Our Roots
WHAT IS A MONTESSORI EDUCATION?
What is Montessori education? For more than a century now, the child-focused approach that
Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, developed for educating children has been transforming schools around the globe.
As soon as you enter a classroom, you know that something different is afoot. Montessori classrooms are immediately recognizable. You will see children working independently and in groups, often with specially designed learning materials; deeply engaged in their work; and respectful of themselves and their surroundings.
The Montessori Method fosters rigorous, self-motivated growth for children and adolescents in all areas of their development—cognitive, emotional, social, and physical.
Montessori education is student-led and self-paced, but guided, assessed, and enriched by knowledgeable and caring teachers, the leadership of their peers, and a nurturing environment.
Within the community of a multi-age classroom—designed to create natural opportunities for independence, citizenship, and accountability—children embrace multi-sensory learning and passionate inquiry. Individual students follow their own curiosity at their own pace, taking the time they need to fully understand each concept and meet individualized learning goals.
Given the freedom and support to question, probe deeply, and make connections, Montessori students grow up to be confident, enthusiastic, and self-directed learners and citizens, accountable to both themselves and their community. They think critically, work collaboratively, and act boldly and with integrity. What better outcome could you wish for your children?
Source:
About Wildflower Schools
Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and parents. Our schools aspire to give all children and families the opportunity to choose high quality, beautiful learning environments as they follow life’s unfolding journey.
Our aim is to be an experiment in a new learning environment, blurring the boundaries between home and school, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them. Our schools are small and teacher-led, with deep parent engagement. At the core of Wildflower are
9 principles that define the approach.
Our network is supported by a foundation that works to build capacity, systems, tools, and research to grow and strengthen the network.
Learn more about our story.
Our Principles
Blurring the boundaries between home-schooling and institutional schooling, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them. At the core of Wildflower are
9 principles that define the approach.
Our Network
After the first Wildflower school was created in January of 2014, there was intense interest in the school and the approach. This interest led us to open-source the model and help other family groups and teacher-leaders to create new Wildflower schools. Each teacher-leader at each Wildflower school serves on the board of at least one other Wildflower school, creating a community of schools that are linked by both a shared philosophy and a network of shared relationships.
WHY ROXBURY ROOTS MONTESSORI?
Roxbury Roots Montessori, Inc. is the vision of its founder, Renee Jolley, who wished to address a need by bringing the magic of Montessori education to a community that looked like her. Having taught in the Montessori classroom for years, she desired to have a local program that would benefit children who derived from Afrocentric backgrounds and families from all backgrounds who wished to expose their children to multiculturalism within the classroom. The program began as a parent-child initiative, educating parents on how to complement their little learner's education at home. It grew into a small, home-based program offering care to six families, and now seeks to serve more children by becoming a center-based program.
Our Team
Renee A. Jolley
Co-Head of School
Renee Jolley is a mother, Roxbury community member, and has been an early childhood educator for over thirty years. Having struggled as a learner in the traditional education model, she was sent to a private school that helped shape her as an independent thinker and motivated individual. She has a passion for teaching young children that has developed over several decades. Renee discovered Montessori education about thirteen years ago and fell in love, as she found it to be the piece that was missing in her previous classroom experiences. She is both infant/toddler and primary classroom certified, and looks forward to sharing an alternative educational path with parents in the Boston area!
Kendall A. Allen
Co-Head of School
Kendall Allen is a passionate educator who has been working with children and adolescents for the past fifteen years. She holds a license in Middle School English/Language Arts Education and has recently completed her Montessori Training for the primary classroom. Kendall has always desired to be an educator and has explored teaching a range of age groups, as well as teaching philosophies. After having her first child, she sought an educational experience that would bring out the best in her child, both as a learner and community member. She was enamored with Montessori and seeks to offer all children an opportunity to grow into their best selves through its tenets.