This past summer, we had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Timothy Purnell to discuss all things Montessori. Not only is Dr. Purnell the Chief Executive Officer of the American Montessori Society (AMS), but we are proud to say that he is also the parent of an alumna from The Montessori Children’s Academy. With vast experience in the field of education as a teacher, superintendent, professor, public speaker, and current CEO of AMS, Dr. Purnell continues to be driven and determined to promote the best practices in education for children today and for future generations to come. Experiencing his high energy and an array of engaging stories, we came away from our visit with Dr. Purnell enlightened and eager to share his passion for education, and especially Montessori education.
MCA: Can you tell us a little about how you were introduced to education as a career?
Dr. Purnell: I actually started out studying medicine. But as I got deeper into it, I realized it wasn’t for me. My father—who is himself a doctor—suggested I study teaching instead. I said, “No way!” My own experience had been that much of school was a nightmare, and I couldn’t imagine replicating that for others. But my father responded, “Exactly! Change the things you do not like.” And that really impacted me. So after college, I took a job as a guide in a Montessori summer program; and that fall, I accepted a position in a Montclair public school. To my surprise, I discovered that education was really my calling and that I wanted to create an environment for children that was contrary to my own experiences.
Dr. Purnell eventually became a professor in higher education, and he shared how Montessori resurfaced in his life during his experiences in the university setting.
Dr. Purnell: At Georgian Court University and Fairleigh Dickenson University, I asked the students to explore different pedagogies and to report back about what interested them most. They responded with many ideas about different theorists they were eager to learn more about in class—such as Dewey, Erikson, Piaget, Vygotsky—and, quite often, Maria Montessori. I am grateful to my students for “resurfacing” Dr. Montessori in my life!
Montessori did, indeed, find Dr. Purnell, and the Montessori Method further became the inspiration for his work as Superintendent of Schools in Somerville, NJ, where he launched a high school program incorporating Montessori values, which has since become a lighthouse for best practices.
Dr. Purnell: In Somerville, during my second year as superintendent, my team and I were doing data analytics at the high school and our metrics showed the dropout rate to be increasing. We realized if we didn’t take decisive action, the graduation rate would continue to decrease. So I assembled a team of like- and unlike-minded individuals—students and teachers, along with input from a local resident and professor from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dr. Randall Westbrook—and my team came up with an idea to launch an inspirational, non-traditional learning space in the public sector, designed for students who were metrically at risk for dropping out, such as students who had been incarcerated, were struggling with school anxiety, were exploring sexual orientation, and/or just didn’t fit into the traditional mold.
Although it wasn’t strictly Montessori, it would include such Montessori tenets as uninterrupted blocks of work time, the opportunity for self-paced learning, teachers who served as guides rather than “masters,” and classes with multi-age groupings. The program was set up to be rolling, allowing for graduation mid-year.
The program was specially equipped with its own non-Child Study Team School Psychologist full time for support. Students were greeted every day with food, and eventually they started a small farm, growing crops and giving them to a local restaurant. The program became a smashing success with credit recovery escalating rapidly, students progressing greatly—some were even graduating early—and enrollment and graduation rates improving. The program won awards, and we became a top school district for approaching learning in a differentiated way. The strength of the Montessori pedagogy approach allowed for these students who did not fit the traditional mold to achieve success.
Dr. Purnell’s great success as the Superintendent in Somerville, led to him being selected as NASS Superintendent of the Year in 2016. His reputation spread, and Dr. Purnell later became the CEO of the American Montessori Society, where he has been advocating for Montessori education and working internationally on initiatives to promote high quality Montessori programs through teacher education programs, conferences, podcasts, keynote addresses, and TEDx talks.
Dr. Purnell is currently leading an initiative at AMS to ensure that there’s emphasis on quality Montessori schools over quantity of Montessori schools. He is especially proud of the increasing number of AMS member schools that are pursuing AMS accreditation—the gold standard of Montessori education—as well as those that are taking advantage of a resource called the AMS Pathway of Continuous School Improvement.
But Dr. Purnell also has another personal connection to Montessori, and that is with his youngest child, who attended MCA.
MCA: What drew you to MCA?
Dr. Purnell: When my wife and I were looking for a school for our daughter, we knew we wanted a Montessori environment that was not only high-fidelity, but a place where she would flourish—as it’s not just the pedagogy that makes for Montessori, but the entire look and feel of a program. When we entered MCA, we knew right away that this was going to be the right place. We quickly fell in love with the teacher, whom we recognized as an incredible educator and nurturer, the classrooms, the joy that we saw on the students’ faces, and their focused concentration; the everything. We agreed we could make it work with our schedules, even though it meant some tricky logistics for my wife, regarding drop off and pick up.
We wanted to know how the Montessori philosophy may have filtered into his own home life.
MCA: In what ways have you seen how an early Montessori education positively impacted your own child?
At home, we see it in how she takes care of the environment, treating things well and putting them back in their proper places. She speaks to us respectfully (usually!) and is helpful, especially when it comes to cleaning up, and is independent (and opinionated) about selecting her clothing. I can see her gaining confidence in herself and realizing that she doesn’t always need to come to me or another adult to solve things—she’s learning to draw on her own resources. On top of all this, she loves to go to school. What more could a parent ask?
MCA: What do you tell your neighbors and friends about Montessori?
Dr. Purnell: I talk about the independence of the Montessori child. I talk about the joy of the Montessori child. Of my Montessori child. About how she loves school, and loves learning—as do her classmates. Another thing I address is the focus on early learning, that is, is, birth through age 6, This is a period Maria Montessori called the “absorbent stage,” when children experience intense mental activity that allows them to “absorb” learning from their environment quickly and easily without conscious effort. It’s a critical time in their lives, and a Montessori environment is an ideal place to nurture and support it. As Dr. Montessori said, “Education must begin at birth.”
MCA: If Dr. Montessori were alive today, what would you want to ask her? What do you want to know straight from the source?
Dr. Purnell: That’s a tough question because there are so many things I would want to know! To start, I would like to hear her stories about teaching children who were dismissed because they were thought to be “mentally deficient,” to use the very un-PC parlance of the times, and what surprised her most. I’d also be interested to know her creative process in developing Montessori learning materials—the prototypes of the very same materials we see here in MCA.
I’d be fascinated to know about the “Glass Classroom” that she staged for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. This was a glass-walled demonstration Montessori classroom where hundreds of visitors would gather round to observe children at work. The children, who had never attended Montessori school before, worked with such focus that it seemed they didn’t notice. How did Dr. Montessori have such confidence that this would work?
And I’d want to know about her experiences living in exile in India during WWII, and her development as a pacifist. Did you know she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize three times? And of course I’d want her perspectives on our world today: the use of technology in the classroom and beyond, strides made in women’s rights—she was also a feminist—teaching tolerance. and so much more.
MCA: It would be a great conversation! Finally, we’d like to ask, how do you see Montessori changing and benefiting our world?
Dr. Purnell: This is what Montessori is truly all about and actually the topic of my next TEDx talk in Delaware, “The Future with Montessori.” I’ll be talking about how by operating humanely, and by that I mean equitably, inclusively, respectfully, and kindly in all facets of our lives: professional, personal, familial, governmental, and especially with those less fortunate than we are, we can make the world a better place. And how the place to start is with our children. In her book, Education and Peace, Maria Montessori said, “The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.”
And speaking of making the world a better place, this past year I had the privilege of leading the AMS Board of Directors and AMS staff in rewriting our mission statement. It was an interesting process that derived from personal stories they told about individual experiences with Montessori and AMS. We eventually dissected all the stories and isolated key words that everyone agreed were impactful in describing the “what and why” of our organization—that is, our mission—and came up with these simple but powerful words: “Empowering humanity to build a better world through Montessori.” We are very proud of it, and even had it printed on T-shirts that we wore during a recent service learning project with Habitat for Humanity NYC!
We truly believe Montessori can change the world. It will happen through the children at MCA—and, if we are fortunate, with children throughout the world.
The Montessori Children’s Academy extends its deepest gratitude to Dr. Purnell for taking the time to share his thoughts and experiences with us. For more information about AMS and to access resources about Montessori for families, you may wish to visit their website at amshq.org. There you may also view Dr. Purnell’s impactful TEDx video presentation, “Truth in Leadership: #GetOffYourIsland”.
