“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.”
— Maria Montessori
Making Excellence Inclusive is a guiding principle for access, student success, and high-quality learning. NSM continues to strive to integrate diversity, equity, and educational quality into our mission and daily operations.
Through the practice of Inclusive Excellence, we address diversity, inclusion, and equity as critical to the well-being of our learning environment. Making excellence inclusive is an active process through which NSM achieves excellence in learning, teaching, facilitating full emotional development, institutional operations, and engagement in local and global communities.
A high-quality education should be the standard of excellence for all students. The action of making excellence inclusive requires that we uncover inequities in student success, identify effective educational practices, and build such practices organically for sustained institutional change.
NSM continues to develop a broad school community who are willing to engage in the necessary, and sometimes difficult, conversations and decision-making that can lead to transformational change for student learning and achievement.
“The needs of mankind are universal.
Our means of meeting them create the richness and diversity of the planet.
The Montessori child should come to relish the texture of that diversity.”
— Maria Montessori
Montessori education, in its essence, is a pedagogy of acceptance, appreciation of individuals, and understanding. We are incredibly fortunate to have the Montessori peace education curriculum to support our work. Dr. Maria Montessori was a true visionary who developed this curriculum (over 100 years ago) and was nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes.
Our community’s work commitment to Inclusive Excellence is designed to deepen our Montessori practice and make us a stronger, more vibrant, and inclusive community. Yet even with our unwavering adherence to Dr. Montessori’s tenets, we know we must forward the work, taking a stand for equity and justice as models for our children and adolescents. We do this work so that our children have the foundation to move through the world with a deeper understanding of and care for humanity.
Our commitment is that every member of our community experiences a sense of belonging which allows them to engage fully, share their unique intelligence, and take thoughtful risks. The result is a stronger, more dynamic, and vibrant culture. Safety and belonging in our community will provide the foundation to build meaningful relationships, facilitate full emotional development and self-expression, and greater overall achievement. It is the duty of every member of our community to support the work of Inclusive Excellence as we guide our students in becoming responsible and engaged citizens of the world.
- Diversity: Individual differences (e.g., personality, prior knowledge, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religious, or other affiliations)
- Inclusion: The active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity—in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect—in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions
- Equity: The creation of opportunities for historically underserved populations to have equal access to and participate in educational programs that are capable of closing the achievement gaps in student success and completion
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