Alumni Spotlight: Maurie Ponder - a Former Abintra Student, Current Abintra Parent, and Nashville Educator
By Emily Allen and Abintra students Anabel and Kiki
“I’ve been in education my whole career, and I think that traces back to what a safe, joyous place school always was for me, which started at Abintra.” - Maurie Ponder
Maurie Ponder is an Abintra parent, but she’s more than that:
she herself attended Abintra in its earliest years. We enjoyed her bubbly
personality and enthusiasm during our time together. Maurie
shared her memories of Abintra and interesting insight into the life of an
Abintra student in the early 80’s, as well as how her time at Abintra
influenced her life experiences.
Maurie attended Abintra from 1984 to 1988, during the
equivalent of her 1st through 4th grade years (Abintra
ended at 4th grade at the time). She transitioned to Nashville
public schools for middle and high school, where she loved studying English and
Science. She told us, “I was a bookworm from a very young age. I was an early
reader and always loved to read, so English was something I gravitated towards.
I also really loved Science. High School Chemistry was one of my favorite
subjects.”
Maurie pursued English as an undergraduate at Davidson College,
a small liberal arts college in North Carolina. During her time there, she explored
multiple interests including theater, music, and psychology. In the spirit of a
Montessori kid, she “wanted to take lots of different classes and try a lot of
different things.” After college, she earned her Masters in English Education
at Vanderbilt.
Her career after college took her in several different
directions, all related to education. After receiving her Masters, she spent
about eight years teaching in the Metro Nashville public school system. She
left the position to focus on starting a family and began tutoring, which led
her to Learning Lab, where she loved working with students one-on-one. In 2015
she moved into her current positions as Assistant Director of Learning Lab and
Head of After School Services. She told us, “I help guide families whose kids
need extra academic support in all areas. I still get to work with students
from time-to-time, which is great. I love my job. It’s fulfilling and fun, I love
the people I work with, and I’m very lucky.”
Maurie believes that her time at Abintra helped inform her
positive outlook on learning and career in education. “I’ve been in education
my whole career, and I think that traces back to what a safe, joyous place
school always was for me, which started at Abintra,” she told us. When asked
about how her time at Abintra influenced her future experiences, she said, “I
always loved school from the very beginning, and I think that has a lot to do
with my time at Abintra. When I was at Abintra school was never boring. It was
always fun, and there was always joy in everything we did. That’s just how
school was to me. I think Montessori understands child development and that
children really want to learn. I think that sadly, some kids have experiences
in school that dampen that, and Abintra really stokes it — that love of
learning and natural curiosity that’s already there. When I did transition to
traditional school, I thought, ‘What’s next? Let’s see what this is all about!’”
When Maurie graduated from Abintra, she carried with her a
love of learning and education, as well as respect for other people and the
natural world. She said, “I think that Abintra, and Montessori, and the way
that Montessori approaches education, is very respectful towards children, so
children are respected and learn how to be respectful of all people, nature,
and their personal environments.”
Maurie’s time at Abintra, her career in education, and her
experiences tutoring Abintra students at Learning Lab all led to her decision
to send her daughter to Abintra, where she is currently in the Lower School
program. She told us, “I had some experiences with Abintra students through my
work. They were wonderful young people and I was super impressed with them. I
thought, wow, if this is what Abintra is doing, I’m definitely interested!
Also, seeing the whole range of what’s out there in education, it’s hard to not
want this for my daughter.”
Maurie knows that her Abintra in the 80’s was very different
from her daughter’s Abintra now, but is certain that there is one thing they both
have in common: they’re very special. She told us, “It’s really fun and exciting
to get to know my daughter’s Abintra and to see what it’s like for her through
her eyes.” At the time Maurie attended Abintra, it was housed at Saint David’s
Episcopal Church. When thinking back to her favorite memories, she said, “There’s
a giant hill, and we would roll down that hill all the time! And we weren’t
supposed to do this, but occasionally we would sneak into the sanctuary and
poke around and feel very rebellious.” Her only regret is that she wasn’t able
to attend Abintra through 8th grade, as those classrooms didn’t
exist at the time.
Her advice to current students is to savor the time spent
outside. She said, “Enjoy playing, not being on screens, getting to just be a
kid and doing kid things. In a lot of traditional school settings, you don’t always
get the amount of time outside that you do at Abintra. You also get time to
explore and make choices and decisions for yourself, and the opportunity to
delve deeper into topics. Soak it all in!”
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