Executive Summary for Beach Gathering Montessori Preschool

Why start another preschool?  Aren’t there enough in Virginia Beach?  We weren’t sure, but when a team of leaders at The Gathering UMC sensed a call from God to start a preschool, the first two questions we asked were “Is there a need?” and “Can we meet it?”  We realized that within a 5-mile radius of where we felt called to start a preschool that there are over 8,000 young children and only two dozen preschools/daycares/at-home daycares.  So perhaps there was a need for another preschool, but what kind of preschool?

Montessori Preschools are becoming increasingly popular in urban areas, although many people still do not fully understand the pedagogical approach of the Montessori method.  A webMD article on Montessori schools indicate that these 5 year old students have stronger reading and math skills and better social development skills than their peers in a traditional classroom.    An article published by the Wall Street Journal in April of 2011 talks about the “Montessori Mafia”, innovative entrepreneurs like the founders of Google, Wikipedia and Amazon, chef Julia Child or rapper Sean “P.Diddy” Combs all benefitting from their Montessori education, even citing it as the source of their creativity in the marketplace.   We also realized that while there are over a dozen Montessori preschools in Virginia Beach, only two of them are Christian and none of them are affiliated with a denomination.

But is the Montessori method compatible with Christianity?  Absolutely!  Maria Montessori, the founder of this educational approach, was born in Italy in 1870 and was deeply shaped by her Catholic upbringing.  The Montessori method wants to remind society of the value and dignity of each child as it celebrates both the uniqueness of the individual and the importance of working together in community.  All of these are values that we read about in Scripture.  The goal of the Montessori method is to help children fall in love with learning and to remain curious explorers throughout their lifetimes, this is also a concept that would benefit Christians in a church setting.  In Maria Montessori’s book The Absorbent Mind she talks about the importance of creating a loving, supportive environment for preschool aged children because in the first four or five years of life, children do not “receive” information, they absorb it from the world around them.  We want every child at BGMP to absorb the love and grace of God as they learn in a challenging and innovative environment.

Maria Montessori began her method as a way of reaching out to impoverished children in the slums of Italy.  Similarly, we realized through our research that no preschool emphasized providing scholarships for lower income families so that ALL children could have access to a quality preschool environment.  There are areas in Virginia Beach, like in the neighborhood surrounding B.F. Williams Elementary School, where over 50% of the community is comprised of single mothers struggling to work, pay the bills, and prepare their children for a rigorous public school program in kindergarten.  The renowned Perry Preschool experiment showed that if an at-risk child attended preschool the chances that he/she would graduate from high school increased by 20% and the likelihood that he/she would be arrested more than five times dropped by 19 percent.  An article on this experiment noted, “They got much better grades, were more likely to remain married and were less dependent on welfare programs.  This is why, according to Heckman and colleagues, every dollar invested in preschool for at-risk children reaps somewhere between eight and nine dollars in return.”

The Gathering United Methodist Church will not begin a business venture that is not missional.  We feel that a Montessori Preschool would provide the best possible quality education for at-risk kids in lower-income families in Virginia Beach.  It would also create a diverse learning environment for Beach Gathering Montessori Preschool and meet a need for more faith-based Montessori schools.

Children matter.  They are the future of the church and the future of our society.  By investing in a rich, community-focused preschool ministry we can transform the world, one life at a time.  In the pages that follow you will see that although the start-up costs are substantial, once the preschool is up and running it should generate revenue that will sustain not only the school, but will help The Gathering become self-sustaining in the near future.