Joen Bettmann Primary
Training of Trainers Fund
Joen Bettmann was an AMI trainer of trainers for many years, impacting the lives of many Montessori trainers and guides. Her life was cut short by cancer. But before she died, she established a fund to assist others to become AMI trainers. This fund is growing through the generosity of donors. As it grows, it will become a greater resource for those who wish to follow in the legacy of Maria Montessori and train Montessori guides.
This is a short description of her life and work.
Becoming a primary teacher
Joen Bettmann chose to become a Montessori primary teacher. It was to be her life’s work. She sought to enable children to reach their full potential through Montessori’s child-centered pedagogy. She taught diverse classes of children, helping them develop their social and emotional skills as well as their academic knowledge. It was a joyous time for Joen, she clearly loved the children and her role as their guide.
Funding a legacy
Montessori teacher training is a demanding transformative program wherein adults attend lectures, practice the lessons they will one day teach, make their own classroom materials all the while supporting each other and gaining deep understanding of the development of the child. Those adults who dedicate themselves to teaching Montessori principles become profoundly knowledgeable about the child and its developmental stages. At the same time, they become much more aware of their own strengths and skills.
Becoming a Montessori teacher has an impact far beyond the children taught. Families whose children attend Montessori school become more knowledgeable about the capabilities of their children, come to understand how Montessori principles positively enhance their own lives, and that extends into the community. These families experience children who are engaged, happy to learn, passionate about the world around them and caring of each other. Montessori teachers help their students and families to become positive and peaceful forces.
Becoming a trainer of teachers demands an even higher level of commitment. As described on the AMI website, “This programme is an invigorating experience that provides participants with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the ideas and principles of Maria Montessori and ultimately pass the knowledge on to future generations of Montessori teachers.”
Joen Bettmann Primary Training of Trainers Fund
Joen Bettmann was one of those master trainers, a Montessori trainer who taught would-be teachers around the world to become Montessori teachers.
Cancer shortened Joen’s life, but before she died in May 2020, she created the Joen Bettmann Primary Training of Trainers Fund to continue the work she loved. This fund when fully funded will offer Trainers in Training a stipend to cover some of the expenses they’ll incur during their apprenticeship year.
Our Long term goal is to raise a total of $500,000. Then we will underwrite one or more trainers in training’s apprenticeship year.
Working with the real teachers, the children
Joen started out to become a Montessori guide for many reasons, but first and foremost it was to work with children. She loved children and she saw her career being one with children, especially children who were in crisis.
In becoming a Montessori guide, Joen followed in the footsteps of Maria Montessori who observed children in crisis and built her pedagogy and philosophy in part based on her observations of marginalized children. Joen, in turn, worked with children, including neurodiverse children as a teacher or guide for several years, helping them learn Grace and Courtesy, routine, agency, and self-mastery to begin to cope and heal from their crises. Joen found joy in working with these all children..
After working for a number of years in the classroom, Joen decided she wanted to continue her personal transformation journey by becoming a trainer and joined the AMI Training of Trainers program. It had to be a difficult decision. She loved working with children. She saw them as her real teachers. To leave the classroom filled with children had to be a challenging decision for Joen.
A number of trainers we’ve talked with have mentioned that they felt becoming a trainer was a means of impacting the lives of more children during their careers. As Yu Teng-Chien, now an AMI primary trainer, reminisces in this recording, Joen felt this way.
As one of Joen’s students in her primary training course, Yu Teng-Chien began his personal transformation journey as he tells us in this quote:
When I took the Primary training with Joen, she lectured on theoretical topics and presented specially designed materials while we took notes and practiced the materials. Joen didn’t give us fixed written albums. Each student would need to write their own reference albums for their future work with children.
Knowledge, experiences, and culture are passed on from one generation to the next through oral tradition. Moreover, the specific movements related to the use of the materials as well as the mannerisms are transmitted psychosomatically through the participation of the students in a Prepared Environment for training purposes. To train means to facilitate the students’ transformational process. I guess that is why we often say “my trainer said”!
Choosing to become a trainer
Joen taught for many years, during which time she developed her observation and teaching skills, becoming a highly skilled and beloved primary teacher.
At the same time, Joen began to think about perhaps becoming a trainer of teachers. It would be a major step away from the classroom, away from the children. The children she loved and the children who in turn loved her. While training to become a Montessori trainer involves working in the classroom, it would be different than having her own class. It would be removed from the level of involvement she thrived on when she ran her own classroom.
At the same time, becoming a trainer would extend the impact she was having. By training future Montessori teachers, Joen would indirectly reach more children. She would train multiple teachers during her career, each one of them teaching scores of children during their careers. It was a multiplying effect that could have profound reach.
