About Us

In the fall of 1988 several United States trainers who worked for London-based St. Nicholas Montessori Training College attended an emergency meeting in London. This meeting was held to consider the future direction of that training organization.

Previously, Jane Dutcher and Aleta Ledendecker had independently decided to leave St. Nicholas if decisions the organization made would not lead toward increasing the quality of St. Nicholas Montessori training.  Amelia McTamaney also attended that emergency meeting and during sessions at her London apartment, the first plans for Montessori Educators International (MEI) were developed, including adopting the name and logo, which Jane Dutcher had already created.

All trainers involved had previously committed to offering St. Nicholas courses for the following summer, so the ensuing months were spent preparing new manuals for the early childhood level for MEI. The team working on writing the manuals included Jane Dutcher, Aleta Ledendecker, Susan Magedanz, Dorothy Ivey, Karen Shrum, and Mary Gebhart. Carl Ledendecker offered technical help, especially with digital illustrations and formatting.

Beginning in the fall of 1989, MEI offered part time courses in Lexington, Kentucky, and Louisville, Tennessee, while manual writing was still on-going. Beginning the summer of 1990, MEI offered training in Richmond, Kentucky, as well as Louisville, Tennessee, and Lexington, Kentucky. By that time the Early Childhood manuals were finished and work had begun on the elementary level manuals.

In 1993, MEI received accreditation through MACTE for its Early Childhood course and maintained that accreditation until 2014. Years of work went into the elementary level. Jane Dutcher and Aleta Ledendecker were the primary authors of the elementary manuals. The first elementary course was offered in 1999, with MACTE accreditation for the elementary course coming in 2000 and continuing until 2007. At that time MEI voluntarily withdrew its elementary course from accreditation due to the change in MACTE’s requirements making it unworkable to meet the new time structure.

Montessori Educators International, Inc. no longer offers training, but has made its manuals available to the public for personal use.