There was no pitter-patter of little feet. There was no laughter or the lilting cadence of children”s voices sounding out vowels and consonants. There was no sound but a distant radio and the echo of Montessori teacher Rosemary Lamar”s footsteps as she wandered through the two-story home where she has taught, and lived, and loved for so long.
Thirty-five years. For 35 years, Montessori has been her life. And now, as she prepares to say goodbye, the memories rush back with topsy-turvy, pell-mell abandon. So many memories. But it”s time, she said. It”s time to do something else.
Lamar, who started the Children”s House Montessori School in 1976, estimates that she has taught more than 1,000 children. Some were from Columbus; others were from West Point and surrounding areas. Some were the children of children she taught years ago.
A woman ahead of her time
She didn”t start out wanting to teach the Montessori system. She was a young, married mother of two children, studying for her master”s degree in early childhood education at Mississippi State College for Women (now MUW).
In the course of her studies, she stumbled across Montessori and became fascinated. She liked the way children were encouraged to move around in the classroom, to handle the learning materials, to be independent, to become free thinkers. As both a parent and an instructor, it was a system that made sense to her.
The program”s founder, Italian physician Maria Montessori, was really “a woman ahead of her time,” Lamar said. She understood children. She understood education.
The more Lamar read, the more fascinated she became.
When class was over, she kept studying. She taught briefly at Union Academy and Brandon Elementary in Columbus, but Montessori kept calling her. Eventually, she decided to pursue her Montessori certification.
After a year of correspondence with an instructor in England, and a long, hot summer in Memphis, she received her teaching credentials.
In 1976, she opened her school, teaching 3- to 6-year-olds. Her first class had 15 students, mostly the children of area teachers. In 1979, she added 6- to 9-year-olds.
Eventually, her classes swelled to an average of 30 students, and she hired additional teachers to help. She credits those teachers with much of her success.
“I couldn”t have done it by myself,” she said. “I was so fortunate to have so many loving, caring teachers who helped me. I”m sure every child will remember one of those teachers being a special part of their life.”
Skinned knees and sharks” teeth
Thursday afternoon, Lamar sifted through photo albums, laughing through tears as her fingers drifted over each photograph and she called the children by name. She remembers them all.
She remembers the time they went hunting for shark teeth off Bluecutt Road. She remembers the Halloween carnivals, the Thanksgiving feasts, the Christmas plays. She remembers the field trips and skinned knees. She remembers the way their eyes lit up when they learned to tie bows.
“I will miss the children,” she said, gazing into the distance, her eyes bright with tears. “It was really a fun time.”
The most rewarding part, she said, was watching the looks on the children”s faces as they moved from not understanding the material to suddenly grasping it.
“There”s that moment when they finally recognize that they”re reading,” she said. “When they actually look at a word, sound it out, and suddenly know it. And seeing them work together, seeing them learning from each other … it”s one of the most rewarding things, to see the method at work.”
Her eyes drifted to the bookshelves in her classroom. Colorful wooden boxes, letters, numbers, and other learning materials were neatly arranged, everything in its place — a key element in the Montessori system.
She will pack everything away and put it in storage.
“Until one day …” she said. Her voice trailed. “I”m going to miss the kids so much. When something”s been a part of your life for that long, it”s a little sad.”
Looking to the future
But she said she is looking forward to trying new things. She”d like to tour the magnet schools in Columbus, especially Cook Elementary School. She”d like to have time to pursue art, which she loves. She wants to paint portraits and murals. She wants to dabble in watercolors and pen and ink drawings.
She hopes to begin a Facebook page where her former students can gather to keep one another up to date on their lives.
Most of all, she said she hopes another young teacher in the area will find Montessori as interesting as she did and will come to her. She would like the program to go on. She would like to teach someone to follow in her footsteps.
And so, she said, she will keep her supplies for now. Perhaps they will find a new home one day, in the hands of a new teacher, in the hands of a new generation of Montessori-schooled children.
“It”s a beautiful program,” she said. “I”d like to see someone carry it on.”
The phone rang, and she turned to answer it. Outside, plastic sunflowers drooped over a bright yellow sign announcing open enrollment. A “For Sale” sign leaned against the corner of the house.
In the corner of her office, a blanket and a pillow rested on a wooden bench. On the blanket were the words: “Teachers hold the key to the future,” and on the pillow were the words: “To teach is to touch a life forever.”
Gifts from her students. Gifts of gratitude for the lives she touched.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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