Mulhall ’22 at Paz Montessori School in Oaxaca, Mexico

I am spending four months in Oaxaca, Mexico, working at school named Paz Montessori. Paz is a dual language elementary school that follows the Montessori method, and has a focus in Peace Education. The school is in Guadalupe Victoria, a beautiful mountainous rural area outside the city of Oaxaca de Juárez. There are three groups of students, Taller (age 6-13), Casa (age 2.5 -6), and Paz and Play (age 6-13). Casa and Taller spend all day at Paz, and Paz and Play come to school at lunch, after their day in public school has ended. Paz is focused on providing high quality, child-led, and creative education to children of diverse socio-economic, cultural, racial, and language backgrounds. Montessori education aims to give children freedom within limits, inspire confidence, and evoke curiosity and respect.

I have various roles at Paz, art activity leader in Taller, assistant and substitute in Casa, Thursday dish washer, and member of a team of Paz and Play educators. I truly enjoy each of these roles. At Paz I am learning about the Montessori method, dual language education, plants, bugs and birds of Mexico, the dangers of baby scorpions, and countless other things. Below are some photographs from a mapmaking activity I did with Taller. I asked each student to think about a place that is special to them, and then to create of map of that place. Students made maps of their houses, neighborhoods, cities, school, and imaginary worlds.