LEARNING BY DOING

Cabot transplant celebrates school’s one-year anniversary

By Jeremy Peppas

LITTLE ROCK — Evan Jordan was proud of himself.

Jordan had taken pictures of objects and by looking at the pictures, he had sounded out the word that went with the picture. Not all that complicated for adults, but Jordan, all of 4, was pleased with his efforts of spelling out the word “log” and having a picture of one beside it. That wasn’t the only photo. A pen went with a pen and the hammer, well it was close enough at “hamr.”

Victoria Smith - better known to her students as “Miss Vicki” - explained.

“What he is doing, is learning relationships, spatial relationships,” she said. “How things fit together, how they look. By doing, he is learning.”

Jordan is one of 15 students at the Montessori school in Cabot that Smith runs. She started the school after she andher husband moved to Cabot.

“I met my husband in London,” said Smith, who hasn’t lost her British accent. “I was doing my Montessori training at the time, and he was in the Navy. He was from Cabot, and when he got out, we moved back here.”

Smith opened up the school one year ago, but the school had been in the planning stages for some time.

“We were very patient,” Smith said. “We were trying hard to find the right location, and we finally found it.”

The school is located at 4100 S. 1st St. in Cabot, but Smith had a more convenient landmark.

“It is right behind the Mean Pig,” she said of the barbecue restaurant. “That’s how people know how to find us.”

During a recent visit, Jordan wasn’t the only one learning by doing. Beside him was Nathan Caudill hard at work atthe spindle box, a teaching tool on which Smith said students learn the numerical concept of zero. Others were busy at other stations, each learning at their own pace, and when done at one station they would move to another station teaching a basic concept.

Smith’s students range from 2 to 5, and that’s by design.

“In Montessori, that age range is all in one class,” Smith said. “A typical school will have its most students at those ages. And how it works, each class is for certain age ranges, and at some schools, the students would go on to the next class or they would enroll at another school.”

While Smith has one class now, the plan is to expand.

“Me and Vicki have talked about that,” said Elizabeth Carlton, a parent of one ofthe students and chair of the school’s Parent Teacher Association. “What we would like to happen is as these kids grow and get out of kindergarten and first grade, they could keep going here, but it would never go past fifth grade. We have talked about adding on to this location, and I would keep [my daughter Marin] here until then if I could.”

Another possibility is adding a toddler class, and the students would start at 18 months.

“Every school is different,” Smith said. “At some places it starts at toddler and goes through high school. At other places, like here, it is the early age group. Having the younger students here now, it gives us more of a foundation, but we have pretty limited space in the house.”

The school sits in a heavily renovated former home now zoned for commercial use, and the main classroom is the old living room and dining room. One bedroom serves as office space, while two other bedrooms serve as playrooms and storage.

“In the near future, I’d love to open up the school more,” Smith said. “We’d have to knock down somewalls and close in the carport, make that a classroom, but it can be done.”◊◊◊

Sending her daughter to Montessori was an easy choice for Carlton, who also works in computer software.

“I didn’t want to drop off my kid at a day care,” she said. “It isn’t anything against day cares, but at Montessori they actually learn while they are here.”

It isn’t all spatial relationships or learning the concept of zeros, either. Other things are much simpler.

“She integrates music,” Carlton said of Smith. “She plays the guitar, and that is something you wouldn’t get at day care. She makes them comfortable, and if you’re comfortable, you can do much better.”

For Julie Irby, it was the Montessori school that sealed the deal on the move to Cabot. Her son Hart goes there, and her 22-month-old daughter Belle - called Belly by her parents - will attend the school next year.

“... I was researching places, a professor friend in Searcy suggested Cabot, and as I was looking in, I saw that a Montessori school was here, and with that, being close to an airport and being close to family, that’s why we picked here,” Irby said.

- jpeppas@arkansasonline.com

100 YEARS OF MONTESSORIThe Montessori method was developed 100 years ago by Dr. Maria Montessori, a physician in Italy.

Gov. Mike Beebe honored the anniversary with a proclamation and named the last week in February as Montessori Education

Week.

“Through her observational studies of children and the manner in which they learn, Dr. Maria Montessori developed an innovative

philosophy of education in the early 1900s that continues to influence approaches to learning today across our state, throughout

the nation and the world,” the proclamation reads. “The Montessori Method allows students to learn and grow at their own pace

in a specially-designed environment that nurtures the needs and potential of each child.” As part of Montessori Week and the 100th anniversary, the Cabot Montessori School held an open house last weekend.

“I saw a need for good quality preschool care in Cabot,” said Victoria Smith, the director of the Cabot school. “There are some

very good places to take your child for care already, but with such a growth in population, there is a rapid rise in the need for

options that would mean not having to put your child on a waiting list.” Smith doesn’t just walk the walk, she talks the talk. In addition to running a Montessori school, two of her children have gone

through Montessori education and a third will, as soon as the child is old enough.

Three Rivers, Pages 109, 121 on 03/09/2008