David ShindollMy intention in creating this website is to support others and myself in learning and living Nonviolent Communication (NVC) consciousness and skills. I wish to provide a space where people who share a common interest in creating a world in which we have power with others instead of power over others can learn and work together to realize this vision. I am passionate about NVC because I have experienced how it opens windows to compassion that had remained closed to me because of how I had been taught to think and communicate in my culture.

I have been practicing and teaching Nonviolent Communication since 1999 and am working to become a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication www.cnvc.org. My particular focus with NVC is on how to live this consciousness with children, parents, and teachers in schools and in families. I have been working with children and their families for 19 years in a variety of settings from villages for abandoned children in Bolivia and Costa Rica, to cram schools in Taiwan, to Montessori preschools and elementary schools in Denver. I have been teaching in Montessori schools for 15 years and have been a teacher trainer in Lower Elementary Language for the Montessori Education Center of the Rockies as well as a presenter at Montessori and Department of Peace conferences. I hold Montessori teaching certificates for infant and toddlers through AMI and preschool and lower elementary through AMS. In addition to my work with children, I also do couples/family mediation, communication coaching, present trainings ranging from 1 hour to 13 weeks and facilitate a free weekly practice group in Denver. I am presently a first grade teacher in Denver.

In a sense, this website actually began on a crowded bus in Taiwan in 1993 when I first opened the book The Absorbent Mind by the Italian educator and doctor Maria Montessori that a friend had lent me. I found myself resonating deeply with her vision of education not as a mere transmission of knowledge but as a way to liberate our human potential by removing the obstacles that prevent us from being who we really are. For me, NVC is a simple yet profound spiritual discipline that gives me clarity about what those obstacles to self-connection and connection to others are as well as skills that ground me in a consciousness that allows me to enjoy and contribute to others regardless of how they express themselves.

I am particularly interested in bringing more awareness about NVC to the Montessori community and educators in general because of the gap that I have seen between the language and consciousness that we have learned from our culture and the values we have around following the child, what it means to be an aware adult, and preparing an environment that reveals children instead of molding them. I hope that what you find on this website contributes to your life in some way. Please let me know if it did or not by responding to one of the blogs or e-mailing me at dshindoll@hotmail.com.

David Shindoll