|
Phyllis Wallbank MBE (born 1 September 1918) is a British educationalist who, in 1948, founded the first all-age Montessori school in Great Britain and the Gatehouse Learning Centre, which took its name from the gatehouse of the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great in London. == Life == Wallbank began as a Froebel-trained teacher. Working in juvenile courts as a children's officer in Buckinghamshire, however, she realised that far fewer children would become delinquent if they could be educated to assume their own personal responsibilities and so take their rightful place in society. To do this, she trained under Maria Montessori and became a personal friend. In Montessori's later years, she served as her co-examiner for both the ordinary and the advanced courses. She served as Chairperson of the Montessori Association in England and as Vice-President of the International Montessori Association. She also organised the last International Montessori Congress, which met in London shortly before Montessori's death. William J. Codd, Professor of Education at Seattle University, wrote of Wallbank: "The one on whom the robe of Montessori should fall to carry on the living tradition." Wallbank was married to the Revd Prebendary Newell Eddius Wallbank, a long-time Rector of St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield,〔(raheresgarden.com )〕 and a noted musician and scholar of the pipe organ. It was in the priory church's gatehouse that Wallbank began the Gatehouse School, becoming the Gatehouse Learning Centre, later expanding to Great Missenden. Through the educational philosophy of Montessori, Wallbank was drawn to the Catholic Church: she felt that Montessori's method naturally demanded the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. She became a Catholic but was advised by her spiritual director to remain "underground" so as not to embarrass her husband. After retirement, Wallbank and her husband moved out of London to Dorney near Eton, where they had a little house on the Common.〔(Dorney Common )〕 Both were involved in different ways with Eton College, with her husband conducting services for BBC broadcasts and she coaching the weaker students and introducing them to her Slough Run. Shortly before the death of her husband, Canon Timothy Russ〔(thetablet.co.uk )〕 introduced Wallbank to the writings of the Canadian philosopher and theologian Fr Bernard Lonergan SJ CC. She found in Lonergan a philosophy that was deeply consonant with Montessori's educational practice and convictions. She was subsequently invited to lecture at the annual Lonergan Workshop at Boston College; some of her lectures have been published in the proceedings of the workshop. The Phyllis Wallbank Educational Trust was founded to continue her educational thinking and expertise.〔(pwet.org.uk )〕 Wallbank remains retired in Dorney, where she continues to be active, entertaining international scholars at her home and communicating with a wide variety of people after having embraced the internet. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Phyllis Wallbank」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|