ZION Education Group was founded in 2004, and the Montessori School of Shanghai (MSS) under the group also opened in the same year. Accredited by the American Montessori Society (AMS) as its 10th grade member school, MSS has always been adhering to the Montessori philosophy and the original intention in the past 20 years, providing families with authentic Montessori education and services. At the same time, TMEC, which belongs to the same group as MSS, has also continued to develop and trained many outstanding Montessori teachers for the group, graduating adult learners from all over the world.

It was a sunny day on December 5th and Ms. Gina, Senior Director of AMS Global Strategy, Ms. Melina, Director of AMS Teacher Training Center, Ms. Jesmine, Consultant of AMS China, and their team came to Zion Education Group for a visit. Mr. Ronny Hei and Mr. Michael Hei welcomed our guests with the management team.

Ms. Gina and team visited two of Zion’s MSS campuses and the Trinity Montessori Education Center (TMEC), and they highly appreciated and recognized the Group’s efforts as an advocate of the Montessori education philosophy, providing high-quality Montessori school environments, and training outstanding Montessori talents in China.

Ms. Gina, Ms. Melina and Ms. Jesmine all have decades of teaching and management experience in the Montessori industry. They are pleased to see that under the leadership of Zion Education Group, its MSS and TEMC have put in their professional efforts to bring the most authentic Montessori education and environment into China, which also integrated the local characteristics. This makes the Montessori Method take root and continue to grow. It also greatly helps the development of the Method, and has benefited thousands of families and children.

Ms. Gina and her team arrived at MSS West Hongqiao Campus first. They had observations in the observation rooms of different levels. They were delighted to see the young children showing independence, concentration, autonomy and confidence with respect and proper guidance from the teachers. In addition to the curriculum, Ms. Gina and the team were particularly interested in how Chinese parents understand Montessori education. All three MSS campuses and TMEC regularly organize monthly parent education seminars and workshops to discuss parenting concepts with parents, spread the Montessori concept of scientific parenting, and assist families in improving their parenting skills.

Afterwards, Ms. Gina and her team visited the MSS Minhang campus. They expressed their appreciation, love and admiration for the natural outdoor environment of the campus, which has a huge outdoor space for exploration and is planted with nearly 100 kinds of natural plants according to the characteristics of the four seasons, suitable for different kinds of birds. Here, the outdoor environment is a natural classroom where children can extend their classroom explorations of plant inserts to the real outdoor environment for hands-on learning, caring for plants, observing birds and bugs, smelling flowers at different times of the year, and picking a variety of vegetables……we have always insisted on creating natural learning environments for the children, because learning does not only happen in the classroom, but also in the nature.

After the campus tour, Ms. Gina and her team visited TMEC at the campus, which has three well-prepared hands-on lab rooms, one for infants, one for toddlers and one for early childhood. The team took photos of the well-prepared rooms. They also had an in-depth discussion with Ms. Annie, Director of TMEC, to understand how the Center leads the transformation of its adult learners at the spiritual level in the training courses they are providing, and how it contributes to the high standard of teacher training, so as to provide the best teachers for the school; and also to understand the efforts and contributions of TMEC in spreading the concept of Montessori positively to the community and families.

The most difficult part of teacher training is not how to manipulate the materials, but how adults are able to put aside their prejudices and arrogance as adults, and systematically understand the rules of children’s development (such as the concepts of the Absorbent Mind and Sensitive Periods in the Montessori philosophy), and how to create a “prepared environment” to help children develop.

What is education? The Montessori Method gives us an answer: education is a process of developing the “whole person”, helping the child to grow into one who develops his body and mind as a whole, who is self-connected, and who is capable of fulfilling his own value in the future. May every adult who accompanies a child become a knowledgeable and aware supporter of the child’s growth!