Play Mountain History/Philosophy

HISTORY

Play Mountain Place, founded in 1949, is the one of the oldest humanistic alternative schools in the US. It's founder, child development specialist Phyllis Fleishman, created a preschool that was respectful of each child's individuality. She encouraged self-motivation, expression of feelings, strong bonds of friendship, cooperation, and development of self-confidence.

Ten years later, in the post-Sputnik era of academic rigidity, parents requested that Play Mountain Place extend its revolutionary child development methods to kindergarten and elementary school. In expanding the school for older children, Play Mountain was influenced by the humanistic psychology of Carl Rogers. The school also adopted some of the methods of A.S. Neill, founder of Great Britain's famous Summerhill school. Although Play Mountain's approach differs somewhat from the British school, Play Mountain is widely known as "the Summerhill of the West".

• Philosophy
• School Environment
• Curriculum
• Emotional Intelligence
• Trust & Respect
• Play Mountain Timeline

PHILOSOPHY

Our mission is to provide a humanistic educational environment that is developmentally appropriate for each age group. Our curriculum is organic, child-initiated, and primarily experiential. A child's inherent desire to learn is acknowledged and facilitated, not forced or squelched. Curriculum addresses children's social and emotional development as well as their intellectual growth. In addition, we strive to encourage the empowerment of children, and respect for each other, ourselves and the environment. Children learn to be part of community, both small and global. We enroll the whole family, believing in the important role family dynamics and support play in children's growth and development. As a school, we strive to be a microcosm of the larger society, reflecting the diversity in the Los Angeles community. In addition to enrolling families of various ethnic, religious, cultural, and sexual orientations, we stress anti-bias and culturally sensitive curriculum in our daily program.

SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

The school is located on a quiet, shaded, residential street adjacent to Culver City. The school environment is primarily outdoors. Tree houses, sand kitchens and other challenging, multipurpose items and play structures provide for adventure, fantasy play and experimentation. The school has animals, cooking, and pottery facilities, arts and crafts areas, sand boxes and climbing trees. Children have open access to work spaces, books, cozy corners and hide-aways throughout the indoor and outdoor environment. Groups may stay together as a unit, though more often children go through the day varying between small group and individual activities.

Play Mountain enrolls children from ages 2 to 13. The school is divided into several small groups; a Little Nursery which serves children from ages 2 to 3. Big Nursery/House Group serves children from ages 3 to 6. Elementary/ Mountain Yard serves ages 5 to 13. These groups are intentionally balanced sexually, ethnically and economically. Children frequently visit other yards, making friends and participating in activities with teachers and children from other age groups.

CURRICULUM

Most childhood learning is acquired through playing and doing. Play Mountain encourages the child's self-conscious control over initiating, planning, organizing and carrying out activities - the joy of learning is bound up in the joy of doing.

At Play Mountain we believe that education is a process, not a product. Skills development (verbal communication, reading, writing, math, science, arts, etc.) become the child's desired means to further learning, not ends in themselves. Play Mountain does not impose adult expectations on children or demand that they acquire skills at a certain rate. We don't want children to associate learning with coercion, anxiety or boring rote. We feel that a child's education is best served by the child's own mastering of the process of learning, in which the child becomes self-motivated to acquire reading and writing skills as tools for learning and interacting with a broader world.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Play Mountain tends to the child's heart, as well as the head. Children are encouraged to express thoughts and feelings freely and without judgment. At Play Mountain, all feelings are "OK"; indeed, repression of feelings only leads to greater problems later, which further complicate the child's education and interpersonal relationships. Anger, fear, sadness and other feelings are treated as a healthy, necessary part of life. Play Mountain teachers are trained to help children find safe physical, verbal and creative outlets for their emotions.

This kind of freedom results in an ongoing process of defining and testing limits. Teachers use non-authoritarian techniques for assisting children in their problem-solving process and in finding their own solutions to problems. By learning to "work it out," children develop responsibility and respect for others. Many visitors to Play Mountain Place comment on the apparent "maturity " of our children, the confident ease with which they interact with each other and adults. Constant attention to feelings is the key to this dimension of education at Play Mountain.

CHILDREN DESERVE TRUST AND RESPECT

In many conventional schools, the attitude of teachers toward children is one of mistrustful guidance. Children's spontaneity is often controlled or redirected by teachers, who spend much of the day in an authoritarian, paternalistic mode. Children resent the stifling of the natural enthusiasm and inquisitiveness, and they are rarely fooled by even subtle manipulation.

At Play Mountain, we invest the child with unconditional trust and respect. When Play Mountain teachers need to set limits children don't like, they do so directly, without manipulation. Children feel respected even if they did not get what they wanted. Our respect nurtures the child's self-confidence and warmth toward others. Without the respect of teachers and the entire Play Mountain community, the child cannot develop self-respect and feel authentic respect toward others.

These education principles are not born of blind faith in our humanistic philosophy. Over fifty years of experience shows that they work. At Play Mountain children learn far more than the "Three R's" -- they learn to live fully and joyfully in the world, with a deep understanding of who they are and a profound respect for others. Our students are creative, self-motivated problem-solvers with an abiding curiosity about the world and with all the tools they will need for a lifetime of continued learning.