Fraser Woods Montessori School’s History In Newtown

Fraser Woods Montessori School marked a milestone this year, when “Montessori” was returned to the school’s name through a vote of the school’s Board of Trustees.

Montessori was in the school’s name when the school was established in town in 1968. Head of School Myriam Woods and Kathy Anderson, who oversees parent relations for the school, reflected on the school’s history recently.

When the school was established it was called Newtown Montessori School, and was located on Dodgingtown Road, where Housatonic Valley Waldorf School is today. In 2000, the Fraser Woods Montessori School was moved to its present location at 173 South Main Street, after the old grounds were sold to Housatonic Valley Waldorf School.

The building on South Main Street had been the Gordon Fraser building. When the move took place, the school was renamed to Fraser-Woods School, acknowledging the building’s previous owner and Ms Woods for her years of dedication as the head of school.

In January, Ms Woods sent a letter home to members of the school community explaining the school name change to Fraser Woods Montessori School will be honoring its past while celebrating its future. The school’s logo has also been refreshed for the school’s name change.

As Ms Woods wrote for a pamphlet about the school, “At [Fraser Woods Montessori School] we believe that students learn best in an environment that nurtures their natural fascination with the world. Our curriculum, methodology, and materials allow discovery to be intriguing and challenging. Through structure and freedom, guidance and inspiration, students blossom here.”

Students are not the only thing to “blossom” at Fraser Woods Montessori School.

“Our unique campus architecture includes an interior garden enclosed by 20 feet high glass walls that shed natural light into the classrooms, halls, library, and computer lab,” Ms Woods wrote. “The school’s configuration supports the needs of the curriculum with science labs, art and music studios, a gymnasium, and playing field.”

The school’s interior garden has recently become home to a white rabbit, named Fraser. The rabbit hops toward the glass to look into the school when anyone walks within his field of view. When parents drop students off in the morning, Ms Woods and Ms Anderson said it has become a morning routine for some parents and students to offer Fraser a “good morning” before the day begins.

While the school is bright and brimming with students now, in 1968 a small group of parents worked together to form the school.

Ms Woods became the school’s head in 1990.

“She was very instrumental in getting the school to the point where we were expanding to a middle school,” said Ms Anderson. “Before she came, we only went up to third grade. Then we had an expansion to sixth grade, and when we were moving here we were expanding to include a middle school, all the way to eighth grade.”

Since the school’s start Ms Woods and Ms Anderson said it had always been the school’s endeavor to expand and to find a single location for the entire school. Before the move to South Main Street, the school included two buildings located near each other in Dodgingtown.

Also when the school began, Montessori education was not well known, said both Ms Woods and Ms Anderson, and the name was eventually changed to Fraser Woods School to better indicate it was a independent school. Now, with famous Montessori school graduates making headlines around the world, Ms Woods and Ms Anderson said the Montessori education is better known.

According to the school’s website, www.fraserwoods.com, “Maria Montessori was born in the town of Chiaravalle, Italy, on August 31, 1870.  She became one of the first female physicians in Italy upon her graduation from medical school in 1896. In her medical practice, her clinical observations led her to analyze how children learn, and she concluded that they build themselves from what they find in their environment. Shifting her focus from the body to the mind, she returned to the university in 1901, this time to study psychology and philosophy. In 1904, she was made a professor of anthropology at the University of Rome.”

Maria Montessori later gave up her university chair position and her medical practice to work with a group of young children, according to Fraser Woods Montessori School, and she found the first “Children’s House,” where the Montessori school method was eventually developed.

“Children teach themselves,” the website continues. “This simple but profound truth inspired Montessori’s lifelong pursuit of educational reform, methodology, psychology, teaching, and teacher training — all based on her dedication to furthering the self-creating process of the child.”

 Part of the philosophy, Ms Woods said, is to have children learn how to take care of others, and different projects and programs at the school are designed around that philosophy. Leadership qualities, Ms Woods said, are enforced through these practices. One way the school as a whole looks out for others is by using environmentally friendly practices wherever possible.

The philosophy also promotes citizenship, grace, and courtesy, Ms Anderson said.

Before Ms Woods came to the area with work with the Fraser Woods Montessori School, she was the head of a school in Rio, Brazil. She had already transitioned from teaching special education students in a traditional school setting to working at a Montessori school, and when she and her husband had to move to the United States, she knew she wanted to find another Montessori school.

When she discovered the Newtown school, Ms Woods said she loved it.

The school was smaller than the school she had been head of in Brazil, but the 13-member Board of Trustees, Ms Woods said, already had a vision of expanding the school in 1990.

Since then, both Ms Woods and Ms Anderson attribute the school’s growth to its community.

Ms Woods said she sees the school staying true to the beliefs Maria Montessori established roughly 100 years ago. In Fraser Woods Montessori School’s future, Ms Woods said she sees a strong school that will maintain a growing connection to its community.

The first students to graduate from middle school at Fraser Woods Montessori School have already started graduating from college, and Ms Anderson said those graduates exhibit the same core values instilled in them during the elementary and middle school years at Fraser Woods Montessori School.

Fraser Woods Montessori School, Ms Anderson said, is not just an alma mater to the graduates, it is a home.

To learn more about Fraser Woods Montessori School visit www.fraserwoods.com or the school’s Facebook page by signing on and searching for “Fraser Woods Montessori School.”