the Nation Health Metric Aims to Address Social and Emotional Health

by | Dec 16, 2021 | Health and Development, Health and Kindergarten Readiness, Successful Students

Oregon recently took a significant step toward ensuring young children are prepared for kindergarten by focusing on their social and emotional health.  Oregon’s Metrics and Scoring Committee approved a new incentive metric for the 16 Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) serving nearly 1.3 million people on the Oregon Health Plan, or 30 percent of the state’s population. 

Development of the metric started in 2018 through a partnership between Children’s Institute, the Oregon Pediatric Improvement Partnership at Oregon Health & Science University, and Oregon Health Authority. 

The metric is designed to shift attention to social-emotional health services for children from birth to age 5, a groundbreaking effort that will help Oregon’s Medicaid system focus on prevention and increased investment in kids. 

Elisabeth Wright Burak, senior fellow at the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, said that no other metric like this exists in the country. “The health care system is not set up to invest a lot in kids and there are almost no incentives to improve preventive services, particularly for young children. Getting a disease-oriented system to work on prevention, that’s innovation, it’s a big boulder to move.”

For CCOs, incentive measures show how well the organizations are “improving care, making quality care accessible, eliminating health disparities, and curbing the rising cost of health care.” The new social-emotional health metric will incentivize CCOs to establish a much improved foundation for health and school readiness that will directly impact communities, families, and children. Incentive funds CCOs receive for making progress on metrics incentives are invested back into the community. 

“Ample research suggests that the first five years of a person’s life are critically important to laying the foundation for long-term social, mental, and physical outcomes,” said Colleen Reuland, director at the Oregon Pediatric Improvement Partnership. 

Elena Rivera, senior health policy advisor at Children’s Institute, said that “early experiences shape the architecture of the brain, so providing services as early as possible will help kids get what they need, and help parents and families support their kids.”

Rivera continued, “We know that from working with parents and families as we developed this metric that this remains a top priority. Families are looking for better programs and stronger relationships with providers. They want culturally- and linguistically-responsive services, assessment, and referrals, and better access to health services, particularly in rural communities.”

Wright Burak said that a focus on social-emotional health means focusing on the social factors that impact health. “We’re not just looking at the needs of the child, we’re looking at the context they’re living in. The health care system hasn’t been great at this historically, and also can’t do it alone.  A dedicated focus on prevention and early intervention can show results for children and their families for years to come.”

Reuland said so few children are getting recommended social and emotional screenings and services they need that there is a tremendous amount of work ahead to get the health system moving in the right direction. “According to services paid for, only 6 percent of children on the Oregon Health Plan get any type of social-emotional health assessment or service related to their social or emotional health,” she said. 

Beginning January 1, 2022 CCOs will start to dig deep to understand and address the gaps in social-emotional health services for children from birth to age 5 in their communities. That will include analyzing current services and working with local providers and early educators to create community-specific action plans by the end of the first year. 

In public testimony, Dana Hargunani, the chief medical officer at the Oregon Health Authority, said the metric is aligned with priorities for the state related to children’s health, behavioral health, and health equity.

“Social emotional development and the connection to health services are key components of our state’s early learning strategic plan, Raise Up Oregon,” she said. “This metric helps to tie together cross sector priorities and efforts in a nicely coordinated approach.”

Additional public testimony provided in support of the metric was the strongest for any metric under consideration for the CCO incentive measure program, and the metric ranked the highest for transformative potential.

Since 2018, Children’s Institute has been working with the Oregon Pediatric Improvement Partnership and Oregon Health Authority to create a set of measures designed to engage the health sector in kindergarten readiness. The first two — dental visits and well-child visits — were adopted as incentive measures for CCOs in 2020. The social-emotional metric is the third in a package of four that is expected to evolve in the years to come.  “Community and family input has been a core part of our work,” Rivera said. “Changing the health system can feel overwhelming and complicated, but parents and families know what they need, and know what their kids need. Their voice and perspective will help make this work transformational.

Behind the scenes, state and national foundations have supported the development of the social-emotional health metric.  Kali Thorne Ladd, chief executive officer at Children’s Institute, said that philanthropy can often serve as a lever for creating lasting change, in this case an unprecedented approach that connects Oregon’s health and education systems. “Foundation support for this multi-year effort will not just improve the lives of young children, but improve health outcomes as our youngest learners get older and move into adulthood.”

State and National Funders Supported the Development of the Social and Emotional Health Metric 

  • The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
  • MJ Murdock Charitable Trust
  • Northwest Health Foundation
  • Oregon Community Foundation
  • W.K. Kellogg Foundation
  • The Ford Family Foundation
  • Silver Family Foundation
  • Maybelle Clark MacDonald Fund
  • Kaiser Permanente

Vision

Children from birth to age 5, and their families, have equitable access to services that support their social-emotional health and are the best match for their needs. 

Purpose

Drive CCOs to address complex system-level factors that impact the services kids and families receive and how they receive them, and for which there may be payment or policy barriers that need to be addressed; Address gaps in existing CCO incentive metric set.

Activities

Build capacity within CCOs for enhanced services, integration of services, cross-sector collaboration, and future measurement opportunities; Use child-level data to guide and inform efforts, assess the sensitivity and specificity of the child-level metric to those efforts.

“In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rivera said, “we’ve seen access to crucial health care services weaken. Families are struggling to get their needs met. Fewer children are getting timely immunizations, dental care, well-child visits, and other physical and mental health assessments. Doing this work now is a step in the right direction, a step toward improving health equity for Oregon’s publicly insured children and families.”

Wright Burak said there is palpable interest in how this metric will impact health services for kids. “Oregon has lots of work ahead of it, but everyone is looking at this and is eager to see progress. We hope it serves as a pilot and a blueprint for how to do this in other states.”

Read More

Moving Toward Prevention: Oregon Launches Kindergarten Readiness Metric

Oregon CCOs to focus on improving the social, emotional wellness of young children statewide (OHSU)

Oregon CCOs Prepare To Serve Children’s Social And Emotional Needs (The Lund Report)

Social-Emotional Health Measure Specifications

Addressing Children’s Social-Emotional Health: Update on Development of Attestation Metric

CCO Metrics 2020 Final Report

Health and Learning Initiative at Children’s Institute

Building Relationships and Community through Storytelling, with Dr. Johnny Lake

Building Relationships and Community through Storytelling, with Dr. Johnny Lake

by | Oct 11, 2021 | Community Engagement, Educators and Workforce, Podcast, Equity

Join us Sundays at 4:30pm for new episodes of The Early Link Podcast. Listen live at 99.1 FM in the heart of Portland – or online anywhere at PRP.fm.

This week, host Rafael Otto speaks with Dr. Johnny Lake, an international consultant and trainer on community-building, equity, diversity and leadership with a focus on what youth need, and what our education systems need to better serve students and young people. His scholarship has focused on diversity, race and culture, and personal and organizational growth. And he is a writer and a storyteller who uses story to build relationships.  

Guest:

In addition to the credentials above, Dr. Johnny Lake consults with government, professional and educational agencies and organizations. He is an administrator on special assignment with the Eugene 4J school district and an advocate for needs of at-risk youth and provides teacher training institutes and student learning and leadership opportunities. In addition, Dr. Lake is an internationally recognized writer and storyteller. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Willamette University, has a Masters in educational leadership and administration, and received his Ph.D. in educational leadership, policy, management and organization. Dr. Lake is also a former chairman of the State of Oregon Commission on Black Affairs.

Summary:

Dr. Lake opens by sharing stories about his childhood growing up in Tennessee, in particular how his grandmother helped him to realize his true potential. Then, he recalls some of the awkward conversations regarding race that crossed his path upon his move to Oregon more than 3o years ago. Next, he touches on some of tools he uses (especially storytelling) to truly connect and explore diversity, equity and inclusion with the school communities he works with. Among those being Yoncalla, a small rural, predominantly white town here in Oregon. He then talks about the integral role of the teacher in the measured success of the child, some of the essentials of that relationship, and ultimately how this could create ample institutional change.  Dr. Lake concludes with what he hopes will change in the next 30 years, and what it would look like if we truly made progress on equity in the education environment. 

Additional Resources:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Ed and within the classroom

Preparing Staff for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives

Diversity and Inclusion in K-12 Education

Transcript

[00:00:00] Rafael Otto: Welcome to the Early Link Podcast. I’m Rafael Otto. Thanks for listening. You can always catch us on 99.1 FM in the Portland Metro on Sundays at 4:30pm or tune in at your convenience, wherever you find your podcasts, including iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Today, I’m speaking with Dr. Johnny Lake, an international consultant and trainer on community building, equity, diversity, and leadership, with a focus on what youth need and what our education systems need to better serve students and young people. His scholarship has focused on diversity, race and culture and personal and organizational growth. And he is a writer and a storyteller who uses story to build relationships. Johnny, welcome to the podcast today.

[00:00:42] Johnny Lake: Thank you Rafael. I’ve been looking forward to this.

[00:00:45] Rafael Otto: It’s great to have you, I’m looking forward to the conversation. I thought you could start with… because I know your work is grounded in story, and if you could start with the story about how and where you grew up and what education was like at that time.

[00:01:01] Johnny Lake: Yes. I grew up in Tennessee, a small town, about 60 miles from Memphis. I grew up where racial segregation was the norm. I’m actually old enough that I was in racially segregated schools for my first four years where everybody was Black. Teachers were Black. Principal was Black. Janitor was Black. PE teacher was Black. Everybody was Black. So, questions about race, especially compared to white people, didn’t even come up because the white school, about a mile away, had all white kids, all white teachers, everything else. My whole family had attended those same schools, where the books we had were the throw away books from the white school.

We never got new books. We got the books that had been discarded. I talked to my auntie who was 90 some years old, and I asked her about schools and she says, ” They didn’t give us money for schools.” I said, “They didn’t give you money. How did you have schools?” She said, “We donated money and hired a teacher for our children.”

I said, “What about books, auntie?” And she gave me another incredulous look, “Books?” she said, “They didn’t ever give us books either baby.” I said, “Where did you get books, auntie?” She said when they throw away the books at the white school, the shoe man downtown would collect the discarded books. And she says the Black people would go downtown to the shoe man to buy books for their children.

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Cultivating Genius: A Conversation with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad

Cultivating Genius: A Conversation with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad

by | Oct 7, 2021 | Educators and Workforce, Podcast, Equity

Join us Sundays at 4:30pm for new episodes of The Early Link Podcast. Listen live at 99.1 FM, online at PRP.fm, or stream wherever you get your podcasts. 

This week, host Rafael Otto speaks with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, whose research has focused on the social and historical foundations of literacy in Black communities and how literacy development can be re-conceptualized in classrooms today. She is associate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, and is the author of the recent book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

Guest:

Dr. Gholdy Muhammad is a leader who strives to shape the national conversation for educating youth that have been underserved. Her career also includes having served as a school district curriculum director responsible for K-12 literacy instruction, assessments, and professional development, and as a reading, language arts, and social studies middle school teacher.

Having received her PhD in Literacy, Language and Culture at the University of Illinois Chicago, her research interests are situated in the historical foundations of literacy development and the writing practices among Black communities.

 

Additionally, she works with teachers and young people across the United States and South Africa in best practices in equity, anti-racism and culturally and historically responsive instruction. She served as a literacy coach and school board president. She has received numerous national awards and is now a best-selling author.

Summary:

Dr. Muhammad begins by giving us a history lesson on Black literacy societies going back to the 19th century, and how they influenced the writing of her book. Then, she notes how literacy itself has a much deeper meaning, particularly for Black people historically, in regards to liberation, power, self-determination, foundation of all learning, accumulation of knowledge, and more. This segues into the overarching definition of culturally and historically responsive literacy, and the four components that Dr. Muhammad suggests come with it: Identity, Skills, Intellect, and Criticality. She then gives an example of how this framework could be implemented for a specific classroom lesson plan.

There are noticeable challenges that teachers face when teaching culturally and linguistically diverse youth, which in turn, disproportionately and negatively affects students of color. Dr. Muhammad gives suggestions on what educators need to do to effectively implement culturally and historically responsive teaching and learning. Even those who are bound by the curriculum in their schools or districts.
Finally, the conversation closes with Dr. Muhammad giving us an idea of what culturally and historically responsive classrooms and school communities could look like in the future.

Additional Resources:

12 Questions to Ask When Designing Culturally and Historically Responsive Curriculum

Transcript

​[00:00:00] Rafael Otto: This is the Early Link Podcast. I’m Rafael Otto. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you tuning in. You can always catch us on 99.1 FM in the Portland Metro on Sundays at 4:30 PM. Or tune in at your convenience, wherever you find your podcasts. That includes iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Today, I’m speaking with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, whose research has focused on the social and historical foundations of literacy in Black communities and how literacy development can be re-conceptualized in classrooms today. She is associate professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and is the author of a recent book called Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

 Gholdy, it’s so good to have you on the podcast today.

[00:00:45] Gholdy Muhammad: Yes, it’s so good to be here. Thank you for having me.

[00:00:48] Rafael Otto: I wanted to talk about the book, Cultivating Genius. It offers a model for teaching and learning. So it’s really designed for educators and school leaders. And it uses a framework built on Black literacy societies going back to the 19th century. Can you talk a bit about what those societies were, and what they were designed for, and how did they influence the writing of the book?

[00:01:10] Gholdy Muhammad: Yeah. So, I discovered this part of history, Black history, American history, when I was a graduate student. And I read from a scholar named Elizabeth McHenry, Dorothy Porter, these are some of the writers who documented the practices of Literary Society members. And I discovered that in the early 1800s, around the 1820s, we developed these literacy clubs in urban northeastern cities, like New York, Philadelphia, Boston. And where in these cities where black folks had a little bit more liberties, they organized themselves and studied mathematics, literature, science, art, history. They lectured, they debated, they read, they wrote toward improving humanity, improving society, conditions within society. And they ultimately had a number of goals in their practices. They had goals of cultivating and advancing a sense of self and identity. They had goals of cultivating and advancing their skills, writing, reading, mathematics skills. These things that would put them in positions to also help with change.

They also had goals of cultivating their intellectualism. Their what I call in the book, criticality. Their anti-oppression, and then also their joy. And so I found the spaces to be so fascinating. I did not know why I did not learn about them in my own K-12 experience.

Like a lot of people in the United States, this part of history is not in the curriculum. It’s not in the books typically. But learning about them, it’s a fascinating and beautiful history. In addition to all these, this part of history was teaching me how to be a better teacher, how to be a better thinker, speaker. And so it’s a lot of implications for teaching and education.

And so that’s how the book really emerged, taking the knowledge from these literary societies. And they had great membership. They had, well, some membership was small, some membership was over a hundred. And they had one goal is to create more literary societies to improve toward all those goals I named.

And it was like I said, it was beautiful to read and discover. And at the same time, it was almost like. Well, why didn’t we learn this before?

[00:03:55] Rafael Otto: Right. It’s a wonderful part of our history that, I was not aware of either until I picked up your book. So I appreciate that. I also like the way you talk about literacy as this larger frame. Because so often today, when we talk about literacy or early childhood, we’ll talk about a reading proficiency by third grade. It’s kind of in this realm of skills and proficiency. But the way you talk about it has much deeper meaning, particularly for Black people historically.

So talk about what you mean by literacy in this historical context.

[00:04:30] Gholdy Muhammad: Yeah, and you’re absolutely right. Most of the time we see literacy defined as skills only as cognitions as something you have or don’t have; literate versus illiterate. And it wasn’t those binaries for black people historically, you know. Literacy was more than just having a test or a level of literacy, like a reading level or writing level, it was more than just skills.

It was reading the world, making sense of the context around you. It was meaning-making, making sense, like, you know. So I would find some literacy practices involve hair braiding, coding, using codes and songs and algorithms to send messages, quilting. They had very unique and nuanced language practices.

And so, the way I define literacy taken from these historical examples is, of course reading, writing, speaking, thinking, meaning-making; print, but all sorts of texts, the world as texts, the land as texts. And so it’s a bit of a wider way of conceptualizing literacy. And I found that the five pursuits, with the added one of joy, became a way of defining their literacy practices. So every time they were reading, writing and thinking, historically, they were building identity skills; intellect, criticality, and joy. And so that’s how those five pursuits became so connected to the ways in which they define literacy.

Please download the full transcript below.

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Montessori Group Serves Early Childhood Community in the UK, Internationally

Montessori Group Serves Early Childhood Community in the UK, Internationally

by | Aug 11, 2021 | Educators and Workforce, Parents and Families, Podcast

This week, host Rafael Otto speaks with Leonor Stjepic; an award-winning social enterprise entrepreneur, whose career has spanned both the private and nonprofit sectors in the United Kingdom. In addition, she is currently the chief executive officer for The Montessori Group, an organization that provides training in Montessori education for early years communities in the UK and internationally.

Guest:

An award-winning charity entrepreneur, Leonor Stjepic’s career has spanned both the private and charity sector. Since 2007, Leonor has been the CEO of RAFT – an award-winning medical research charity.

During her time at RAFT, the organization became the first UK charity to create an Enterprise Investment Scheme company and the model is widely praised as a case study in how to de-risk social investment. Leonor is also the Chair of London Fire Brigade Enterprises and was previously CEO of Smart Matrix Ltd. In 2016, the ACQ5 Global Awards named her as ‘UK Gamechanger of the Year’ and a year later, Leonor was named as the ‘Most Innovative CEO in the Not-For-Profit Sector’ by Business Worldwide.

Summary:

In this podcast, Leonor discusses what makes Montessori education unique, as well as important facts about the woman behind it, Maria Montessori. She also talks about her advocacy work surrounding proper investment in early childhood, as it is an area with the least government investment. She then speaks to the reasoning behind it, and follows up with what this investment in early childhood development looks like on an international level.

Additionally, she shares how she makes her most effective case to policymakers and legislators for investing in the early years. As far as long-term goals, Leonor is most interested in funding research, supporting teachers, and strengthening higher education*. She further details what all of these look like on this scale, and what is needed to obtain them, as well as the importance of The Montessori Group’s global social impact partners.

Leonor closes by telling of an important time in her life when she was working with young children in a Balkan refugee camp. These particular moments stuck in her memory, and these children inspired her to undertake the work she does today.

*Soon to have the UK’s first Undergraduate, Master’s and PhD courses in Montessori education in partnership with Leeds Beckett University.

Transcript

Rafael Otto: [00:00:00] This is the Early Link podcast. I’m your host Rafael Otto. Thanks for tuning in. As usual, you can catch us on 99.1 FM in the Portland metro on Sundays at 4:30pm or tune in at your convenience, wherever you find your podcasts.

Today, my guest is Leonor Stjepic. She is an award-winning social enterprise entrepreneur, whose career has spanned both the private and non-profit sectors in the UK; and she is currently the chief executive officer for the Montessori group, an organization that provides training in Montessori education for early years communities in the UK and internationally. Leonor, it’s great to have you here today.

Leonor Stjepic: [00:00:37] Well, thank you very much for inviting me. It’s a pleasure.

Rafael Otto: [00:00:39] I wanted to start by asking you about the Montessori approach to early education. Why Montessori and what purpose does the Montessori Group serve?

Leonor Stjepic: [00:00:49] That’s a great question to start off with. So Montessori is an approach. It was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori over a hundred years ago. But what’s really fascinating about Montessori is that she really was a real pioneer in that everything she talks about, we now see to be true as much as it was a hundred years ago.

So the approach is something that helps children develop their potential. It treats each child as unique. All these things sound sort of commonplace now, but this was revolutionary at the time and it’s very strong on teaching, not only numeracy and literacy. But also on those social-emotional skills that are essential to first of all, develop as a human being, but secondly, are going to become really important as the way that we work changes. And I’m sure we’ll talk about that later. The Montessori Group is a global organization. We don’t own Montessori schools, but we do support Montessori schools, educators, children. At the heart of everything we do is social impact.

Maria Montessori started her first school in the slums of Rome. And we follow that legacy of trying to bring education and particularly early years education to the most underprivileged in our communities. Whether that’s disadvantage through economic factors,  social factors, whatever. We want to ensure that every child has the opportunity to have an excellent education and actually reach their full potential.

Rafael Otto: [00:02:26] Maria Montessori was a pioneer in many ways. One of the things that I read about her recently is that she, more than a hundred years ago or 120 years ago, she fought for equal pay for equal work, which was revolutionary at the time and in some ways, still is today. What else do you want people to know about her?

Leonor Stjepic: [00:02:46] Well, she was, I mean, she spoke in 1896 at the first congress for women’s rights in Berlin. Even before she actually developed her pedagogy, she was already thinking about that. She was one of the first women to actually become a doctor in Italy. Going against what would have been the sort of societal norms at the time where sort of, well, you know, brought up young ladies did not go into work, let alone something like being a doctor.

And there’s a story that when she was actually studying medicine, the male students refused her access to the anatomy classes. So she actually had to learn anatomy by going into the morgue late at night. Which is, you have to sort of think that’s one very strong woman to sort of say, “Right! Well, I’m going to do that and I’m going to show them that I can actually sort of graduate as a doctor.” So she worked with Mahatma Gandhi. They were friends. So her writings on peace, she wrote a series of lectures in 1947, having experienced two world wars, about peace education. She talked about sustainability even before it became fashionable or even recognizable as an issue that we should actually be mindful about.

She really was way ahead of her time. I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with someone who was explaining to me that now neuroscience proves that virtually everything that Maria Montessori said about child development is true.  It can now be proved through neuroscience.

Please download the full transcript below.

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