Collaboration

First and foremost would be to add to our growing community. Please join us as students, parents of students, fellow educators, collaborators, inspirers all. Please come help help us develop a novel approach and redirection of education through communication and action. We have a physical space to offer in Westbrook, ME. Though small, we fully intend to always expand with our social base. Additionally, we can meet at any of the greater Portland libraries (downtown, Westbrook, South Portland, Scarborough, Gorham, Riverton, Falmouth, etc.) If physical connection is for any reason not convenient, we would be happy to find a way to collaborate through webconferencing. And even aside from any regular, reiterative relationship, even if you’re not even in Maine or you just have personal thoughts on the matter to put forth, we greatly encourage you to send us your stories, give us your feedback and share your thoughts and ideas. Ideas are true power.

Resources

As we are building now from the grassroots up, we are also on the lookout for diverse materials and various implements of creation. In order to reinforce a direct connection with the magnificence of Human Capability and foster the understanding that, with focus and patience, every student can bring to life anything they envision, we are seeking quality handtools, artistic implements, media, materials, etc. (see list below) Specifically, we are seeking out materials and tools of natural make—wood, metal, porcelain, etc. Working with things of objective beauty helps reinforce the connection we have to our works themselves. This assists, in turn, to further emphasize our experience of the magnificent. Beauty begets beauty.

This act of creating with our hands will also be a practical application of many of the foci that are emphasized in “STEM” and other models of traditional education, but facilitated in a meaningful, integral way. Eventually, when we have gathered the necessary tools and experience, we will be able to start constructing even the instructional materials we use, themselves. Until then, we are looking for new or used Montessori materials. The didactic understandings of Montessori—and the supportive materials produced by Nienhaus, Gonzagarredi, A2Z, ETC., et al.—are highly effective pedagogical guides that will be continually referred to in the Incunabulum model. We include a list below highlighting the materials we are hoping to begin with.

Financial Assistance

Lastly, you can help to support us financially. In order to make our space available to the entire community, regardless of financial standing or solvency, we do depend of the generosity of donations. At the moment, we have a Venmo account to accept monetary contributions. We are looking into crowd sourcing and other options.