Children deserve stability, teachers deserve support
For those of you working with students whose families might not otherwise have access to Montessori education—in other words, for most readers of MontessoriPublic—your work depends on a delicate and essential web of public support. It depends on elected officials at every level and across every political persuasion to help keep your classroom doors open, fill your shelves with materials, and sustain environments worthy of children’s enormous potential.
Public Montessori schools have always faced funding challenges. Teacher preparation, classroom assistants, and the materials that bring Montessori to life all carry real costs—and too often, they must compete with other pressing needs in the public education landscape. Yet despite these struggles, the value proposition of Montessori education remains strong.
To parents and families, you promise that their children will experience learning that is deep, joyful, and enduring—that they will grow not only academically, but as capable, compassionate, and curious human beings. Families across the country have voted with their feet and their hearts by choosing Montessori.
To school boards and elected officials, your promise extends further. You offer an approach that builds a foundation for lifelong learning, civic engagement, and contribution. A Montessori education nurtures the skills that society most urgently needs: focus, collaboration, self-regulation, empathy, and a sense of responsibility for one’s community. When we invest in these outcomes early, we save society the far greater costs of disengagement, remediation, and disconnection later.
But these promises depend on stability—on your ability to teach, learn, and grow without constant disruption. Research has shown what every Montessori guide already knows—that every year of learning matters deeply. Interruptions, whether from a pandemic, staffing shortage, or shifting policy priorities, leave a mark. For the child in your classroom, each day is an opportunity to build concentration, independence, and a sense of belonging. When those days are interrupted, so too is the fragile process of human development.
In times like these, when budgets are uncertain, you often find yourself at the mercy of forces far beyond your control. Funding shifts and bureaucratic changes are real and demanding challenges. Yet in the midst of this, you continue to create classrooms of peace, purpose, and possibility.
This is profoundly human work—and it asks nearly superhuman effort. You are called to set aside frustration, to adapt to shifting expectations, and to show up each day with patience, grace, and unwavering attention to the needs of children. You may not always manage it perfectly—no one could—but you do it with heart and integrity, again and again.
Montessori education was born in times of upheaval. Dr. Montessori’s work emerged amid global conflict and social transformation, grounded in the belief that education is the most powerful force for rebuilding and renewal. You stand in that same tradition today. Even as the world shifts around you, you continue to prepare environments that nurture peace, agency, and respect.
In these unsettled times, one truth holds steady: children deserve stability, teachers deserve support, and the work of public Montessori education is a public good.
On behalf of all of us at NCMPS—and from me personally—thank you. Thank you for showing up every day with heart and purpose. Thank you for believing that children, given the right environment, will reveal to us the best of what humanity can be. Thank you for doing the hard work of holding steady in uncertain times.
Sara Suchman is the Executive Director for the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector.
Sara Suchman
Sara leads and directs the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector.
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