Montessori Model United Nations
New York City
April, 2013

I would like support this initiative and encourage all of you to participate; this could have a far reaching impact.
—André Roberfroid, president of AMI, The Association Montessori International

This program was begun 7 years ago, at the request of Ambassador Lorenzo from the Dominican Republic,
by Judith Cunningham, Bergamo-trained Montessori teacher, and is held each year in New York and Geneva, Switzerland.
This year 1600 students representing 12 countries participated. The goal is to have every country in the world represented.

History of Model UN programs: MUN
Montessori Model UN website: MMUN
Why Montessori? "best delegate" site

Contact Judith Cunningham a year in advance if your students would like to participate:
jcunningham@montessori-mun.org

Two of the Opening Ceremony speakers, Susan Stephenson and Jonathan Granoff, with two students. Susan's keynote address can be seen here: keynote
(see below for more keynote information)

In order to participate in the Montessori Model United National program, teachers receive training many months ahead of time and students work on preparation for this program, and raising money for expenses, at least 6 months in advance.

Students prepare to represent a specific country, as though they were ambassadors in the actual United Nations, and they dress the part (see left), taking their responsibilities very seriously.

There are 7 forums and their committees working over the weekend. I (Susan) attended the NGO Forum which discussed problems in South Sudan and Malawi.

The new president of Malawi is aware and supportive of what is going on this week-end at the MMUN.

The other committees the students prepare to represent, aside from the NGO Forum that I attended, are:

1 - General Assembly Fourth Committee (SPECPOL), Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Libya and Disaster Relief and Management;
2 - General Assembly Sixth Committee (Legal) Intellectual Property Rights, Capital Punishment;
3 - Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) micro finance for Emerging Markets and the Eurozone Debt Crises;
4 - World Health Organization (WHO) HIV/AIDS and Improving Reproductive Health);
5 - United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Empowering Girls through Education and Children in Armed Conflict;
6 - The Security Council, The Situations in Syria and in North Korea

MORE KEYNOTE REFERENCES:

The book presented at Susan's keynote: Child of the World: Montessori, Global Education for Age 3-12+ Global Education

The DVD "Economics of Happiness" referred to in Susan's keynote can be found here: Happiness

The speech refereed to in Susan's keynote, Severn Suzuki-Cullis speaking at the UN Earth Summit in Rio in 1992: Severen

Severn speaking again 20 years later: Severen II

As part of the preparation to represent a specific country students prepare a display, such as that of Malawi on the right, in order to share what they are learning. These were so valuable and represent so much research and work, that I included them below.

Displays set I

Displays set 2

Displays set 3

Displays set 4

This page was prepared by Susan Mayclin Stephenson (www.susanart.net) in order to encourage others to attend this amazing program.

Since I had to leave for Amsterdam the day second day of the MMUN I was only able to attend the NGO forum, but I was very impressed and would like to encourage all Montessori schools who have elementary, middle school, or high school programs, anywhere in the world, to attend.

Return to Michael Olaf home page

Susan's International Montessori Blog