The Portland Montessori Collaborative has a unique interpretation of Dr. Montessori’s work, and our practice includes a deep foundation in attachment based care. We endeavor to create a space where obstacles to independence are removed, where children feel empowered, competent and respected. A place where the foundation of learning is a strong human connection from which every child can explore their world confidently. We call our practice Montessori Collaborative as an acknowledgement of that teaching and learning are collaborations between adult and child. We are a Montessori Collaborative school because we are inspired by the possibilities that emerge by incorporating ideas from the work of Magda Gerber, Howard Gardner, and the schools of and inspired by Reggio Emilia into our Montessori framework for living, learning and growing.
The Portland Montessori Collaborative (pdxMC) was officially born the summer of 2012. Mercedes Castle of All Roads Learning Community and Hilary Smith of Cedar Montessori had, months earlier, begun to plan for bringing their two programs together in one location. Mercedes worked with Cree Falck, the Toddler Guide at Cedar, for many years as her colleague and mentor. Hilary and Mercedes often called upon each other as a professional resource. The idea to bring the programs together came about organically through many partnerships and conversations. Cedar and All Roads are very similar programs, with similar missions, goals and accomplishments. As talks of a merger became more serious, it became obvious that doing so would create a strong organization to bring our shared vision to many children and families of Portland . When the opportunity to move into the perfect space arose, talks became more serious and Portland Montessori Collaborative (pdxMC) was born.
