More than 100 Montessori teachers, owners of schools and "pioneers" in Montessori education, attended the 100th celebration in Beijing, China, of Dr. Maria Montessori first school's opening on January 6, 1907, in Rome, Italy. (Interesting, Mr. Lu of Beijing Montessori Education Technology Center stated that the time difference from Rome to Beijing brought this celebration close to the actual hour of the school's opening 100 years before!)

Dignitaries and speakers at the celebration were (as seen with flowers on the front row of the top picture) Wan Xuan Rong, Chen Hui Shan, Donald and Sharlet McClurkin, Lu Le Shan (90-year-old former Beijing Normal University professor who introduced Montessori education prior to the Cultural Revolution), Marie Odondaal, Headmaster of Eton School in Beijing, Wang Wei, managing director of Eton Schools in Beijing, and Ji Kui Hua.

Sharlet McClurkin presented the keynote address, "What If Dr. Maria Montessori Had Never Lived...Or Had Never Become An Educator?" She was presented an honorary credential by Beijing Montessori Education Technology Center for speaking and teaching many times in China in the 20th century, and for encouraging new interest in Montessori education after it was ended by the government during the Cultural Revolution.

Read more about Montessori in China.

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