AMS PEACE ACTIVITIES

Declaration of Peace and Social Justice

Peace Seed Connection

AMS Peace Committee

101 People for Peace Fund

2009 Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Grant

AMS Peace Database

DECLARATION OF PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

At AMS’s Third Annual Global Forum, which took place March 1, 2009, in New Orleans, LA, participants drafted a statement that captures their shared goals and aspirations for peace and social justice. To read the declaration, click here.

PEACE SEED CONNECTION

Peace Seed Connection is a publication of the AMS Peace Committee, which is posted to the AMS website twice a year (spring, fall). If you would like to be added to the Peace Database so that you can be notified each time a new electronic issue is published, contact Julie Winnette.

Peace Seed Connection #8 is our most current edition.

Please also take some time to read, enjoy, and reflect on our archived editions:
Peace Seed Connection #7
Peace Seed Connection #6
Peace Seed Connection #5
Peace Seed Connection #4
Peace Seed Connection #3
Peace Seed Connection #2
Peace Seed Connection #1

For more information: Nancy Hofer



AMS PEACE COMMITTEE

The Peace Committee is an informal group led by several key persons who oversee projects, with the support and participation of many other individuals. All who wish to get involved are enthusiastically welcomed! For more information, contact Committee Chair Sonnie McFarland.

Overseeing special projects are:

Judi Bauerlein
Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Project

Terri Canady
Peace DVD

Allisyn Haberman
Global Citizens Action Project

Nancy Hofer
Peace Seed Connection Newsletter

Katie McDonnell
Coins for Compassion

Sonnie McFarland, Committee Chair
Peace Retreats

Sunita Prakash
101 People for Peace

Julie Winnette
Peace Database

Pat Yonka
Peace Table (at AMS Conferences)



101 PEOPLE FOR PEACE FUND

Donate online here

Sponsored by the American Montessori Society to promote a global culture of peace through education.

Funds from the 101 People for peace will be used to:

  • Disseminate materials, resources and information related to peace education
  • Provide communication tools and networking among educators for peace
  • Support and encourage the development of peace education activities, materials and research
  • Educate and promote partnerships among AMS andother organizations to further the work of educating for peace

With a donation of $101, you will receive a copy of Maria Montessori's Peace and Education and a beautiful peace pin as a symbol of your commitment to peace in the world.

Donate online here.

For more information: Sunita Prakash



URSULA THRUSH PEACE SEED GRANTS

Since 2004, the AMS Peace Committee has awarded annual Peace Seed Grants to encourage educators to promote peace through their teaching. Lesley Nan Haberman, headmistress of The Family Schools in New York City, initiated the grant in memory of her dear friend Ursula Thrush.

Ursula Thrush founded the Maria Montessori School of the Golden Gate and Teacher Training Center in San Francisco and helped to establish several other Montessori programs, including The Science of Peace Task Force and the Montessori Peace Academy. Her dedication to fulfilling Maria Montessori’s vision for peace through children opened doors to many Montessori educators, inspiring them to include peace education in their classrooms and communities.

Montessorians who have formulated a project fostering education for peace are invited to apply for the 2010 Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Grant.

To download the application, click here. The application deadline is February 1, 2010.
 
Selection Criteria

  • Applicants must have a Montessori background.
  • The project must further education for peace.
  • The project must reach a significant number of children and/or educators.
  • The recipient of the grant must share the results of his/her project with the AMS community.
  • The project goal must be accomplished in the year following receipt of the grant.
  • The recipient must show how he/she will be accountable for the use of the funds.

Committee Members
 
Judi Bauerlein
Lesley Nan Haberman
Sonnie McFarland
 
Recipients of Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Grants

 

2009

Thank you to Lesley Nan Haberman and The Family Schools (New York City, NY) for their abiding generosity in providing the funding for two $1,100 grants (total funding, $2,200).

Alyson Peterson (founder, Montessori Island School, Livingston, MT)
“Peace Garden for Sustainable Agriculture”
Alyson will use the grant to help expand the Peace Garden at Montessori Island School, which is part of her initiative to create, with her students, sustainable, local agriculture. The Livingston, MT, community is recoiling from a serious economic downturn several decades ago, and Alyson is determined to work for change. The students will be working with a local farmer’s market to sell their crops and will be donating their proceeds to Heifer International to provide desperately impoverished people in other countries with sustainable animal husbandry opportunities.

Michele Melvin (founding directress of Montessori Habitat School in Champagne, IL)
“Spirit Stirring: Fostering Appreciation for Humanity and Exploration of Cosmological Role in Montessori Middle School Students”
Passionate about Montessori and spiritual development, Michele developed 16 experimental methods targeted at nurturing the spirits of adolescents, including their appreciation for humanity and understanding of their role in the universe, and has been measuring their efficacy in her own middle school classroom. With the winning grant funds, she will broaden her research to include several more middle schools across the nation in her research.

 

2008

AMS thanks Lesley Nan Haberman and The Family Schools (New York City, NY) for generously underwriting the funding for the grants. This year, Lesley Nan increased the funds available so that we could award a grant of $1,100 to each of two projects, one domestic and one international.

The 2008 International Peace Seed Grant went to two experienced Montessori teachers from Canada—Laure Kominar of Hillfield Strathallan College Montessori School in Hamilton and Janice Mayhew of Lakeview Montessori School in St. Clair Beach.
In collaboration with the Olive Branch for Children, they will provide three weeks of Montessori teacher education to 30 women in Tanzania, Africa, this summer. These 30 women will then work directly with children in their communities who have been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS. The program will focus on developing the women’s ability to make their own classroom materials and to educate other teachers.

The 2008 Domestic Peace Seed Grant recipient is Claudia Mann, director at Chaffee County Montessori School in Salida, CO, for her Garden for Peace.
This multifaceted project will not only help children experience the interconnectedness of all living things but also reach out to the elderly in the Garden Club, involve children from other schools, provide herbs to local organic restaurants and vegetables to the Harvest Fair, and offer hands-on service to Colorado’s Guidestone Farms program.


 

2007

AMS thanks Lesley Nan Haberman and The Family Schools (New York City, NY) for generously underwriting the funding for two grant recipients in 2007:

First Place: Tracey Bernard
To train several dozen educators in Sri Lanka in peace education skills and activities. Included in the project is the development of a peace curriculum in English, Sinhala, and Tamil; and training in conservation agriculture.

For more information: tracy.bernard@comcast.net

Honorable Mention: Julie Ikenberry & Little Oaks Children’s House (Lyle, Washington)
To connect students in Little Oaks with students in one school in each of the human-inhabited continents, with the goal of creating a communal Peace Quilt for display in diverse communities. The year-long project will include acquiring handprints, photos, and statements about Grace and Courtesy or peace from all participating students; and the creation of a booklet about the project.

For more information: mjikenberry@gorge.net


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2006

Victoria Montessori School, Uganda, Africa
To implement the Uganda Montessori Peace Education Initiative, which will bring peace education to six schools in war-torn northern Uganda, with the goal of helping students embrace peace and advocate for a culture of harmonious co-existence. For more information, contact Peace Education Initiative directors Lawino Christine Kijange & Olanya Joseph Okwonga.


 

2005

Catherine McTamaney
To complete and publish her book, The Tao of Montessori (available for purchase on the AMS website).


 

2004

Youth Visits the United Nations Project (First Annual)

For more information: Judi Bauerlein



AMS PEACE DATABASE

If you would like to be notified of AMS peace activities by e-mail or postal mail or your address or e-mail has changed since you signed up to be on this database, or if you know of someone who would like to be added, please contact Julie Winnette.