CJMTE

Brocha and I never get tired of telling the story. Of how we met, how we first collaborated, and how it all took off from there. It was August of 2017 and I got a call from a dear friend, Khurram, the owner of Alisons Montessori. He had received a call from Brocha Baum, the owner and head of school for Darchei Noam Montessori near Baltimore. Could I help her with launching a new elementary program? Work with her new teachers? Support a new Montessori classroom? “She’s good people. Help her if you possibly can”. I thought ahead to what the Fall had in store for me by way of obligations and felt that I could probably manage a trip down from Maine sometime in October, and said, “Sure, give her my contact information and we’ll go from there”. In the ensuing conversation, I quickly learned two things: one, Brocha wanted someone to come down over Labor Day weekend (!) , and two, it saves a lot of time if you just agree with what she needs to get done in the first place. Brocha must mean “relentless energy towards a goal” in Hebrew. Consulting turned into workshops, turned into in-house teacher-training, turned into a full-blown course with 12+ adult learners coming from five different Montessori programs three years later. Mazel Tov!