You are head of the Northern Kentucky Montessori Academy. What does Montessori mean?

Well, it’s Maria Montessori. It’s her last name. [Maria Montessori] was the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree in the late 1800s. And because she was a woman in a very traditional society, the only people that she was able to see as a physician were children, and she started the first “care center,” so to speak, in the ghettos of Rome at the time. That’s how Montessori education was born, actually.

Is there a specific curriculum for the Montessori Academy?

Yes, there’s the Montessori Institute. It’s one of the Montessori training institutes in the country that you can either get a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree in Montessori.

Would you have to have a major in education, or would it be a major in Montessori education?

Well, it’s interesting. So, if you have a degree in something else but you are looking to change your career, or you’ve been involved in Montessori in some other capacity, and suddenly you’ve developed this great interest, then you can actually go to Xavier and then get a master’s degree in [Montessori education].

With no educational background, like if you had a completely different major from the start?

Yes, that’s true. Now, you might have to take some coursework. But [for] the most part, you can teach Montessori. There are also non-university training programs at our school. It’s the only one in the state of Kentucky that’s accredited, currently.

Elementary School, Northern Kentucky Montessori Academy

Provided by NKMA

What’s it called?  

It’s called the Greater Cincinnati Center for Montessori Education. Sort of grabbed it up about a year-and-a-half ago. It had been a part of Children, Inc. in Covington for a number of years, and their focus is to do something different. We now run not just a school for children, but the school for adults as well.

Are you able to work from home, or did you have to completely shut down your school with no more classes?

It has been such an interesting challenge, and I am so incredibly proud of my faculty and what they have done to bring Montessori education into a virtual setting. It’s really astounding because one of the primary distinctions between Montessori education and other kinds of more traditional education is that it’s fun. Through the years, there’ve just been an enormous amount of materials created. We have always stressed the importance of hands-on activity and limiting the number of children. And then, all of a sudden, we were faced with, “What do we do?”

Yeah, when screen time is all you can do.

It’s all you can do. And so, our faculty has just been unbelievable. We’re using classrooms. We are using Zoom for meetings, classroom meetings, storytime for children. We are using Instagram. Each classroom set up a private Instagram group that families can join. And we’ve been doing that, actually, [before] the COVID-19 closure, just for the fun of it.

That’s a really neat idea, to have each class have their own Instagram to display their work.

Yes. A game that we’ve implemented for COVID-19, which has been a favorite of the children, is called Marco Polo. One person does a recording, and then another person looks at the recording and responds to the recording by making their own recording. And the children have just loved it because they’re recording messages to their friends. They’re singing happy birthday to each other. They’re showing things that they’ve been doing in their neighborhoods, taking hikes in the woods. It’s really been unbelievable.

It seems like your students are really connected with each other.

We’re a tight-knit community and a very family-oriented kind of school. We have a little over 90 students, ages two to 12.

The other thing that makes it that way is it’s a non-graded program. This allows for a lot of individualized work. For instance, we’ve had three-year-olds who come in really interested in reading. If that’s what a child is interested in doing, in Montessori, you don’t say, “Well, you’re not old enough to do that yet.” Same with math.

They’ll go through what Maria Montessori called sensitive periods, and it’s a time of heightening opportunity within a child’s innate drive to learn something. You follow their interests and you take advantage of them. When their interest is high in language, you do a lot of language with them. When their interest is high in math, you do that. This allows for a lot of individualized work, and also a high mastery over a three-year period.

You also have children in preschool who are in the same classroom with the same teachers for three years. Now, the toddlers (2 years old) are set up a little differently. But the preschool is a three-year program and then elementary is divided into lower elementary and upper elementary. So, your first, second, and third graders are grouped together; your fourth, fifth, and sixth graders are grouped together.

This grouping also gives those older children a real sense of what it’s like to be a leader, and they also develop an unusual sense of empathy and compassion for others because they develop this layer of social sophistication that’s unique. Because they’re in a room with three-year-olds, four-year-olds, five-year-olds, they start to sort of innately understand the developmental differences.

That’s really interesting. You also said that the grading system is different than other schools. So, what would happen if your child attended a Montessori school, but then you had to move because of a job? How would you be able to put your child in the correct grade?

Well, that’s a very good question and one we get frequently. Just because we don’t grade children doesn’t mean that we don’t do evaluations. Our report cards are just long, detailed, usually the description of each [student’s] learning in certain areas, and they’re social, emotional [development]. It’s sort of like reading a mini “biography” report card. We just don’t do letter grades. The only testing we do is in the elementary program. We do a norm-referenced for elementary students. We have the knowledge and we want them to have it. It also gives us a way of looking at our children against other children the same age across the country.

It makes me think about when I was in elementary school and how I would prefer the library and reading over anything else.

You would be amazed at how many people say that. It’s what has attracted them to become Montessori teachers, or you’re a parent, and they’re looking for something different than a daycare center. They find us and they get completely captivated by our curriculum. They often say, “I wish I could go back to school and be a Montessori student.”

So, people may have misconceptions about Montessori schools. One example I read was, many people believe that Montessori schools are only available to rich people.

That’s an unfortunate [misconception]. Actually, Cincinnati uses Montessori education in some of the most popular magnet schools. I think probably one of the [reasons] is because many Montessori schools are tuition-based. You rely on your tuition income. But we also have a tuition assistance program that allows us to provide aid for any child.

Students cleaning a graffiti wall

Provided by NKMA

 In our first Member Spotlight Series, we interviewed Xavier Leadership Center’s Director, Carol Turchick. She gave us the background on what they do including their popular programs Six Sigma, Lean Certificate, and Project Management.  

What is your position at the Xavier Leadership Center? 

I’m the Director of the Xavier Leadership Center. I’ve been at Xavier for just over five years. 

When was this Leadership Center established? How long has it been around? 

The Xavier Leadership Center has been around for over 50 years. The business community used to come to the business school at Xavier and asked for expertise from the faculty, marketing, econ, finance. A lot of times they would say, “Do you have anyone at Xavier that can help us do process improvement? Or look at our marketing strategy?” 

So, businesses in the area will come to you for help on marketing and business strategies and such, correct? 

I would say in our current form, the majority of the services that we provide our professional development, coaching, and consulting.

Is there a difference between the Leadership Center mission and Xavier’s? 

The only difference is that we focus on professionals that are not undergraduate or graduate students. They are already in the workforce. We help continue that lifelong learning and developing them as professionals. 

We have a very experiential format. It is not just content-driven. They do interact with people from other companies or in a private setting with one organization. They would do activities within that learning to have that experience to take back to make an immediate impact. 

Carol Turchick, Executive Director of Xavier Leadership Center

Photo provided by XLC

That’s interesting. What kind of students or clients do you get in the Leadership Center?  

We do professional development in two ways:

We have what we call our Corporate University. We have a schedule of classes in the Fall and the Spring. Anyone from any organization can sign up and take a class with people from other organizations. The benefit is you do learn from others outside of your organization, how they handle problems, how they do process improvement, what’s worked, what doesn’t. It is also a very, very strong network. 

We also deliver those same programs privately for an organization. The benefit is to take the individuals within your organization and focus very specifically on what’s happening within your organization or looking at how do you develop your managers, your leaders, based on what your core culture might be. Then try to figure out the best way forward. 

Why would a company look to you for help? They can always hire a consultant, they could go a different route; so why would you be the best option? 

I think we are a good fit for organizations and individuals because we are experiential, I believe. And also, two things. I think for individuals that come to us and want to take our Corporate University, they are getting a certificate and education from Xavier. And I do believe that it has a status to it. 

Our facilitators are looking at the organization from a cultural standpoint. We ask the deeper questions of why we are doing things and why the organization needs that intervention or support. Where do they want to be when we’re finished with that engagement? I think it is looking at the whole person, and you can also transform that into the whole organization. What are you trying to accomplish? And then, how can we take that business acumen, leadership skills, and process improvement that we provide and make it right for that person or organization?

Minus COVID-19, we’ll have that question in a moment, in a typical day, what’s a challenge that you’re running into often involving either training, consulting, or any challenge in general? 

A challenge for us is people knowing about the Xavier Leadership Center. We have many clients and we engage with many individuals. We often hear, “Wow, I didn’t even realize that you did this.” Or, “I didn’t realize how flexible your group is.” Or, “I didn’t understand how flexible you were with providing what it is that we need.” 

I would say also, the challenges that we’re hearing, and that we’re commonly asked to help with, is that we’re in a unique time. There are multi-generations in the workforce. People are being asked to be in management roles sooner than in the past. So, that creates a situation where they have had less experience. Maybe not as much leadership development in the necessary skills.

We are asked, “How do we develop our managers? How do we have them manage others and be successful in doing that?” So, a lot of our focus is on that soon-to-be-manager up to that executive level. That’s where we find that we can bring these people together and have them experience the skills and the learning; these organizations feel that immediate impact. 

What have you been doing while this pandemic has been happening? Have you been doing things online? 

We moved our Spring Corporate University to an online format. And we are so grateful to our facilitators for sticking with us and helping us. They are a part of our team. I will say, I feel like, for our participants, for them to be able to continue with that professional development during this time has been invaluable. 

I was thinking that it’s a really good time to ask for help. Because many people don’t know what to do, especially without the experience of being a manager. They might not know how to handle the situation. 

There is a lot of managing virtually and emotional intelligence skills needed. I would say thank you to our participants because they also have been super flexible and understanding that we also don’t have control. And this is not the way we would want to be. But they have also very much leaned into the programs, been online, and been very engaged in the program.

Having the transition from being in person, inside a building, to online. What are some things you’ve learned or struggled with doing things virtually?

We have always prided ourselves on engagement. So, having people in the classroom or a room together sitting and doing activities is something that has always set us apart. It’s the mind shift to say, “Can we still do that in a virtual format?” Because that is who we are and that is our brand. We have had to be creative and understand that we can do that in a virtual environment. And I feel very comfortable that we’ve been able to replicate that the most we possibly could in a virtual format. 

The feedback that we’ve heard is, “Wow, I didn’t know that it could be that engaging online.” But our facilitators have done a great job. We have breakout rooms. We have breaks during that time where they go do something on their own to kind of think about stuff, and then bring that back to the group.

We have no idea what’s going to happen in the next couple of months with the pandemic, but would you continue the virtual training even if the pandemic suddenly just disappeared, all back to normal? Would you continue using some aspects of virtual learning? 

Yeah, that’s a great question. We already had talked to our customers and knew based on the customer feedback that we did need to have some virtual components. From a time standpoint, does it make sense to do certain things virtually? I think the pandemic just propelled us a few years ahead. 

I do see the benefits of online and virtual experience. We found one of the greatest opportunities that we have is that Xavier alumni across the county can now participate in our programs. Their staff, teams and their company can also participate in the Xavier Leadership center to develop their employees and themselves. They could not do that before.

A deeper look into Xavier Leadership Center

Photo provided by XLC