perspectiveThe experiences and work of

Montessori Peace Now

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The Montessori Peace Now student organization is a convergence of ac-ademic study, personal development, and social action focused on peace and sustainability for Montessori adolescents. Participants individually and collectively consoli-date their vision of peace, forming a manifesto and roadmap of social ac-tion. Participants critically research, discuss, and act on issues of peace and sustainability, in collab-oration with their school community, other local Peace Now chapters, and their global counterparts. The Montessori Peace Now network provides a channel of expression and real action for unique adolescent perspectives addressing the most tran-scending issues of our time.

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Table of Contents

About ...............................................................01Faces of Peace Now................................................................03

Costa Rica 2012................................................................05New York State of Mind................................................................11

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The faces of Peace Now

Who we are...

Name: Jason Walsh

Status: Alumni, currently study-ing Marine Biology at University of North Carolina Wilmington

“If not us, who is going to stop the violence? Who will work forpeace? Old blood muddies the waters of change when it comes to people”srights, and those who would blindly follow the traditions of oppression are those who would surely send our nation back to its dark ages.”

Name: Savannah Roach

Status: Alumni, currently study-ing Nonprofits and Social Innovations at University of Southern California

“As I look forward to a life of endless possibilities, I can’t help but reflect on defining moments to decide what ul-timate impact I want to leave on this world. My experiences in Peace Now created a frame work from which I am currently developing my career as a humanitarian. “

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Name: Courtney den Elzen

Status: Current Student Leader, Senior at Montessori High School

“I’m hoping to use what I’ve learnt and am going to learn about the growth of ideas and institutions to help build relationships here in Cleveland. Costa Rica was an amazing example of how ideas can manifest into reality with hard work and dedication.”

Name: Taylor Slivka

Status: Alumni, currently studying Public Affairs at The Ohio State University

“I have found myself being able to share what I learned with others. It is a chain effect, a grass roots effort. I am not about to hold a town meeting about every issues that was brought up, but I do know that what we did has effected our lives.”

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Stage One, Trepidation: You start out as a newcomer, excited and anxious to begin your first day in a foreign world. A multitude of green explodes around you, overwhelming you with information you are not yet capable of understanding. You are an outsider to this community, and the deer flies let you know it, jeering at you like bullies towards a kid with a bad haircut on the first day of school. Their buzzing, mingled with the shuffling of your footsteps against the leaves underneath, es-calates to create a cacophony that drowns out the more subtle background sympho-

ny, not to be noticed until later on. In a way, this is a stage of ignorance: the forest is filled with unanswered questions you are not yet sure how to ask. It will take more knowledge, more observation, and more exploration before you can begin to grasp the beautiful mystery that surrounds you. You take a tentative step forward and catch your foot on a mossy rock, tum-bling down and coming face-to-face with a colony of leaf-cutter ants. Quickly, you scramble to your feet and dust yourself off, telling yourself to remember that mosses--the earliest, wettest form of plant evolu-

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Adolescent’s initial exposure to the won-ders of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest

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tion--are slippery. You continue to move cautiously down the trail, staring mainly at your feet but occasionally stopping to swing your head left or right. At one par-ticular moment, you look up and gasp--a blue morpho butterfly is flying overhead. You unconsciously reach for your camera to snap a picture, for its vivid color is striking against the myriad of greens occasion-ally speckled with browns, reds, and oranges. What’s amazing is that each of these colors represents a different species, and each species makes up an essential component of a society that thus far remains unexplored. That’s why you’re here: to spark curi-osity, understand your surroundings, and create balance in a place that represents all the reasons why people should care about biodiversity. Your eyes are open, but your mind remains distracted, concerned with other issues and the world you used to

inhabit. It is time for you to let go of your trepidation and open your mind, not only to the beauty and enormity of the forest itself, but to the issues it raises and the conversation that ensues. Stage Two, Curiosity: After a few more minutes of hiking and contemplating,

during which the thickness of the forest be-gins to intensify and your feet, unaccustomed to the uneven-ness of the trail, start to tire, you take a seat on a log and attempt to absorb all you have seen and heard so

far. Before long, you find yourself asking questions, not only about the 100 meters or so behind you, but also about the more than 2.5 kilometers that lie ahead. You stand up to get a closer look at the nearest tree, which is covered in epiphytes: plants that grow and live off other organisms. Most are surface-level, but the next tree

“Your eyes are open, but your mind remains dis-tracted, concerned with other issues and the world you used to in-habit. It is time to let go of your trepidation and open your mind.”

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over has a vine crawling up it, trying desperately to reach the light gap above. You are suddenly struck by just how many different species surround you, and how much each one wants to live and thrive, which raises the question of whether each is helping or hurting the organisms around it. As you continue along the path, slightly more confidently than before, the trail narrows and the vegetation thickens. You begin to notice more subtle developments, like the varying sounds of bird calls: some jarring, some melodic. You are unable to see any of the birds attached to these calls--except for a few undefined flashes of color above--but you begin to imagine what each looks like, and wonder what purpose it serves. You feel a sudden urge to document all that the rainforest contains, and bring it back to share with your colleagues. Previously you

were overwhelmed by the sheer largeness of the forest, but your interest has piqued and you are now overcome with curiosity for what’s inside it. Furthermore, as you move farther into the trail, you are learning to walk more slowly, more quietly. This allows you to take note of both the variety of delicate re-

lationships that surround you and the abstract symphony being played by birds and insects. By moving slowly and asking questions, you are gradually progressing with you exploration

and immersing yourself in the world of the forest. Stage 3, Understanding: Several hours later, you have covered the majority of the trail, in terms of both walking and obser-vation. Inevitably, you are exhausted: the backs of your knees ache, you are running low on water, and perspiration rolls down your face, the smell of your sweat mingling

“Previously you were overwhelmed by the sheer largeness of the forest, but your interest has piqued and you are now overcome with curiosi-ty for what’s inside it. ”

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with the sweet, slightly humid smell of the rainforest. Despite your fatigue, you feel satisfied in that you have truly begun to understand what’s going on around you. Either from books you have read, science lessons, or some other form of previous knowledge, you have recalled certain concepts and noticed their presence within the immediate area. For example, as you walk past the nearest tree, your practiced feet now nearly silent against the leafy ground, you squat down to examine its roots, surrounding which are a fw clumps of mychorrizal fungi. These two organisms have a symbiotic relationship: while the tree depends of the fungus for absorption of water and essential nutrients, it in turn provides nutrients and a home for the fungus. They depend on one another for survival, and that sense of inter-connection and interdependence permeates through-out the forest. However, as is true in the human world, not all rela-tionships are posi-tive on both sides. Some represent one organism taking something from another; this is true of the strangler fig you noticed at the beginning of your journey, which harmed the tree it attached itself to in order to reach its own goal--a parasitic or detrimental relation-ship. In other cases, one organism benefits from being affixed to another while the second is unaffected, a commensalistic relationship. This is the case with many of the epiphytes evident every few inches on the trail. Within your heightened sense of awareness, you’ve noticed that’s one of the major themes of the forest in general: things growing off one another, living from one another, dependent on one another. There is so much to notice and to learn from your continued exploration of the forest that you feel a strong desire to delve

deeper; in an attempt to create further understanding, you begin to document and take measurements of everything that surrounds you. As you write down which species are flowering and fruiting, calcu-late the GPS coordinates of the nearest light gap, and turn on your recorder to document bird songs, you begin to experi-ence true comprehension, and with that a true connection with the forest and all the possibilities within.

Stage 4, Equilibrium: At this point, you and the forest have reached a balance: your initial trepidation upon entering was driven out by inevitable curiosity resulting from being somewhere completely new, and as you asked questions and pondered your surroundings, the answers you sought

began to appear. In other words, as you began to listen to the forest, it began to speak back to you. You then furthered your knowledge through your own intellectual pursuit, as well as the forest’s

manifestation of the importance of bio-diversity. Each species--from melastones to pipers, from beetles to bellbirds--needs to be protected if their highly productive and interconnected lives are to continue. As a biological researcher and explorer, you understand their roles as well as your own in the overall equation of the forest ecosystem, and with that in mind you and the rest of the natural community can maintain a necessary equilibrium. You are nearing the end of the trail and can see the exit up ahead. As you make your way across the last few meters of rocky terrain, you are truly aware of the beauty and tranquility of the forest and it’s ability to teach you about biology and con-servation. As an individual, you have be-

“I realize more clearly the constant conflicts of my environment, on every level. My concern for the environment is entirely partnered with my con-cern for the future of my classmates and myself.”

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come truly immersed and are at one with the forest’s variety of sounds, smells, and complexities. However, your role in caring for the forest and its marvels stretches further than what you have achieved so far, impressive as it is. Conservation and environmental protection are undervalued in human society, often simply because people don’t seem to understand what the natural world has to offer, or why they would place it above their immediate desires for land and development. You pause just before the end of the trail and the reentrance to the world you had previously known, both literally and figuratively considering your next steps. Personally, you are now in balance with the forest and will certainly be return-ing from time to time to revitalize your knowledge, but your job now is to not only maintain your newfound perspective, but to share it with others. By sharing your findings, and the steps of your journey, you can synthesize the same paradigm shift you have experienced and inspire a better future for the forest. With a deep breath, you take one last look back at the trail, then turn around and walk confidently forward towards your next journey. -by Gwendolyn Schanker

Top: Student brainstorm proj-ect proposals at La Calán-dria in hills outside of Monteverde

Middle: Otto, Jorge, Lili, Savannah, and Taylor explore the rainforest canopy via suspension bridge

Bottom: Taylor speaks with a student who is in a hospital-ity education program at a

high school in Monteverde

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New York State of

Mind

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New York State of

Mind

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The International Montessori Adolescent Summit, the first of its kind in the Montessori world, achieved all of its objectives with high enthusiasm from students and presenters, affirming the framework for what is to become an annu-al tradition. The emphasis on preparation in advance of traveling to New York City meant the students from Houston, Seattle, St. Paul, and Girona, Spain arrived as spe-cialists in one category of the food system: production, processing, distribution, or consumption. In their home cities they researched and interviewed both a local and international organization working in the food system, adding relevance and real-world application to their preparation. On the first evening, the students shared their goals and objectives for the summit with a high level of an-ticipation to explore the food system with their peers. Both unity of intent and community spirit were instant, true to the adolescent ten-dencies to form bonds and seek purpose. The summit opened with a keynote lecture by Danielle Nieren-berg, the co-founder of “Food Tank: A Food Think Tank.” She engaged them in a complex overview of the global food crisis, covering environmental degradation, ag-ing farmers, the growth of cities and urban farming, market volatility in food prices, the physical and mental strain of produc-ing food, and the important role youth play in cultivating a healthy food system.She painted the landscape with a broad brush. The students spoke eloquently about new technologies in sustainable agricul-ture, deeply connecting with alternative methods, such as biointensive farming. Others focused on the need to increase access to healthy fresh foods in urban, low-income areas, while other groups focused on connecting their school farms

with food pantries and developing food education for younger students. Experts from Slow Food NYC, Just Food, the United Nations Development Program, the Brooklyn Food Coalition, and the Farm to School Network were interviewed about the role their organizations play in implement-ing food programs across communities. Student groups rotated directing questions pertaining to their specific food system concentration to each expert. Carrie Blackburn, Just Food Devel-opment and Membership Associate, was impressed with the range of knowledge the students exhibited. “They had really good specific interesting questions about areas that even I hadnʼt thought much about.” Anthony Fassio, chair of the board of Slow Food NYC said, “The students were very well prepared, which helped in facilitating

the conversation. With every group I feel like we could still be talking.” The summit’s key components were each valuable in exposing stu-dents to the breadth of the problem along with the expanse of solutions being taken across sectors. The interviews,

Danielleʼs talk, a visit to the American Museum of Natural History’s Our Global Kitchen exhibit, and the student presummit preparation immersed students in the com-plexities of solving the global food crisis while engaging with people working suc-cessfully to change the system. This served as their springboard for social action. During the final session of the Summit, the students sat tête-a-tête at round tables discussing, synthesizing, and prioritizing all they had learned into a final document representative of their collective knowledge. From the iconic podium in the United Nations General Assembly, the AdolescentSummit student representative read the col-lective recommendations on how to create a just and sustainable food system. -Elizabeth Henke

“Every day your choices affect the future of

our food system. Will you join us in making the right ones?”

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“We are now at a pivotal point in the creation of our global food system. We must make a decisionone way or the

other.”