Hello everyone,
Last Thursday, May 26th, I was prepared to share some exciting news about our growth: the opening of our 100th school. But then a horrific event had occurred just two days before, on May 24th at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and I could not find it in myself to be even a little bit celebratory.
Since then, I’ve had some time to reflect. Rather than suppress the celebration, I am trying to channel my sadness about the shooting in a way that imbues our achievement with new meaning. The joy is less simple and straightforward; it is more poignant, and more an act of psychological self-preservation. But it now has an intensity of conviction now that I am embracing with all my being, and I hope it will serve that purpose for you as well.
So it is with great happiness that I announce that last Thursday, we opened our one-hundredth brick and mortar campus. Fittingly, the school is Guidepost Montessori at Centennial, located in Centennial, Colorado.
Guidepost Centennial is a beautiful little suburban school situated about 10 miles west of our Guidepost Aurora campus, and 13 miles northwest of our Guidepost Parker campus. Stephany, our Head of School, has worked with our talent team to assemble an incredible founding staff. The campus will open its doors to great demand from the community—there were 99 pre-registration deposits on opening day. Please enjoy the photos of Centennial’s first-day photos below.
Step back and take in the achievement. 100 schools. 100 communities of impeccable classrooms, magnanimous school leaders, devoted guides, blossoming children, and beaming parents. 100 attempts to struggle through the challenges of growth and make the world just a little bit better.
Maria Montessori believed that human children, contrary to what is commonly assumed, seek to exert maximum effort. The child has capacity for great work, and unthwarted, will feel called to do that great work. A child who can run, will run and run and run, simply because he can. A child who can lift objects, will try to lift heavy objects and as many as possible, simply because she can.
Children are not governed by preconceived ideas that direct them to do only the minimum, or only what is required or expected by some external standard. The potential for great work manifests as a natural desire to do great work, to put forth maximum effort.
What is true of the child inherently, almost unconsciously, is true for the adult only by conscious, clear-eyed choice. Not all adults make that choice, but you all have made it. Thank you for putting forth maximum effort. Thank you for your boundless drive to create profound learning environments, to awaken and channel the natural curiosity of our students, observe and study their needs, meet deadlines, answer emails, respond to Teams messages, host and attend meetings, cultivate relationships, participate in trainings, open yourself up to guidance, pivot with everchanging priorities, adapt to unforeseen changes, navigate unexpected hurdles, provide and receive feedback in a quest for continuous improvement. Thank you for contributing to our monumental quest to bring uncompromising Montessori to the children of the world.
Dr. Montessori said, “If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of man.” At a time when we could all use a little hope and salvation, please appreciate the ways in which you are empowering those who will bring it to us.
With every new school we open, with every additional child we enroll, we are increasing the magnitude of impact we have on this world. However precarious it may feel, it remains true: every day, your efforts and your work are fueling real, positive, and everlasting change. In reaching so many, we both honor those we cannot reach, and lay the seeds for a better world, a world in which a new generation of children will do better to protect our common humanity.
The same heart that remains heavy with the pain of senseless loss, also sings with the joy of the birth of a new community.
Congratulations to the Centennial staff, and to all of us across all our programs, for work well done. The world needs you more than ever, and your work will make a difference.
Ray Girn
Chief Executive Officer
Higher Ground Education
www.tohigherground.com
That’s a great news!
Congratulant's for having a dream and making it possible for all of us!