Welcome to IMTI: Our story
Tapping the trees in the sugarbush
The International Montessori Training Institute was formed from the merging of two efforts:
The growing demand around the world for support for teachers doing adolescent work with a Montessori approach
Since the historic gathering in 1996 of Montessori leaders interested in developing Montessori education for adolescents, adolescent programs around the world grew parallel to the reach of the summer NAMTA Orientation to Adolescent Studies Course, originally offered at Hershey Montessori School in Huntsburg, OH under the direction of David Kahn. By 2019, the Orientation Course (recognized as a certificate course by AMI in 2010 and supported by the organization of Great Work, Inc.) was being offered in 5 different locations: Huntsburg, Ohio; Satila, Sweden; Redlands, California; Denver, Colorado; and Chihuahua, Mexico.
The Orientation inspired practitioners to adopt a Montessori lens on the kind of environment adolescents thrive in and their specific developmental and educational needs. However, experiments in various contexts, interpretations of theory, ongoing observation, and a call for examining theory into practice pointed to a need for deeper understanding of our work—and a more thorough training of teachers.
In 2017 an Executive Studies Team was formed under the combined auspices of AMI, NAMTA, and Great Work, Inc. to conduct a study of the current Orientation Course, the need for a full training course, and the reach and potential accessibility of the AMI adolescent work globally. A two-year sequence of Deep Dives and Colloquiums with experienced practitioners, trainers, and interested community members led to the proposal of a full 12-18 Diploma Course accredited by AMI.
As the farm and residential setting at Hershey Montessori School has housed the AMI-NAMTA-Great Work Orientation to Adolescent Studies for 16 years, it only made sense to establish a training center to host the AMI training in the same location.
2. In honor of Joen Bettmann, the first AMI trainer (along with Hildegard Solzbacher) to offer Montessori training in the Cleveland area
In 1987, Joen Bettmann and Hildegard Solzbacher opened the Ohio Montessori Training Institute in Cleveland to prepare Montessori teachers working with 3-6-year-olds. After nearly 20 years, Joen moved her work to Atlanta, GA where she opened the International Montessori Training Institute of Atlanta, to serve the growing diverse population of children and schools there seeking Montessori education. Joen is a passionate, dedicated, articulate trainer with high standards, an extraordinary sense of humor, and a deep love for life and for the work of aiding the development of children. We have adopted the name of her training center as well as its logo—the compass rose—in her honor.
The compass rose was chosen as a logo by Joen to represent the four corners of the Earth as a reminder of our responsibility to serve all children everywhere. With embedded constructive triangles, it indicates the importance of the foundation of development and the natural interrelationship of nature and science. To represent the nature of adolescents and their potential, we have tilted the compass rose to indicate a trajectory forward and to emulate the seasonal tilt and changes of the Earth; we have given it the greens, blues, and yellows of the planet, its land and water, and its energy for supporting life.