Maria Montessori was an educational genius who worked during the first half of the 20th century. She revolutionized early childhood education. Her key achievement, in our view, was to discover how children could learn fundamental skills while at the same time learning to be responsible for their own choices. Montessori children, right from birth, experience themselves as agents in the world—heroes of their own lives. Using brilliantly-designed materials, introduced in a highly intentional and optimized manner by a Montessori “guide,” young children in a Montessori setting are inspired to choose ambitious work, focus on it, and transform themselves. The result of this natural and joyful learning is early independence, an earned and unshakeable sense of pride, and a high level of academic accomplishment.

Maria Montessori, later in her life, began work on elementary and adolescent education. But in our considered view (as lifelong, committed Montessorians), her work was unfinished. She simply did not have enough days in her long and highly productive life to develop sufficient curriculum in the areas of science, technology, history, and writing.

In addition, many Montessori schools, though they have the best of intentions, are ineffective at inspiring intellectual and moral ambition in their students. While Montessori programs  often do succeed at  inspiring their students’ love of learning, ,they do not  always succeed at inspiring  students to push themselves,  to demand excellence of themselves,  and to pursue advanced learning  to the upper limit of their potential, as an act of loyalty to their own life and values.

From our many years of  coaching both students and adults and developing innovative curriculum,   we believe that we do understand how to do this. And we are excited to bring our understanding fully to fruition at this, what is to be our flagship school and our definitive legacy.