The Hockessin Montessori School is celebrating its 50th year in education.

Opening in 1963 with only one preschool classroom, the school was founded to offer an educational program steeped in the Montessori Philosophy. Now, 50 years later, the school educates toddlers through eighth graders and helps them achieve academic excellence through an individualized curriculum.

School officials were excited to host the reunion in honor of the anniversary.  

Alumni returned to visit with friends and staff and to see the growth that has occurred at the school since their graduation.

Tarun Chitra, an alum who went on to graduate from the Charter School of Wilmington and Cornell University, said, “Hockessin Montessori School helped me learn how to teach myself.  And while this sounds like a fairly trivial skill, I realized, while in high school and college, that many of my peers did not have similar learning experiences in elementary school.  I credit my interest in string theory, my area of research, to the curiosity and inquisitiveness that I gained at the Hockessin Montessori School.”

The school is an independent, non-profit school, which promotes high-quality education for children ages 12 months through eighth grade. As a non-sectarian school, the population is drawn from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The classroom environment stimulates intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and cultural growth. The school promotes development of self-motivation, independence, curiosity, and concern for others within the framework of a developmentally appropriate academic program.