The International Montessori Society (IMS) was established by Lee Havis in 1979 as a non-profit educational corporation in the state of Maryland. Led by its founder and director, the mission of IMS has been to provide a network of support and resources for learning and developing skills in the scientific observation of children as initially practiced by Dr. Maria Montessori in 1907.
In 1907, Dr. Montessori discovered what she later realized was the childās true nature through a pure, but mysterious type of observation. In her writings, she described the outward effects of her discovery as revealing such outward qualities as spontaneous self-discipline, love of order, attachment to reality, and complete harmony with others which she later realized as “normal” in human development. After 1907, for many years, she sought to instruct others in this scientific observation which eventually came to be known as Montessori teaching.
In 1979, Lee Havis, while training Montessori teachers, came to discover a fundamental understanding of the nature and functioning of this Montessori teaching, which he later described as a way of being committed to laws of nature with children. In that same year, he created IMS to organize means to communicate this “new education” to others to facilitate its actual practice with children. Today, Lee continues to manage and coordinate all IMS activities on a global scale through regular periodicals, teacher education, membership, recognition of Montessori schools, and other means as are described elsewhere on this IMS website, http://imsmontessori.org.
IMS Montessori teaching is unique in the field, since it follows laws of nature, rather than “personality” or “culture” as common elsewhere in the conventional Montessori community. This commitment to laws of nature is what brings about the child’s true nature, whereas types committed to personality or culture do not.
In 2003, Lee consolidated new practical guidance, called ātechnologyā, for conducting this IMS ātrue naturalā Montessori teaching in an objective, scientific way that was never possible before. This technology is now a key body of knowledge provided in all IMS training and support for creating Dr. Montessoriās ānew educationā in the world.