Sister Cristina Marie Trudeau, S.N.D.

The American Montessori Association recently gave a lifetime achievement award to Sister Christina Marie Trudeau, S.N.D., a member of the California Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Trudeau, the Association said, “has worked tirelessly on behalf of Montessori education, providing inspiration to Montessori teachers, teacher educators, and adult learners around the world.”

In a 60-plus-year career she has been instrumental in starting Montessori teacher education programs and Montessori schools for young children in California, Washington State, Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines.

Her interest in children and serving the poor led Trudeau to emphasize the Montessori Cosmic Plan of Education in the teacher education programs with which she has been associated. This approach uses the cullture of the place where the program is located as well as its natural environment as the basis for integrating curriculum and creating materials, rather than relying on European materials and organizing curriculum according to disciplines.