Montessori Preschool in the Flats celebrates 25 years
Dana Cook, owner and operator of Medicine Hat Montessori PreSchool, is marking a significant milestone in her education career this September as she celebrates 25 years in community.
“When my oldest daughter was born, I had come across literature on the Montessori method, and it just clicked,” recalls Cook. “I thought, ‘this is so fascinating. I get it.’ So I created the Montessori environment in my home with what I knew and understood at the time. When I moved to Montana in 1988, where my second child was born, we were living just outside of Bozeman. That’s a huge Montessori community there, and I had my girls in that. I also volunteered as a parent helper.
“When we came back to Medicine Hat this place (on Washington Avenue) came up for sale. I kind of put the cart before the horse and bought the school building before I had my Montessori training.”
Cooks remains a firm believer in Montessori principles.
“Basically, it is the understanding that play is the work of the child,” says Cook. “This is a controlled environment where everything is their size where they can do (complex) activities, and we show them how. As they grow and develop their abilities in the classroom, they can do more and more complicated things. It’s all self-propelled.
“My own experience in school I was not a good student,” admits Cook, “but at the time I was going to (public) school we had not really recognized yet there are different learning styles and avenues. Montessori caters to all different learning styles, and it works, and it fits.”
Cook says she didn’t have much of a business plan when she first came to Medicine Hat to build her preschool, but she had a powerful dream.
“I had a dream, and I had a vision,” she says. “And very little money to do it. I knew I loved children, and I knew in my heart this was the right thing to do. I gained momentum as I went along, and I figured out things. We learned from these experiences, and the business just grew from there. I have a great team of ladies here, and the city has been very supportive over the years.”