Knoxville Montessori students participate in MMUN conference
Published March 4, 2023; 9:59 p.m.

Knoxville Montessori students. Image submitted

KNOXVILLE -- Five middle school students from Knoxville Montessori School (KMS) participated as delegates in the Montessori Model United Nations Conference (MMUN) in New York, NY.

MMUN began in 2006 with a vision by the Founder and only 200 students attending a conference in NYC. Since then, with a base of hundreds of schools and thousands of participants, it has come to provide culminating online and in-person conference events each year around the world. The 2023 MMUN theme is sustainable development goal 15: Life on Land. KMS represented both Italy and Ireland and sat on three committees: The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), The UN Security Council (UNSC), and the Human Rights Council (HRC). Each of these committees addressed two topics. All student delegates wrote position papers discussing the topics and proposed solutions. During the committee sessions, they presented their countries’ perspectives, proposed and negotiated solutions, wrote draft resolutions, and either found consensus or voted to adopt the draft as a resolution.

In addition to formal committee sessions, the students had opportunities to interact with several key leaders. The opening and closing ceremonies included speeches given by the Secretary General of the United Nations, and the Permanent Representative to the United Nations from the Republic of Slovak. The conference closing ceremony took place in the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations, as the conferences was able to obtain access through the direct sponsorship of the missions of: Grenada, Bulgaria, and Slovakia. The MMUN is a division of Youth for a Better World, a non-profit organization recognized as an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the ECOSOC of the United Nations. Their mission is to inspire and empower youth.

Knoxville Montessori School was founded in 1966 and is the oldest Montessori school in Knoxville. It offers holistic education from preschool age through adolescence and beyond. The KMS Adolescent community consists of 7th through 9th grades. Academic subjects are embedded in real-life projects that are meaningful in the world, where students’ contributions have real weight and consequences. Moreover, students study microeconomy, using mathematics, data analysis research, marketing, and entrepreneurship skills.