Michael Duffy has been involved in Montessori Education for more than 45 years, since his daughter entered a Montessori school in New York at age 2 1/2. Michael, who had been a journalist by profession, took the 6-12 elementary training at CMTE/NY and joined the Blackstock Montessori School in 1989, teaching in the lower, then upper elementary classes. He is an instructor in the elementary teacher training program at CMTE/NY, an AMS-affiliated program, and he has trained teachers in New York, Phoenix, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, and Puerto Rico with CMTE/NY and other training centers. Most recently, he has helped found and co-direct the Montessori Elementary Teacher Training Collaborative – METTC – which has operated MACTE-accredited training programs for out of Lexington, MA, for the past five years. He is also an adjunct instructor with MTEI of Atlanta, in Atlanta, Georgia with the elementary program.
He has authored three books with his wife, D'Neil on Montessori education: Children of the Universe: Cosmic Education in the Montessori Elementary Classroom (2002; 2014; 2016); Math Works: Montessori Math and the Developing Brain (2008; 2014); and Love of Learning: Supporting Intrinsic Motivation in Montessori Students (2012).
Michael and D'Neil were honored with the AMS Living Legacy award at the AMS conference in 2018. They also were given MACTE's Wisdom of the Elders honor in 2015.
In addition to their Montessori credentials, both have master degrees in education, They retired from Blackstock in 2001 to devote more of their time to teacher training, writing and educational consulting.
They currently live in Atlanta, GA, home to their son and his family, with time spent each summer in Boston with their daughter and her family. All four of their grand-children - two in each family - have gone through Montessori schools until they transitioned to high school.
