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by Paul Epstein, Ph.D.

our-year-old Gita sits on Bhola Dhital’s porch in the

Paul sir, I have just five children. For me, it is very challenging that

Nepalese village of Kharpa. From Kathmandu, access

most of the schools that have used “Montessori” in their name are run

to Kharpa is either a six- or seven-day trek through

by very rich persons, and they don’t have a Montessori environment.

the mountains or a 35-minute flight to a grassy airfield fol-

People have misconceptions on Montessori education. They think that

lowed by a three-hour walk. There is neither electricity nor

it is just for rich people. For the beginning, it will be very difficult. If

running water in the village. The children do not have toys to

I could bring any good result, only then parents would find the differ-

play with; they care for livestock and tend gardens by the time

ences. For one year, I think that it will be difficult time for me….My

they are two years old. Most children cannot attend school;

family sends Namaskar to you.

they live two, three, and four hours walking distance from the government school. Bhola, a government-employed teacher

Bhola’s story is about passion, persistence, and calling. To

during the past twenty years, decided to resolve this issue in

fathom his fortitude, courage, and dignity requires knowing

1998 by building a boarding school with his life-long friend,

Kharpa and Kathmandu. In his service to children, and to

Gita’s father.

build a Montessori school, Bhola struggled to alter the cultural conditions of these places. Eventually he closed his school; he

One afternoon, while we cut bamboo to make math materi-

could not build a sustaining enrollment. Bhola could not over-

als, Gita climbed up on the porch and spontaneously sorted

come a deeply rooted cultural belief: women, not men, care

the large pile by color: green, blue, and red. No presenta-

for young children. An anthropological study of place exam-

tion had been made; there was no prepared environment.

ines what it means to be human and how humans develop,

Gita’s concentration was incredible; her movements precise.

maintain, and evolve their places in terms of cultural relation-

She sorted for almost thirty minutes. I was speechless, and

ships. Anthropological study itself is a profound and humbling

moved to tears. Perhaps Dr. Montessori witnessed this in San

experience.

Lorenzo. Reflecting years later on her 1907 experience, she wrote: “What was the wonder due to? No one could state it

How do we present to adolescents the social organization

clearly. But it conquered me forever, because it penetrated my

they now experience and understand as social newborns? It

heart as a new light. One day I looked at them with eyes which

has been suggested that humanity estranged itself from place

saw them differently and I asked myself: ‘Who are you? Are

with the invention of agriculture, which, contrary to a hunt-

you the same children you were before?” (Montessori, 1942).

ing/gathering subsistence economy, led to increased division

The school opened during the fall of 1998; 150 children were

of labor, specialization, greater urbanization, industrialization,

enrolled and living at the school a year later. The Maoists came

exploitation of place for raw manufacturing materials, and

to the village in 2003 and took over the school. Bhola and

global warming. “Society,” wrote Montessori (1976), “has not

his family were forced to leave his ancestral home and flee to

only developed into state of utmost complication and extreme

Kathmandu. In 2007, Bhola left his family and completed a

contrasts, but it has now come to a crisis in which the peace of

one-year Montessori training course in India. Upon returning

the world and civilization itself are threatened” (p. 97).

to Kathmandu, he opened his Montessori school in the winter of 2008. Bhola described his challenges in an email.

This scenario is ever present today; the social speed of change fueled by a global web of technology presents the future