Myrian Woods, Montessori School superintendent, and Kathleen Stowell, president of the Board of Trustees, presented Newtown Rotarians with a program about the Newtown Montessori School, which has been in existence for 31 years.

Ten years ago the board decided to have a professional administrator and chose Myrian Woods for this position. With a BS degree from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil and graduate education at Fairfield University, Ms Woods had the background for such a position.

The school started in a church basement and operated there until they bought a building in Dodgingtown on Route 302. Two expansions on property across the street have brought the current enrollment to 120 students. They currently have an agreement to purchase the former Gordon Fraser property on Route 25. When completed, the school intends to add a toddler program and a middle school to bring the enrollment up to approximately 265 students.

This school system was started by Maria Montessori, an Italian educator, in the early 1900s and can be described as a system for training and instructing young children of which the fundamental aim is self education by the children themselves, accompanied by special emphasis on the training of the senses.

As an example, a 3-year-old may approach a shelf of many trays containing different activities and choose one. The student will then see what it is and become active with it. When finished, the student will pack it up and replace it back on the shelf.

Classes are grouped together across grades. By grouping different grades, the older ones can learn by teaching the younger and it becomes a community of learning. At times the student may be the older student and at another time the younger student.

Kathleen Stowell, who has a master’s degree in special education from UConn, is not only president of the Board of Trustees but also a parent of a student and a licensed pediatric physical therapist employed by the Newtown Board of Education. She explained that with the backing of the Newtown Savings Bank a Capital Campaign will be launched within a month to generate the remaining funds needed in order to complete Phase 1 of their current project to enlarge the school and the programs it has to offer.

The Rotarians agreed that Newtown is fortunate to have a school like this available to those who wish to choose an alternative type of education for their children.