Our Motto “Children First, Always”
It was the year 2001, and I had spent the previous three months trying to turn around a small Montessori school in the south bay that I had just taken over. Prior to my involvement the school had so many problems that it was on the brink of being shut down by state licensing.
So it was then – after those three very long and difficult months of working on the floor of the classrooms in this troubled school constantly searching for solutions to the seemingly endless list of problems that stood in the way of our turning the school around – I was sitting at a red light and it hit me: “Children First, Always”.
It became crystal clear to me as I sat at that stop light. If we would always first consider what would be best for the children, we would never go wrong.
It is now 2016 and we still live by that motto. In fact, we have built a strong and growing school with multiple campus locations by living by our motto.
“Children First, Always”.
Although I still believe I have much to learn and hope that I will always have the open mind to grow professionally and personally, one thing that I am convinced of is that if we always align our programs, our policies and our staff to that concept, we are doing the right thing.
As time has passed and I have grown, this motto has been thoroughly adopted in our schools. Our leadership team have spent the last two years combing through each and every moment of the day we have children in our care to align everything that we do with this mantra.
“Children First, Always”.
Last year, we enlisted the help of Tim Seldin and The Montessori Foundation, to assist us in carefully designing our policies and procedures, fine tune the classroom schedules and set up each minute of the day – for the child.
This is very rare in schools. In fact, most schools choose schedules and activities based on the needs of the adults in the environment, including the parents, staff, administration, etc.
From opening early in the morning with the few children that come every day before 8 am, preparing for the day, having breakfast to the Montessori work day and on through the Enrichment Studios that are open until 6 pm, children are happy and excited to be with us.
This is because every day at the Montessori School of Silicon Valley, it’s “Children First, Always.”