With the start of our Montessori study course in the summer of 2018, we will be opening the Arctic Montessori Institute on the idyllic island of Ekkerøy in the north of Norway. Where we have had numerous study trips with the secondary school children: in arctic plains.

Why in this region of Europe, some may ask. The vibrant diversity of one of the world’s large living spaces and the adaptive capacity of previous human cultures for climate and vegetation and their cultural strength are hardly visible in any other place.

In the area around the Varanger peninsula you can find the Siberian Taiga, the Fjell scenery of the Tundra, the alpine highlands not far from the beach landscapes of the Barents Sea. Fresh water meets salt water, wide skies on barren rock. For more than 10,000 years people have populated this region and made this vast, quiet and unique expanse home.

Through the exposed position beyond the Arctic Circle, every day one is reminded about the history of the earth’s formation and the miraculous relationship between sun and earth. In the summer, because the sun doesn’t go behind the horizon it shines in the night from the north and during the winter it doesn’t exceed the horizon for many weeks.

Networked thinking also means to ask central questions about the “where from” and the “where to” and the relationship to learn, read and interpret contexts. At the Varanger fjord we find the best opportunities in the sense of Maria Montessori to study nature, life and ourselves.