In 1961, six Catholic moms in Oak Park and River Forest — all college grads, all with the usual broods of kids — started a school. It was based on the then largely unknown methods of Maria Montessori and the first home for what they named Alcuin Montessori was in Lowell School, a classic old public school at Lake Street and Forest Avenue.
[In 1961] it made being a mother and housewife very exciting. [All the founders] had gone to college and were now home with umpteen interesting children and wondering how to put it all together,” said Kathryn Dunn, one of the founders. At the time, Alcuin was one of the first Montessori schools in America.
This fall Alcuin began celebrating half a century of “education for life.” In early September, its students and teachers gathered in the front lawn playground, planted a ginkgo tree and sang “Happy Birthday” to the school.
The Dunns — Kathryn and her husband, Dr. Paul Dunn — had encountered the Montessori method in Jubilee magazine and got a chance to visit Whitby Montessori School, which was founded in 1958 in Greenwich, Conn. The school was in a barn on the property of Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
“We wanted Alcuin to be a demonstration center to bring Montessori to other cities,” says Dunn who now lives in Ferryville, Wisc. “That first year we were besieged by people from around the country who wanted to know how to start a Montessori school.”
Although the school has no religious affiliation today, it was founded by six large Catholic families who asked the Oak Park public school board for permission to start a “lay Catholic school,” says founder Anne Canapary of River Forest. “I only had five, but the Buckinghams had 11 and the Dunns had 10, the Cavanaughs had nine. It was a good basis to start the school.” Each family pitched in $300 to get things going – paying for the training of two teachers.
A Chicago priest suggested the name Alcuin (AL-kwin) after St. Alcuin, an 8th century English monk who traveled to Europe and “brought education to the common man” under the reign of Charlemagne.
In 1961 thanks to several large families and publicity from the Oak Leaves, the school opened at Lowell School at Lake and Forest – complete with donated kindergarten furniture from Monsignor Frawley of St. Giles. “That building was torn down and became the Stankus Hole (now 100 Forest Place) for many years,” says Canapary.
“The first day a little boy put his head right through a window,” remembers Dunn. The first teacher was Mary Flynn. Tuition cost $375 per year.
Alcuin took off and had doubled in size by its second year. Soon 90 children were enrolled. In 1969 the school sold bonds and built its own building at 301 S. Ridgeland Ave. (now home to Intercultural Montessori.)
Over the years the school moved several times. At a Prairie-style Maywood home near the Des Plaines River, children raised sheep. Alcuin leased the old Washington School in River Forest for many years, until Dist. 90 sold it for park land and luxury homes.
Alcuin moved to its present location at the First United Methodist Church, 324 N. Oak Park Ave., in 1997. A satellite middle-school campus at Gale House opened on the 100 block of N. Kenilworth. The Montessori methods also grew in popularity locally, with spinoffs and new schools opening (and closing).
“Montessori offers the child the environment to discover himself,” says Dunn, who remained active in the school for decades.
Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was an Italian doctor — one of the first women to graduate from medical school in Italy — and educator who developed an educational philosophy based on teaching children self-sufficiency. The methods were originally developed in 1907 for poor children in a Roman housing project. Teaching emphasized orderliness, practical life skills, finishing tasks and courtesy. Special beads and tools were developed to teach children fine motor tasks.
During World War II, Montessori, a devout Catholic, was exiled from Italy by Mussolini. She was invited to India by the Theosophical Society of India and held a series of classes on her methods. The philosophy took off in India and was deeply influential. Montessori and her son were interned in India for a time in 1939 during her exile from Italy.
In 1961, Dunn found Montessori methods engaging. “[The method] taught the child to be so silent they can hear what’s going in inside himself — I am a mother of boys. The idea of learning to listen in silence was intriguing!”
Times change. Alcuin no longer has any religious affiliation, but still uses the Montessori methodology. Today, children learn to hang up coats, tie shoes, wash tables and chairs, pour drinks and even polish silver.
“Children learn order, concentration and independence in the younger years to build concentration for academics later,” says Gina Gleason, the school’s executive director.
Academically, special Montessori materials, such as math bead manipulables are used to teach multiplication to kindergarteners. The children learn cursive writing as soon as they learn the alphabet. Parents are required to observe classes regularly and be active in the school, supplying food, washing laundry and taking care of class pets.
Alcuin alumni remember their experiences fondly. Joey Nakayama, who attended through 6th grade, remembered “trying to summit ‘The Rock'” — the school’s large boulder mascot unearthed during construction in the 1960s. Climbing the Rock was an achievement, he told the school newsletter: “Once that milestone was reached, finding new and interesting routes became the next frontier.” Village President David Pope attended Alcuin. A Facebook page for alumni hums with reminiscences.
Though once new and unusual, Montessori methods are now commonly incorporated in many elementary settings — even public schools. Today, at least eight schools in River Forest, Oak Park, Berwyn and Forest Park use Montessori methodology.
Tuition at Alcuin runs about $11,500 for full day elementary school. Financial aid is awarded to some students. The school has approximately 170 students, 14 of them at the satellite middle school at Gale House. “We are packed,” says Alejandra Valera, advancement director. “We felt it like every other private school, with the economy being rocky. But last year our primary school was full and this year as well. Our middle school is packed to the gills.”
“Parents realize they have an alternate choice,” says Gleason, “You have the option of a curriculum and philosophy that you believe in — that’s working for children. It’s not a test driven, but a process-driven learning”