MONTESSORI PROJECT – BHUTAN, 2008

In October, 2008 Susan Stephenson returned to Bhutan. This trip was sponsored by the children, parents, teachers, and administrator of a Montessori school in the USA, and many friends and relatives, without whose help to cover the cost of travel, Susan would not have been able to return. She traveled from Thailand with Gunilla Kolmodin who was a fellow course staff member on the first AMI 3-6 Montessori teacher training course in that country. Together they gathered information on the culture of Bhutan in preparation for a training course there in the future, and shared their own experience in Montessori.

Click on these dates, links, to see emails that Susan sent home, and pictures taken, during the Bhutan trip:
October 5 — California to Bangkok, via Hong Kong
October 9 — Bhutan arrival, practical life, television, toys
October 12 — Mt. Everest, bathing, Tsechu, the Dzongkha language
October 16 — Observing Resa, age 2.5; school, hospital, snakes
October 20 — Thimphu school, Punakha dzong, proper dress
October 22 — Montessori talk, parents praying, the rice harvest
October 24 — Jhomalhari, Jhodake, Cheli la Pass, farmhouse, hot rock bath
October 25 — Bangladesh, incense, Four Friends, the Coronation of the King of Bhutan

 southeast asia
yak cheese
Strings of yak cheese, apples, walnuts, and fresh milk for sale on the road.

Paro Valley rice fields, almost ready to harvest.
shrine room Susan and Jhomolhari

Every family has a shrine room or prayer corner where the day begins with filling water bowls, lighting incense, and praying for the happiness of all.

Susan with the sacred mountain Jhomolhari in the background.
Cobb School Students Resa sweeping
Montessori students at The Cobb School Montessori in Simsbury, Connecticut, who contributed to this project. Other supporters include Childpeace school in Portland,Oregon, friends, and family.

The courtyard of a traditional farmhouse, 2-year-old working along side the rest of the family.
Susan and Gunilla
braiding
Susan Stephenson and Gunilla Kolmodin in Bhutan. They were part of the AMI Montessori teacher training course where Dendy, the Bhutanese teacher, earned her Montessori diploma.
Teacher braiding girls hair during morning break at school.

Return to the Bhutan Montessori Project home page — Bhutan, 2006

Return to Michael Olaf Children's Projects — Projects

Return to www.michaelolaf.net

A personal note from Susan. One of the questions I am asked most often is, since children all over the world need help, why do I continue to help in certain countries and not in others. After thinking a lot about this question I have come up with two answers.

(1) In countries like Bhutan and Albania, where Montessori is new and has not been watered-down into "Montessori-something," or schools that bear little resemblance to those classes described in Dr. Montessori's writings, I can help prevent this error, and help create a true Montessori experience for children.

(2) I have always been interested in the relationship between the results (happiness, calm, compassion, etc.) of meditation and prayer in adults, and children's deep, uninterrupted concentration that is protected and so an everyday occurrence in Montessori classes. Also, I want to learn more about the relationship between the spiritual concept of mindfulness (being in the present and full of gratitude), or calm abiding in everyday activities strived toward by some adults, and the way work is presented to, and carried out by, children in a Montessori class. This makes me very interested in cultures that practice Buddhism which offers a 2500 year-old study of both concepts.

In Montessori we speak of one's Cosmic Task as a work that benefits one while at the same time contributing to the good of others. For now this international Montessori work is my Cosmic Task.

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