Thriving, resilient communities come together when people share values and actively seek to uphold those values through their actions. In its simplest terms, a community is based on a common element. For us, that element is our school. Yet, the reasons I love our community and feel grateful every day to be a part of it go deeper.

Seemingly gone are the days when kids wandered around the neighborhoods in packs, riding their bikes, traversing neighborhood trees, learning the shortest routes to school (because they walked them every day), and feeling a sense of confidence and competence that they could manage most of the ups and downs of childhood.

All children are born with immense potential. They possess a natural ability to learn and thrive in their own time and place. One of the most common misconceptions about Montessori education is that children are allowed to roam freely and do as they please. While we do follow the child by observing their interests, abilities, and development, our role as guides and caregivers is to provide structure, reassurance, and guidance.

There is a natural inclination within each child to help and interact with others. The prepared Montessori environment strengthens this drive, fostering social development and thus creating unity among each child in the Children’s House.

All children have an internal drive to develop language. Maria Montessori observed that a child rapidly acquires language from birth without being taught. She observed that children from birth until three years take in their environment unconsciously and shape themselves from any information and stimulation they encounter.

In the early years of a child's life, the foundation for future learning is laid through what Maria Montessori described as the "absorbent mind." This unique and wondrous period of development, from birth to around age six, is when a child’s mind is at its most receptive, absorbing information from the environment with an ease and enthusiasm that is unmatched later in life.