About Us

Fairview Montessori School got its humble start in the home of owner/director Shannon Ryland in 1991 and moved to historic downtown Louisville, CO, in 1994. Shannon is a graduate of Florida State University with a B.S. in Elementary Education. She received her Montessori certification in 1991, is director qualified in Colorado, and is our Head of School. 

OUR TEACHERS
Our lead teachers have a combined total of over 60 years teaching experience at the early childhood level. All have been awarded their Montessori early childhood credentials from the American Montessori Society.

OUR PHILOSOPHY
As Montessori educators, our role is to prepare the learning environment and to encourage and inspire each child to explore, interact with and learn from it. We believe that children absorb information from their surroundings effortlessly in an attempt to make sense of their world and the people within it. Given the right materials, children demonstrate a love of repetition and order; given freedom of choice, children act on an innate desire to learn, preferring purposeful work to play; given respect, children develop self-esteem and give respect in return.

OUR PROMISE
At Fairview Montessori, we will: 
  • provide a safe, carefully prepared, mixed-age learning environment that encourages children to become independent, self-sufficient, and self-confident
  • expose children to a consistent and predictable routine
  • allow children to interact with and learn directly from the Montessori materials and the environment with minimal correction from adults
  • encourage children to attempt and complete challenging tasks
  • create a community of children who learn from and care for each other and the environment and who appreciate and respect different cultures and points of view
  • give children a voice by providing them with the tools to communicate effectively, advocate for themselves and others, and to ask for help 
  • set children up for success in the classroom and in the community, now and in the future, by encouraging their natural curiosity for learning and nourishing a positive self-image

OUR BANNER
Our banner is taken from a painting of Fairview Montessori School at its original location in downtown Louisville. Artwork by former parent, Robin Hiers, now based in Laguna Beach, CA.
Picture
Picture
"Supposing I said there was a planet without schools or teachers, study was unknown, and yet the inhabitants - doing nothing but living and walking about - came to know all things, to carry in their minds the whole of learning: would you not think I was romancing? Well, just this...is a reality. It is the child's way of learning. This is the path he follows. He learns everything without knowing he is learning it."
                          --Maria Montessori, MD