Interview with Diane Teng, Head of Preparatory Office for Y2 Montessori—Early Childhood Education Program.
Diane specializes in family education and relationship management. In addition to being the co-host of the Y2 Podcast and COO of the Y2 Foundation for Future Education, she is currently responsible for planning Y2 Montessori-Early Childhood Education Program.
If you’ve listened to the Y2 Podcast, you are likely familiar with the sharp, energetic, and humorous Diane Teng. Diane’s job titles and roles are as diverse as the multiverse.
With her professional specialty being family education and relationship management, she is the podcast’s co-host, COO of the Y2 Foundation for Future Education (Y2 Foundation), and the person in charge of the planning for Y2 Montessori-Early Childhood Education Program.
In 2023, she also obtained her AMI Diploma in the US for teaching children ages 0-3.
The right time, right place and right people—the dream of AMI training for ages 0-3 fulfilled
After managing Y2 Foundation for more than six years, why would Diane want to obtain AMI training?
Diane smiles and says that Y2 Foundation hopes that all colleagues will receive professional Montessori teacher training, but she was always too busy with work and taking care of two young children, which prevented her from going abroad for training.
"One day, the foundation founder said, ‘You can do this, Diane!’ and gave me the task of planning and preparing for Montessori Early Childhood Education Program, which includes kindergarten, daycare center, and parent-child collaborative learning. A long-held wish had at last come true. "
Sometimes it takes a little pressure for somethings to get done," says Diane.When people, time, and place are in alignment, things happen. In 2022, while the COVID pandemic was still raging, AMI inaugurated the "blended course" training format, which combined in-person and online classes.
This resolved Diane’s dilemma of leaving home and her children behind in order to study abroad for an extended period of time.
Even more fortuitus, Diane was able to join one of the few courses with Mandarin translation in which she could write using her mother tongue. As a result, she is able to simultaneously save time and distance, while overcoming the seemingly insurmountable language barrier.
After taking the final two months of in-person classes and exams in Denver, Colorado, she completed her training in 2023. One might say it was all divinely arranged.
It’s a blessing to have time to devote entirely to learning—to just attend classes, think deeply, do homework, cook, take strolls, and just live! Diane is grateful for the foundation's support and now has an even stronger sense of purpose.
"Because I went to the training with a mission, I constantly think about what I can do for society and community after I return to Taiwan. The biggest change is that it reinforced my belief that ‘adults need to change."
Diane pointed out, "When people are sick, they need to be aware of their illness. Similarly, education needs to awaken adults’ awareness and help them turn their lives around."
It’s unprecedented!
Teachers receive full salary while studying full-time
After internal teacher training is completed, the school continues to promote on-the-job training and the cultivation of teachers’ soft skills and other life competencies. The school atmosphere is designed to encourage teachers to create change and impact.
Montessori education stresses the importance of a "prepared environment," where preparation of adults is key. In the future, the teachers will run the school.
In addition to providing a spacious and bright learning environment suitable for children to work in, Diane expresses that she will also focus on "cultivating teachers to become better versions of themselves and to be the teachers we envision."
It is very difficult to recruit a team with teaching credentials and Montessori certification, so the recruitment effort, therefore, views character traits as highly important.
Diane hopes that teachers "will be loving and caring." Do they keep others in mind? Do they consider other people's feelings when performing their duties? That's the at the core of "working with people."
Secondly, teachers should be open-minded and enthusiastic about learning because knowledge will help us solve problems. Moreover, enthusiasm for learning can be infectious, spreading to those around you, including the children in school.
Cultivating professional skills is the next step. Because this is a Montessori school, "we hope that our teaching team will be well prepared when the kindergarten opens its doors.
That’s to say, every teacher who works with children in the classroom must understand Montessori principles and know how to support children’s self-development."
To meet this goal, Diane reveals that the planning office has adopted a strategy that may be unprecedented: providing teachers with an entire year’s full-time salary while they undergo teacher training. "We hired a group of outstanding Montessori instructors in Taiwan to train our teachers.
Starting in 2023, we've enabled our teachers to first become students." Several of the teachers are also receiving international Montessori teacher training. Cultivating talent is an ongoing endeavor.
After internal teacher training is completed, the school continues to promote on-the-job training and the cultivation of teachers’ soft skills and other life competencies. The school atmosphere is designed to encourage teachers to create change and impact.
Parent-child collaborative learning begins when adults change
During her training, Diane never stopped thinking about how to apply her learning in the kindergarten.
She hoped to create a different kind of "parent-child collaborative learning" space, where parents could work with their child while Montessori teachers observed their interactions and offered educational support.
At best, a kindergarten can influence children from ages three to six, but parent-child collaborative learning can start from pregnancy.
When parents are imbued with Montessori principles, its core concepts and values can remain with and support families for a lifetime. This is what Diane most hopes for.
Why is first-hand experience so important? What impact does it have on education? Smiling, Diane offers an example. During the AMI 0-3 training process, the trainees must create their own teaching aids and have to use the sewing machine to make certain items.
Diane confesses that she is not skilled at making things by hand and had never used a sewing machine. She kept wondering, "What does sewing have to do with becoming a teacher?"
Upon hearing this question, Nicky Ma, Y2 Foundation’s consultant and founder of Utopia Montessori School, awakened the dreamer: "How would it feel to go from not being good at something to trying and completing it? What would the experience be like?" The question opened Diane’s eyes—is that what children ages 0-3 experience?
From being unable to do something—progressing from lying down to turning over to crawling and then to standing and walking—there will be times when children get angry and cry, but after succeeding, they gain a sense of achievement and self-confidence, a feeling that "I can do it" gradually takes root in their hearts.
This reflection deepened Diane’s desire for parents and the teaching team to have a similar experience. "This way, adults will try to empathize with children with whom they will work in the future."
"How can you give something you don't have? That’s why the school first allows teachers a whole year for training and for self-discovery," Diane reflects sentimentally.
This realization came to Diane only after she allowed herself to reset and to begin anew. Diane’s reacquaintance with Montessori is full of energy.
As Diane looks ahead to the future, she aspires to not only lead the foundation to a better place but also to create a unique Montessori Early Childhood Education Program.
Written by Yu-Hsiu Su
Images provided Diane Deng
Translators: Robert Fox Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation, NTNU