Making a Difference at Glacier Montessori
The bilingual Montessori school heads into its fourth year of operation and second year of offering a sliding scale tuition option for eligible families.
By Cathy Li
Inside the unitarian church space of 1515 Trumble Creek Road, education is holistic, diverse, and accessible. Subjects are often integrated with one another. Art, science, and music are paired together in lesson plans. Every morning at 9 a.m., Glacier Montessori students gather to sing “Hello Song,” which they can translate in five different languages.
Though it isn’t the only Montessori school in the valley, Glacier Montessori is the only school in the Flathead that is bilingual, and as of last year, it’s the only school to offer tuition on a sliding scale. Founded in August 2021, Glacier Montessori enters its fourth year of operation this fall. Relatively small, with 14 students ranging in ages from 3 to 6, the school offers preschool programming in addition to kindergarten. The inaugural class was composed of 60% boys and 40% girls, but now the demographic split has evolved to become even.
A Montessori education structure allows children to excel academically while also instilling life and leadership skills. Classroom curriculum is specifically designed to furnish students with a self-directed, social, and emotional learning environment in which they can guide their own process. There are designated spaces for learning — for example, an area for math, another for cultural studies, another for writing, and a space for music and art.
In this unconventional model, children engage with their studies physically, using their body to learn and interpret the world around them. For example, students approach subjects like math with their senses, observing and making connections with the objects in front of them to the material taught. Instead of writing arithmetic on a piece of paper, students count beads to learn addition and subtraction.
Elena Martinez, founder, directress, and lead teacher at Glacier Montessori, has an extensive history of working in Montessori schools. From her experiences, she noticed reoccurring issues for lower- and middle-class and non-English speaking families in the valley, including that they often lacked the resources to enroll their children in Montessori pre-kindergarten programs.
“They are primarily private schools, so it makes it difficult for middle- and lower-class families to be able to enroll their children in Montessori,” Martinez said. “The sliding scale tuition allows for parents to pay what they can, dependent on how much they make and how much their bills are.”
According to Martinez, another impetus for the program was her observation that Spanish-speaking children entering public school struggled due to the language barrier, impacting their day-to-day lives. Martinez sought to bridge this language gap by building a bilingual curriculum in which Spanish speaking students could learn English to matriculate successfully into grade school, and non-Spanish speaking students could have the chance to become literate in Spanish.
Glacier Montessori’s gem is its reading program, which allows for students to gain exceptional literacy skills in both languages by teaching them how to read in English and Spanish simultaneously. Children are encouraged to express themselves in this space, where Martinez said they also receive the individualized attention they need to succeed.
“It depends on each child, so if one child is not ready yet to start learning another language reading, then, of course, we do not push them,” Martinez said. “Montessori really works with each individual child where they are at naturally.”
The pioneer of Montessori educational philosophy, Maria Montessori, believed in teaching and engaging with other cultures. The program also offers a space for bilingual communication and community involvement, while adhering to Montessori principles.
According to Martinez, knowing another language can increase one’s problem-solving skills, and is beneficial for a child’s early development.
“Another wonderful part of being bilingual as well is, of course, as you get older, not just communicating with other people, but the types of opportunities that you can have,” she said.
Glacier Montessori runs on a passion for community and multiculturalism. Kalispell Middle School students volunteer to read to Montessori students, and parents are involved through fundraisers, or by attending parent workdays, where they help with projects at the school, like yardwork or building a picnic table. And beside subjects like math and geography, Glacier Montessori teaches its students practical life skills that they need for everyday life, while emphasizing important values, like contributing to community and society. For example, during family and student dinners and picnics, students help set up tables prior to the event, as well as with cleanup.
As its founder, Martinez has been developing the school for the past three years, continually improving it from scratch. There are still challenges, like finding more staff members who can speak both Spanish and English fluently, but Martinez remains hopeful for Glacier Montessori’s future. She is excited to host more cross-cultural programs and events like Spanish and English dinners, where older children who have graduated can apply their learned bilingual abilities in a conversational setting outside of the classroom, or continuing programs like the Spanish Pen Pal Program with Big Sky Montessori.
“That is something we are working towards, is making our school a place where we will have multiple cultures and multiple languages spoken at the school,” she said.
When Martinez stared the school, there were only 8 kids enrolled. Now that the number has doubled, she expects continuing to expand the school, taking more students in the upcoming academic year.
Glacier Montessori will be in session beginning in late August. You can find more about the school through their Instagram, @glaciermontessori, and Facebook page.
