The International Montessori Council

Dear Friends:

Some years ago, Mark Meyer at Hudson Montessori School in Danbury, CT. faced some of the same issues that many of us work on year after year.

I wrote the attached letters for him to either send out over my signature or revise to send over his. I thought that you might find them useful in preparing an evening and invitation to attend of your own. Note that Mark has decided to send home a copy of the Foundation's kindergarten video to each parent of a four year old and a copy of the elementary video to the parents of his kindergarten students. The obvious goal is to reduce attrition to an absolute minimum, in part by holding special talks and events for parents, but also by bringing the issue right out into the open. From my experience, attrition can be reduced to less than 5% with the right programs in admissions and community building. I know that this is something that you care about deeply as well, so please feel free to adapt the letters to your use if they seem to be right for your situation. I hope that this year you can hold on to more of your kids at the key transition points than ever before.

Tim Seldin
President
The Montessori Foundation

The Montessori Foundation video Joyful Scholars-Montessori For the Elementary years is still available. This is the third video in our series of programs designed to help parents get a clear look at the benefits of Montessori at the key transition points: initial application, kindergarten, and now elementary.

Individual copies of the videos are $26.50 ($25.00 for IMC members.)

We are now offering a special price of $16.50 a copy/$15 a copy for IMC members (plus shipping) for schools who want to purchase 50 copies at one time to distribute to parents. As Mark Meyer put it, "If we kept one more child as a result of sending the tapes home, they would have paid for themselves several times over." Orders can be mixed quantities of all three videos if you prefer.

If you decide to place a bulk order, contact Margot Garfield-Anderson
Montessori Foundation Public Relations/Events and IMC Membership Director
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
1-800-632-4121
FAX: 941-359-8166
935 N Beneva Rd Ste 609 #56
Sarasota, FL 34232


Here are few suggestions about organizing kindergarten presentations or elementary moving up meetings. The sample letters that I prepared for Mark follow:

1. Send out your invitation at least 2 weeks in advance. 4 weeks is better. Follow up your invitation with a personal invitation by phone. Personal contact is what really gets people's attention. To really ensure success, call a second time a few days before the event to remind them.

2. invite the entire school plus any outsiders who are interested in your program.

3. Tell people what you're going to do at the meeting

4. Offer free childcare during the meeting. It's worth it.

5. Don't ask your teachers to give a formal presentation

a. Many are not terribly comfortable at public speaking

b. Parents tend not to believe teachers as unbiased experts in these settings. They do want to hear teachers respond to direct questions.

6. Invite a noted Montessori educator from outside your school community to speak about Montessori at the elementary level from both a theoretical and personal perspective. As an outsider normally they will be seen as believable and interesting by many parents. The Administrator and teachers should be ready to answer specific questions.

7. Show them the new elementary video. Some schools may chose to purchase enough copies to lend to their parents whose children will be moving up. The videos can be sent home with the invitation to the meeting or sent home afterwards. In either event, showing the video afterwards provides repetition and sets the mood. Remember, most people have to hear something several times to "get" the message.

8. Invite 3-5 of your best students and their parents to come and share their perspectives and answer questions.

9. Invite all of your elementary kids come. Have each select a piece of material or a lesson to teach to visiting parents. Let parents wander from booth to booth

10. Hand out a formal curriculum guide at the meeting or in advance.

11. Hand out one of the Montessori Foundation's articles on kindergarten and elementary Montessori.

12. Publicly announce your intention to persuade every parent to stay at least through 6th grade. That is the real goal anyway, so be honest.


Here are the two letters. Again, feel free to use them as springboards for your own invitations.

Dear Parents:

By now you should all be aware that, having been founded as an early childhood education center, Hudson has made the commitment to develop an outstanding and internationally accredited academic program through the middle school level.

As an old friend of the school and the Meyer family, I agreed to mentor Hudson through the process of growth and transformation through which I have guided many other Montessori schools over the years.

One of the next and very important challenges facing Hudson is its need to build up the school's elementary enrollment as quickly as possible over the next few years, hopefully by retaining as many present primary students as possible, in preference over elementary students transferring in from other schools.

There are two reasons why this is important to the school community:

The first is that children who grow up in schools like Hudson are normally quite different from the students normally found in other schools. This difference is not simply in what they know and what they can do, it lies in their attitude and approach to learning and to life. Montessori children are normally enthusiastic learners. They look upon their teachers as mentors, guides and friends. They have held onto the curiosity, creativity, and imagination that most children bring into the world. Unlike so many school children, they don't see school as boring, nor schoolwork as a burden. They are generally not fearful, nor sarcastic and cynical to their friends on the playground. I like to call them joyful scholars. Students like them simply can never be replaced. Hudson clearly needs them, and hopefully you as their parents can see what they are becoming, and can trace it to a large degree back to their experience thus far in Montessori.

The second reason why it is so important that Hudson continue to retain almost all of its students from year to year is that these children have grown up together in an atmosphere of warmth, kindness and respect. By now, most of your children are probably bonded quite closely to Hudson, their teachers, and their friends. This is their community. But most children in American school watch their friends come and go from their lives. One of our goals in schools like Hudson is to create a community that has substance and depth, to gather together a group of parents, children, and teachers who share common values and form lasting friendships.

I realize as the school begins this process, many of you may have come to Hudson with no goal in mind beyond finding a good preschool. I know that some of you have come to care deeply for the school, and are urging Hudson to expand up through middle school. I also understand that some of you are undecided.

Now that your children are nearing the end of their kindergarten year at Hudson, each of you must be asking whether or not your children should continue in Montessori for the elementary program.

We are all looking for what will be best for our children, and I imagine that some of you may be concerned whether Montessori will actually prepare your children well for the real world?

A lifetime of experience as a student in a school like Hudson, as the father of three Montessori children, and as a Montessori educator has taught me that the answer is a resounding YES! But I realize that each of us must sort through the pros and cons for ourselves.

Mark Meyer has asked me to come up to Danbury to speak to all of you who are interested in the elementary program and middle school over the next two months. My goal will be to offer you information and insights that will allow you to make a thoughtful decision for yourself. I believe that Hudson (and Montessori) are either right for you and your child, an issue on which your experience to this point is more relevant than anything I can say, or they are not. I understand that even parents who have been thrilled with Hudson to date may be unsure about how they can weigh the benefits that Montessori against those of a traditional approach.

Today I am writing to invite you to join us for a very special evening focused on Montessori at the elementary level. This meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 28th at ____ o'clock at _________(location).

To help you organize your thoughts, I have enclosed a copy of a video on Montessori elementary programs produced for parents by the Montessori Foundation. Please feel free to share it with any friends who might be interested as well, and feel free to invite them to the meeting on the 28th. When you are finished with it, I would appreciate it if you would return your copy of the video to the office so it may be shared with other families in the future.

Sincerely yours,


Tim Seldin
President
The Montessori Foundation


Dear Parents

By now you should all be aware that, having been founded as an early childhood education center, Hudson has made the commitment to develop an outstanding and internationally accredited academic program through the middle school level.

As an old friend of the school and the Meyer family, I agreed to mentor Hudson through the process of growth and transformation through which I have guided many other Montessori schools over the years.

One of the next and very important challenges facing Hudson is its need to build up the school's elementary enrollment as quickly as possible over the next few years, hopefully by retaining as many present primary students as possible, in preference over elementary students transferring in from other schools.

There are two reasons why this is important to the school community:

The first is that children who grow up in schools like Hudson are normally quite different from the students normally found in other schools. This difference is not simply in what they know and what they can do, it lies in their attitude and approach to learning and to life. Montessori children are normally enthusiastic learners. They look upon their teachers as mentors, guides and friends. They have held onto the curiosity, creativity, and imagination that most children bring into the world. Unlike so many school children, they don't see school as boring, nor schoolwork as a burden. They are generally not fearful, nor sarcastic and cynical to their friends on the playground. I like to call them joyful scholars. Students like them simply can never be replaced. Hudson clearly needs them, and hopefully you as their parents can see what they are becoming, and can trace it to a large degree back to their experience thus far in Montessori.

The second reason why it is so important that Hudson continue to retain almost all of its students from year to year is that these children have grown up together in an atmosphere of warmth, kindness and respect. By now, most of your children are probably bonded quite closely to Hudson, their teachers, and their friends. This is their community. But most children in American school watch their friends come and go from their lives. One of our goals in schools like Hudson is to create a community that has substance and depth, to gather together a group of parents, children, and teachers who share common values and form lasting friendships.

I realize as the school begins this process, many of you may have come to Hudson with no goal in mind beyond finding a good preschool. I know that some of you have come to care deeply for the school, and are urging Hudson to expand up through middle school. I also understand that some of you are undecided.

Now that your children are four, each of you must be asking whether or not your children should continue in Montessori for kindergarten and possibly even the elementary program.

We are all looking for what will be best for our children, and I imagine that some of you may be concerned whether Montessori will actually prepare your children well for the real world?

A lifetime of experience as a student in a school like Hudson, as the father of three Montessori children, and as a Montessori educator has taught me that the answer is a resounding YES! But I realize that each of us must sort through the pros and cons for ourselves.

Mark Meyer has asked me to come up to Danbury to speak to all of you who are interested in the importance of the kindergarten year, the elementary program and middle school over the next two months. My goal will be to offer you information and insights that will allow you to make a thoughtful decision for yourself. I believe that Hudson (and Montessori) are either right for you and your child, an issue on which your experience to this point is more relevant than anything I can say, or they are not. I understand that even parents who have been thrilled with Hudson to date may be unsure about how they can weigh the benefits that Montessori against those of a traditional approach.

Today I am writing to invite you to join us for a very special evening focused on the importance of Montessori for the kindergarten year. This meeting will be held on Wednesday, ________ at ____ o'clock at _________(location).

To help you organize your thoughts, I have enclosed a copy of a video on Montessori for the kindergarten year programs produced for parents by the Montessori Foundation. Please feel free to share it with any friends who might be interested as well, and feel free to invite them to the meeting on the _____. When you are finished with it, we would appreciate it if you would return your copy of the video to the office so it may be shared with other families in the future.

Sincerely yours,


Tim Seldin
President
The Montessori Foundation