AMI President's Message 2021
The winter solstice of the Northern Hemisphere is behind us: longer days and more sunshine are coming. 2020 is also behind us, though the scars wrought on the lives of millions of children, particularly those living in disadvantaged circumstances still linger on. Like the lengthening days, there is, I believe, some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. It is still a faint glow, many months away, but it is there, brightened by the actions we are all taking to deal with the pandemic’s effects; behaving in ways which were previously foreign to us, but now adopted widely as we seek to protect our children, ourselves and others.
Perhaps these parallel lights will converge so that by mid-year 2021 we will live whatever will be our new normal, freed from the constant threat of COVID 19. Lights that will shine giving back to our children the childhoods that have been put on hold, and creating the opportunities again for each of them to grow to their full potential. That hope alone should be an inspiration for us to do all we can to make it a reality for them.
And while the dark cloud of the pandemic continues to cause suffering for so many families, like every dark cloud, it too has a silver lining. Perhaps just a sliver of a lining but a lining nonetheless. We always knew we were an interconnected world, and that awareness has been deepened this past year; interconnected not just between humans, but to our natural world. COVID forced us to more avidly recognise the need to care for and protect our environment.
The silver lining contains an enormous number of acts of kindness and self-sacrifice by thousands. Caring for each other gained new currency during 2020. And for so many of you AMI teachers, trainers, administrators, students and parents that silver lining is the myriad of ways in which you rose to the challenges of the pandemic, the manner in which you adapted your practices to provide training and education opportunities for adult and child alike, in-person and remotely. We can celebrate that success and know that these experiences will guide our future efforts to reach the most disadvantaged, the hundreds of thousands who missed out on education, indeed on part of their childhood, over the past year.
Not one of you has been sitting still, none have been paralysed by the challenges, but spurned on by them, and I feel privileged to be part of your movement.
And that dedication is even more important now. The economic impact of the pandemic will make it difficult for many children to get back to full-time education. Children from poor households and communities have been made even poorer by loss of family work and wages. They will need our most creative approaches to ensure they have the best possible opportunity for education. For those, and indeed for all children, a vital element of the "new normal" will be engaging them creatively in learning. And that is something all Montessorians know how to do.
It will not be "business as usual" in our coming months and years, but the essential attributes of the Montessori pedagogy, and the commitment to ensure every child can enjoy their right to education, will remain unchanged and as crucial in the future as it has been in the past.
I hope each one of you has had a safe and peaceful holiday season, with as much time as is possible with your family and close ones, and I wish you well for 2021.
Philip D. O’Brien
President
Association Montessori Internationale
