Getting out of the box! Keynote speech delivered during the Annual Montessori Europe Congress, Gdansk, Poland, 2023

the speech in an unmodified form to keep the message original and in order not to lose its powerful potential that contributed to the title of this special issue as well as to the motto of the next Montessori Europe Annual Congress 2025, which will take place in Oslo, Norway, from 9 to 11 May.The theme of the Congress is "Montessori: Out of the Box".The only edits include linguistic and grammar details and punctuation.Andr Roberfroid is AMI's Global Ambassador.He was UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for programme and strategic planning, in charge of developing the overall UNICEF strategies in the field of child health, education, nutrition, and child protection until his retirement in 2003.His past work involved work for children in Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon.In 1984 he became senior planning officer in the UNICEF regional office for the Middle East and North Africa, and advised governments on policies for children in all the countries of the Middle East (from Morocco to Iran).Andr was President of AMI from 2005 to 2014.Andr Roberfroid has been committed to child rights for most of his life, having worked for UNICEF for more than 30 years, which then led him to connect with AMI and the global Montessori