A Montessori community, half a world away

When Lindsay Davis, daughter of our very own Marli Davis, decided to move to the Northern Mariana Islands—a US territory in the western Pacific, not far from Guam—it wasn’t just the tropical weather that called her there. It was the chance to immerse herself in other peoples and cultures. And to teach Montessori half a world away from home. She’s been there ever since.

Lindsay attended Kalispell Montessori in the 1980s. Today, she still remembers all the events and activities she took part in, from the school carnival and class trips to daily morning stretches and walks in Woodland Park. But most of all, she remembers the people who shaped her experience—her teachers, her classmates, and even her friends’ parents.

“The best way to sum it up would be the strong sense of community at the school,” she says. “Older kids were encouraged to help younger kids, and parents were very involved. It was a great community.”

In the supportive environment of that community, Lindsay remembers being encouraged to work at her own pace and grow her knowledge through exploration. The result? “A profound love of learning and a strong sense of self-confidence that lets me know I am capable of anything I set my mind to.” She recognizes that this is not everyone's experience with education. “But I think it is most people's educational experience at KME.”

“Lindsay’s experience really is a testament to the lasting impact of the education we provide at KME,” says Sarah Brown, head of school. “To see that these things are still with her—and that she is working to bring them to new generations of students—tells us there is something special about our model.”

Inspired by her mother and father—an elementary Montessori teacher and a public school principal, respectively—Lindsay studied early childhood education at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, going on to pursue Montessori training through the Montessori Education Institute of the Pacific Northwest and the North American Montessori Center.

The seed of the idea to move to the Marianas was planted by a college friend from Tinian, another of the islands. But it didn’t fully blossom until she found a job opening at Brilliant Star Montessori School in Saipan, the largest island and capital of the Marianas. There, she saw the opportunity to engage “my deep respect for nature and differences in humans and cultures and a genuine curiosity for the world around me.”

Nearly two decades later, Lindsay has found—and helped to nurture—a Montessori community half a world away from home. With a student body representing American, east and southeast Asian, Chamorro, Russian, and other international cultures, the school finds ways to come together and celebrate its diversity. In fact, embracing differences and reaching every child on their own terms is at the heart of what allows Montessori to support strong school communities.

And it’s a thread that ties Lindsay all the way back to her days as an elementary school student in Kalispell. “As I’m working with my students through various math lessons or cultural projects, I’m reminded of doing these things as a student,” she reflects. “As I see my own students growing and learning both as members of a community and as individuals, I see the value in the experiences I had at KME that fostered the same growth in me.”