Toronto Montessori Schools Served As The Root Of Montessori In North America

Toronto Montessori Schools Served as the Root of Montessori in North America by Jim Huinink

File this under "did you know:" Toronto Montessori Schools served as the de facto root of Montessori's spread throughout North America. There are now more than 4000 Montessori schools spread across the continent but they all owe something to the Toronto Montessori Schools begun by a woman named Helma Trass.

Trass was a student of Maria Montessori in the Netherlands 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 find that the Montessori philosophy had not taken any hold in North America but she took the opportunity to found the Toronto Montessori Schools. The name was pluralized because there were eventually two campuses, one in the suburbs and one near downtown Toronto.
Trass began the school in 1961, working out of a rented basement in the Toronto suburb of Don Mills. Her first class 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 on top of that there are over dozens of Montessori schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA); Montessori schools are found in every province and state on the continent.

While Montessori schools can be found in every major city throughout North America, it's also important to remember that not all Montessori schools are the same. Since the term is not copyrighted, anyone can appropriate the word and call their new school a Montessori school, no matter how far its curricula and methods might wander from Maria Montessori's original principles and teaching. That being said, there are many schools that pride themselves on close adherence to Maria's ideals.

Parents looking for an "orthodox" Montessori school need to check if the school they are considering is accredited by any of a number of accrediting bodies that arbitrate Montessori education. Accrediting bodies include the North American 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 across the continent today, seen not only within schools bearing the Montessori name but in almost every classroom where teachers have had some education in Ms. Montessori's philosophy and methods. The spread of Montessori in North America would not likely 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 first class at Toronto Montessori Schools.

Jim Huinink is Director of Web Strategy for ourkids.net, a Canadian website offering information about and listings of private schools, including Toronto Montessori schools, Montessori schools in Mississauga and Montessori schools in Newmarket & Markham.

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