Chapter 12 – Mi Casita – First Clever Tutor School – 2005

The next day we drove to visit a nursery school. Before arriving in Puerto Rico, I did an online search for a nursery school to go visit. I allowed my intuition to guide me. I searched for Montessori schools, Emilia Reggio schools and a name catches my eye. “La Casita School in Puerto Rico.” So trusting my gut, I decided to stick with the intuitive part of the search and called the school to schedule an appointment.  I felt stupid, not knowing what I should say, but I was getting used to leaping into the abyss…..off I went.

The person on the other side was confused.  She decided it would be best for me to call back when the director returned. So, I waited and called her. She was very confused.  How did I know her name? How did I get the name of her school? I realized how difficult it was to explain the random circumstances that brought me to her but I insisted that we just wanted to observe a class,  and of course I didn’t explain any of the other circumstances. She would have hung up on me, wouldn’t you? I certainly would have. Anyway, she agreed to allow us a 45-minute visit. But, somehow I knew that once we were there,  it would be longer.

I now found myself driving in my old neighborhood with a  vague idea of where we were going.  But, as if by magic, we found the place without missing a beat.

The director of the school  was a very pleasant person. She had a very open and warm personality.  She quickly explained that she was not an educator but ended up opening a nursery school to meet the needs of her son.  She was just licensed to add a Kindergarten class and welcomed us to watch the class. Even before we entered into the classroom,  I knew why we were there. It was to help her restructure her school and the school’s philosophy.

As we observed the class,  it was evident that the teacher and the children were struggling to find a common ground.  “La maestra” was spending most of her time disciplining the children and the children were bursting out of the seams with energy that seemed unstoppable.  It was so palpable, the sense that the children needed to express their creativity. They wanted so much to interact with their environment that they couldn’t be contained.  They wanted to please their teacher but their natural curiosity and energy was too much and sitting still was too difficult. It was sad for me to watch. I now understood Nancy’s philosophy.  How amazing it would be for the teacher and the children to have the ability to allow the flow of imagination and creativity. How amazing if these clearly gifted children could choose how to express themselves on their own terms.  It was a gift for me that day. I true gift.

When we left,  the school’s director was excited about getting Nancy’s direction.  Nancy is not only an experienced Early Childhood teacher,  but she is a Professor at LI University in exactly this category. I grabbed Nancy and told her that this would be her first school that would implement her Clever Tutor Method of Early Childhood Education.  I started rambling about her need to put down on paper exactly what that meant and that it was so perfect that the school’s director was just trying to figure out how to organize her new Kindergarten class and was trying to decide what materials she was going to need.  Just perfect!!!

There is no doubt in my mind that we were guided to this school.  They were an open vessel, ready and willing to learn. Nancy is the guide with the most amazing concept for Pre-Schools and Kindergarten.

We were so excited.  It was so obvious.  Amazing was the only thing we could say.  The puzzle was finally starting to make sense.

We ran back home to pick up my mom.  She could see our excitement. It was hard to focus on the second part of the trip, which was going to the farm.