BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In the basement of a Xavier University building, preschoolers walk in a haphazard line.
"Camina, camina, camina," they chant, as they meander through several classrooms. "That means walk," a pigtailed girl whispers to a quizzical visitor.
Beth Bronsil smiles and nods. "A child has an absorbent mind," she notes, as the chanting children snake through the university's Montessori school.
It's that nature that prompted Ms. Bronsil - director of Xavier's Montessori Teacher Education program - to suggest that Cincinnati Public Schools leaders start a Montessori school for children from birth through third grade.
Children are sponges absorbing everything they see, hear and feel the first few years of life, so education is essential to giving them a good start, she said.
"A child learns from her environment," Ms. Bronsil said. "The environment should be set up to aid the child in development - physical, cognitive and emotional. Those are critical in children's lives."
Ms. Bronsil suggested housing the new school in one of the buildings recommended for closing under CPS' $697 million facilities master plan.
She stressed that her proposal is preliminary. But it already has snagged the interest of Superintendent Steven Adamowski, who called the concept "intriguing."
The district should forge more partnerships with universities and community-based groups to expand services for the district's 47,400 students, he said. Xavier and district leaders haven't discussed what roles they would play in the new school, Ms. Bronsil added.
But CPS parents have been clamoring for more Montessori programs for years; the district's magnet programs, which include five Montessori schools, have proved so popular, 1,900 students were turned away this year.
Day-care programs - especially for infants and toddlers - are also needed, Ms. Bronsil noted.
About 2,000 children are enrolled in CPS preschool programs, said Debbie Bradshaw, the district's director of early-childhood education. Few accept babies.
A Montessori day care in Wyoming accepts infants and toddlers, and several community-based programs, such as the Dominican Community Services VISIONS Teen Center in the West End, offer child care to young mothers. Many have waiting lists.
Under Ms. Bronsil's proposal, the new school would be as educational for young mothers as for babies. CPS students who are teen parents could enroll their children in the school and learn parenting skills and get career help.
"Parenting is the most difficult job we have in our society, and many of us are not prepared for it," Ms. Bronsil said. "It might be very hard for teen-agers to be good parents and to know what children need."
The program would be tuition-driven, but grants would help the school waive tuition for parents who couldn't afford it, she added.
One Montessori supporter applauded the idea.
"That kind of enriching program for little ones sounds like a good idea," said Stan Corkin of Clifton, whose son attends Sands Montessori in the West End. "Kids would benefit from that kind of innovative environment."
Montessori education was founded in 1907 by Maria Montessori, the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome. She based her method on her observations that children learn best in a homelike setting that supports each child's unique development and encourages creativity, independence and self-motivation.
Ms. Montessori believed that the most important years for learning are from birth to age 6.
"Birth to 3 is the prime learning period - it's when children learn language and empathy," Ms. Bronsil said. "If they're not in an environment where that's modeled, that could be lost."
