The 6th Montessori School—Amsterdam’s Ann Frank
We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.
― Anne Frank
Exterior of the 6th Montessori School, Amsterdam
photo credit: Martine Lammerts
On Niersstraat (numbers 41-43) in the city of Amsterdam is situated a unique Montessori school, named after one of its former students. The 6th Montessori School, as it is referred to, is the school where Anne Frank spent her primary and elementary school days, from the years 1934 to 1941. From the age of four until she was eleven years old). The school was only a few blocks away from her house. After all this time, one of the classroom environments has been maintained in its original state, although the site is not itself is not a museum; The 6th Montessori School Anne Frank is a modern elementary school where children still learn together as part of a community following educational principles of Maria Montessori.
The 6th Montessori school is a public (tuition-free) primary school that serves almost three hundred students from the local neighborhood who are divided into twelve groups: four Onderbouw (ages 4-6), four Middenbouw (ages 6-9) and four Bovenbouw (ages 9-12).
The date of Anne's admission was August 16, 1935. Anne lived near the school at the Merwedeplein and therefore it is generally accepted that she walked to the school together with her older sister Margot, who attended a different school 500 meters away from the 6th Montessorischool. At first Anne started at the kindergarten Blauwe Zeedistel (Blue Sea-Holly as it was then called) in the class of Mrs Gudron. There she made her first school friend Hanneli Goslar. The two girls stayed friends for the duration of their school years together.
Left: Anne Frank, seated at one of the school desks that is still in use at the 6th Montessori School, Amsterdam
Photo credit: Martine Lammerts
Anne was guided by Montessori educators Miss Baldal, Mr. Van Gelder, Miss Godron and Miss Kuperus. Anne enjoyed acting. The headteacher, Mrs Kuperus ,remembered that Anne always had ideas, and not being shy, she always played one of the main characters in class productions. Montessori education is recognized for its individualized, interactive and collaborative approach, allowing students to follow specific interests, to conduct research, to develop personal strengths, to experiment and to connect deeply both with information studied and with their own unique learning style. This educational approach likely supported Anne’s trademark creativity, independence, and love for learning, traits that are vividly evident in her diary, begun in June, 1942 (and published in 1947, subsequent to her death from typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945).
Anne had actually anticipated attending a seventh year of elementary school, but this could not happen due to the exclusion of Jews from public education by that time. She therefore immediately went on to secondary school, namely the Jewish Lyceum, when she was twelve years old. In September 1941, one hundred and fifty-eight Jewish children had to leave the 6th Montessori School.
One of the original desks from the 6th Montessori School, attended by Anne Frank Photo credit: Martine Lammerts
One of the Montessori learning environments prepared especially for children aged 4-6 years at the 6th Montessori School, Amsterdam Photo credit: Martine Lammerts
Self care and care of the environment are both important aspects of the practical life curriculum in a Montessori learning environment. Two views of a practical work station at The 6th Montessori School, Amsterdam, preserved in its original form. Photo credit: Martine Lammerts
Self care and care of the environment are both important aspects of the practical life curriculum in a Montessori learning environment. Two views of a practical work station at The 6th Montessori School, Amsterdam, preserved in its original form. Photo credit: Martine Lammerts
During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anne received a blank diary as one of her gifts on 12 June 1942, her 13th birthday.[According to the Anne Frank House Museum the red, checkered book which Anne used as her diary was actually not a surprise, since she had chosen it the day before with her father when browsing a bookstore near her home. She entered a one-sentence note on her birthday, writing
"I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.”
Anne Frank’s diary has been published in more than seventy languages and has also been adapted for stage and screen. I am forever grateful to Martine Lammerts, director of the Dutch Montessori Training Institute - De Nederlandse Montessori Opleiding- in Noordwijk for all of the photos used in this article.
Above: Front aspect of The 6th Montessori School, Amsterdam
Photo credit: Martine Lammerts
After the war, a memorial plaque was placed in the school building. The school was named after Anne Frank on 12 June 1957.
In 1983 a large mural of a passage from Anne's diary was painted on the facade. In translation, it reads: 'I love Holland. I who, having no native country, had hoped it would become my fatherland, and I hope it still will. yours, Anne M. Frank.'
You can learn more about The Sixth Montessori School via Instagram.