International Montessori Society (IMS)

The International Montessori Society (IMS) emerged in 1979 as a result of work by its founder, Lee Havis, who first got involved in the field as a teacher in 1969.  At that time, “Montessori” was becoming popular and diverse in its expression in the United States.  After teaching a few years, Lee was asked by his employer to establish an affiliated AMS teacher education program to help fill the growing need for new Montessori teaching in the area. 

When the effort for an AMS program failed, Lee was asked to form a separate less “political” type of Montessori organization, which in 1976, came to be known as “National Center for Montessori Education” (NCME).  Lee created teh NCME training model with a curriculum and format similar to the AMS “culture” type program, except limiting the residential portion by using a “distance learning” portion  similar to the St. Nicholas Montessori College.  By 1979, NCME was providing training through some 26 affiliated centers throughout the United States.

In 1979, Lee’s study of training Montessori teaching led him to discover the original core functioning of this approach as a way of being committed to laws of nature, rather than the conventional commitment to either personality or culture. Since his new understanding in the field mirrored Dr. Montessori’s original type of scientific observation that led to the child’s true nature in 1907, Lee called this approach “true natural” Montessori teaching to distinguish it from the “culture” and “personality” types.

Based on this distinctive “true natural” philosophy, Lee left his employer that owned the rights to NCME, to form a new, separate organization under his exclusive control, which he called the “International Montessori Society” (IMS).  Gradually, IMS came to offer a range of services and support for the practice of “true natural” Montessori teaching, to include training teachers, recognizing schools, and building up an international support network as described at the IMS website: https://imsmontessori.org

After 1979, NCME gradually evolved through new ownership to continue conducting various training activities until the early 2000’s, when its training centers gradually became affiliated with AMS.