By: Kathy Bruce, Assistant Director of Montview Community Preschool & Kindergarten
Why should parents have to “work” in their children’s school? We’re all busy nowadays, especially working parents. Does a co-op really offer enough benefit to be worth the time commitment?
Montview Community Preschool and Kindergarten was started by three “founding mothers” (who were also degreed educational professionals) in 1964. One of those founders, Bea Romer (former first lady of Colorado), explained why the idea of a parent co-operative preschool was part of her original vision. She strongly believed that a school should educate the parents as well as the children. And for this goal to be met, Montview teachers needed to be real professionals in the field. While a preschool can be licensed with teachers who have only twelve semester hours of early childhood education courses (along with a required number of hours of experience), Bea was very clear that Montview’s teachers needed four year degrees in education, and many here now and over the years have had master’s degrees as well. Working side-by-side with a professional in your child’s classroom, you as a parent have the opportunity to see all the many tools and techniques the teacher uses to provide social/emotional support, encourage conflict resolution and problem-solving and help children become self-reliant, confident members of a community.
In addition, as Bea raised her own children, she came to understand that as new parents, we are often anxious about how to be the best parents we can be, and friendships developed with other new parents can be lifesaving. This truth led to the supportive community building aspect of the school. Parents perform all kinds of jobs in the school, working together side-by-side, whether on all school clean-up days, on committees or collaborating to raise money for Montview’s scholarship program. And as they work together, they get to know each other and develop friendships.
In a recent parent survey, one parent wrote this about his experience of helping days:
“Wonderful experience. Please encourage more dads to attend. You never get a chance like this to be with kids in this kind of environment. I am a busy father, but the co-op experience has forced me to be more involved and I am ever thankful for that.”
So, if you ask us, our answer to the questions raised at the beginning of this article is a resounding “Yes! Yes! Yes!” A co-op is worth it! We hope you agree.
