Educateurs sans Frontières
Second Assembly

In COMMUNICATIONS 1998/2-3, what was then a new A.M.I. initiative entitled Educateurs sans Frontières (Educators without Borders) was first announced and fully described. The section defining this corps of workers included the following:

"In 1940, in a letter from India to her two granddaughters, Maria Montessori wrote:
‘We abandon all and travel the world, as did those in former times who would sow seeds and go on their way. This is our destiny: to sow! To sow everywhere, without ceasing, never to harvest.’"

The announcement eventually led to the First EsF Assembly, held in the summer of 1999. In the near future the next assembly will be held. Looking towards this second gathering another extraordinary excerpt taken from another of Maria Montessori’s letters seems relevant.

It was found amongst Maria Montessori’s collected correspondence and consists of a post scriptum isolated on a page of its own, detached from the original document. It is therefore undated and the person to whom it was addressed is not identified. These afterthoughts to the main text of a carta incognita seem to summarise the essence of Maria Montessori’s life and work and, at the same time, indicate our own mission and future. The excerpt clearly answers the unexpressed questions: “Who are we then? Why are we doing all this?”

Fighters– that is what we are: we fight for ‘peace on earth’, for the ‘triumph of the spirit', for the ‘service of God’. But then, we cannot do otherwise – we carry on be ‘because we must’, because ‘that is the way it is’ and ‘that is the way it must be’. We fight in any and all countries, in any and all environments.

The indeterminacy of context, the absence of a why, a where, a when and a to whom, frees this text of all contingencies: the cause, the place in which it was written, the time at which it was written, the person to whom it was addressed. Thus, this ancient message of Maria Montessori’s remains pristine and adequate to be addressed to all present-day Montessorians and perhaps to the Éducateurs sans Frontières in particular.

Educateurs in Print
Renilde Montessori’s book, Educateurs sans Frontières, appeared in print in the year 2000, published in French by Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, the same company that publishes Dr. Montessori’s books in France (see COMMUNICATIONS 2000/4). Following the thread of the Articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989), the book is an interesting interpretation of memories and experiences (some of them autobiographical), together with other paradigmatic situations, all exemplifying the ‘borders’ around us and within us, borders which also result from particular cultures. ‘Borders’ make for ‘a very high percentage of children [being] physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually abandoned in a variety of ways.’ Most of all, this book conveys Dr. Montessori’s message that education should be based, above all else, on our confidence in the infinite value and potential of each child.

Educateurs as an AMI Programme
During the last week (August 1999) of the First Assembly of the Educateurs sans Frontières the participants expressed the desire for EsF to be formalised as a permanent programme of the Association Montessori Internationale, addressing their request to the AMI Board.

The AMI members, at the Annual General Meeting held in Amsterdam on April 21st 2001, unanimously adopted the text proposed by the Board regarding the New By-law no. 17. It reads as follows:

«‘Educateurs sans Frontières’ is an AMI Programme in which the participants (AMI diploma holders) revisit the Montessori principles and practices from the perspective of society at large. As individuals, the participants of ‘Educateurs sans Frontières’ will contribute to the aims of the Association Montessori Internationale, in particular as laid down in article 4d of the AMI Articles of Association.»
(See COMMUNICATIONS 2001/2-3.)

Camillo Grazzini
Co-ordinator
Educateurs sans Frontières