Hello, my name is Jamie Bartels. My wife, Sandra, and I are both MTCNE alumni.   Sandra graduated from the Assistants to Infancy program in NYC with Dora Maria Vidales in 2018 and I from the 3 – 6 training with Gretchen Hall in July of 2017.  As we studied, we were working at the Greenspring Montessori School in Baltimore at our respective levels.  During our three years there, a number of events, including our house catching fire, caused us to rethink our future.

We decided to resign from our positions, sell our house, and move back to Belgium, Sandra’s home country. The ransomware attack on the City of Baltimore has been holding up the sale so hopefully they will get things in order soon!

In my last year at Greenspring, I engaged Jennifer Shields, WMI’s 3 – 6 trainer, to come every other month and coach me in my second year as lead guide.  Jennifer was incredibly patient, and this experience was so, so valuable.  I highly recommend that new teachers seek some sort of coach or mentor who can observe, model interaction and presentations, and offer feedback at least three or four times over the first year (or more).  It’s worth every penny, and then some.

Sandra and I are researching how to set up a pilot Montessori public school in Brussels. We have been visiting Montessori schools in Belgium: most recently we visited Atelier d’éveil Écoline, a public crèche for 1 – 3-year-olds in Verviers. Tim Nee and Gretchen Hall have both been figures of inspiration for us in this.  Sandra says I need to bring out my inner Tim to make our project work.

Demand for schools is quite high right now in Belgium — there are more children than there are places for them.  There is also a renaissance of interest in Montessori, with a Montessori public school, ‘T SCHOOLTJE VAN OPPEM, opening not too long ago in Meise, just north of Brussels.  People were camping in line for registration.  Now seems to be the time to push for a public Montessori school in Brussels.  Somehow it was also in this moment that Tamar contacted me about being a featured alumnus.  If the Universe sends enough messages, I can listen.

My parents were both educators in Private Schools, and I worked at The Unquowa School in Fairfield, CT before moving to Baltimore to work at Greenspring.  I think private education is a huge part of systematic segregation in US society, but I’m also not very interested in the model of public education 0 – 12, neither in the US nor here in Belgium.  Sandra and I want to do our part in making a Montessori education available to everyone.

Finally, for myself pushing toward public education in the European capital, I feel a basic responsibility to continue anti-bias anti-racist training.  As Montessorians, we want to push things forward, and we will stumble as educators if we can’t review our own practice with these things in mind.

We decided to resign from our positions, sell our house, and move back to Belgium, Sandra’s home country. The ransomware attack on the City of Baltimore has been holding up the sale so hopefully they will get things in order soon!

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