Commitment to Diversity

At the heart of Montessori philosophy is the belief that every child is a unique individual with specific needs, identities, talents and backgrounds. It is with this philosophy in mind that NNM community embraces diversity and inclusion as central tenets.

Diversity, in its most simple form, means difference. At NNM, diversity includes race, ethnicity, religion, family composition, family traditions, sexual identity, ability, political affiliation and socioeconomic status.

While we seek to respect all differences that community members find meaningful, we ultimately believe that our diversity at NNM is possible because of a key similarity: shared values. All students of different religions, race and ability experience equity in education because of a shared respect for learning within our diverse community in which ideas are freely exchanged.

At NNM we seek to understand diversity through the eyes of a child. Children need to see others like themselves to feel secure in their environment and free to work to fulfill their potential. For some, that may mean seeing themselves reflected racially or ethnically. For others, it may mean seeing that others share their family composition. What is important about diversity is that it offers a way to affirm the self and a way to understand others.

Diversity at NNM is linked to committed dialogue. Diversity is only interesting when it leads to deeper learning, broader understanding and a greater opportunity for questioning. This means that we are not satisfied to “diversify” our school through quotas that make our promotional materials look colorful but do nothing to change the content of the classroom. Combined with our Montessori values of self-directed learning, students as teachers and cosmic education, diversity provides our students with a meaningful education and the confidence to make a difference.

NNM Geographic Diversity of 2011-12 Families