Adolescent Summit
The International Montessori Adolescent Summit serves as a key experience to unite, empower, and mobilize adolescents via examination of current global crises for constructive social change.
The International Montessori Adolescent Summit brings together youth from Montessori Schools around the world to tackle one current global issue each year and build on the universal Montessori skills necessary to act locally and globally. At each summit, adolescents apply these skills, acquired in their Montessori experience, to global realities:
- an understanding of complexity applied to a particular issue
- an ability to identify the significant components of a problem
- a capacity to focus and concentrate on an issue
- an ability to ask essential questions about a problem
- a habit of conscious conversation in a problem solving capacity
- a desire to engage in dialogue that builds trust and innovation, and
- a hope to construct bridges across local, national, and international sectors.
(Fisher & Ury. (1991). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.)
Complex global issues are a compelling and developmentally appropriate subject for Montessori middle and high school youth. The Montessori Model United Nations conference offers a structure and format for global perspective taking from upper elementary to early adolescence, using the United Nation venue for their productivity. This International Montessori Adolescent Summit for ages 14-18 takes the adolescent into real world institutions using New York City for its place-based learning realities.
The Montessori Adolescent Summit is organized by the Montessori Institute for the Science of Peace (MISP) and is made possible by the support of the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association (NAMTA) and the Montessori Model United Nations (MMUN) Conference.