Our Mission & Values
Our singular mission at Guidepost is to guide and empower each child as they achieve their own independence.
Our vision of success? Each and every child with: potential, fully realized; a mind, fully activated; a life, fully lived.
Our Mission
Our singular mission at Guidepost is to guide and empower each child
as they achieve their own independence.
The Independent Infant
Who feeds herself using real glasses, forks, and spoons—so she can build the skills to participate fully in her own life from the moment she’s able and interested, so she can experiment with and come to understand the results of her actions in reality, so she can learn even the simplest task in a way that excites her, challenges her, and redounds upon her confidence.
The Independent Preschooler
Who explores a puzzle of knobbed cylinders—so he can use his curious, busy hands as the purposeful extension of his growing mind, so he can study and deepen his understanding of the details, the connections, the richness of the world around him, so he can become increasingly capable of reasoning, judging, deciding, and succeeding in his world.
The Independent Elementary Student
Who plans his day with a learning journal—so he can organize his effort, time, and mental resources in pursuit of his goals in increasingly sophisticated ways, so he can independently track, monitor, and celebrate his progress and achievements, so by learning to make plans on the scale of a day, a week, or a semester, he can create in himself the ability to make plans on the scale of his whole life.
Our Values
What does it mean to help each child craft a life, fully lived? It means nurturing the central aspects of a human life that equip and enable a person to succeed—in academics, in a career, in pursuing rewarding friendships and relationships—in life as a whole.
At Guidepost, this means helping each child cultivate:
A love of learning
By providing engaging materials that bring the whole world, in all its complex and interconnected detail, to the child’s level, and by giving her the freedom to pursue her interests, work as long as she desires, and perfect her abilities on her own timeframe, the child joyously earns her own knowledge. She creates an understanding of the world that is rich and alive, that flows into and informs all the choices she makes and all the trails she blazes in her life.
At Guidepost, we work tirelessly to uphold a value of knowledge, one that results in children who:
- Seek endlessly and curiously to better understand their world, their civilization, and themselves
- Invest in discovering the truth, rooting out errors, and perfecting their abilities
- Connect and apply their understanding across disciplines, at home, in their hobbies—to their life as a whole
A love of effort
By empowering the child with an environment suited to her size and developmental needs, and by giving her the tools, instructions, and routines to connect meaningfully with that environment, the child delights in effortfully pursuing her goals and honing her skills. She derives immense satisfaction, not just when she achieves her mission, but through the whole process—when she first chooses her goal, as she concentrates on completing the necessary steps, and even as she persists through difficulties and corrects her mistakes.
At Guidepost, we cultivate a value of work, one that results in children who:
- Pursue increasingly challenging and ambitious ways to perfect their understanding and abilities
- Aspire to use each precious moment of their time purposefully
- Attend conscientiously to all the details necessary for creating quality work they can be proud of
A love of leading her own life
By providing work that captivates the child’s attention and is naturally compelling for her stage of development, and by providing the tools, the lessons, and the vocabulary to connect intelligently with that work, the child confidently commits to making her own choices a reality. Over time, she builds the skills necessary to meet her goals—to prepare and eat the snack of her choice, to read her first chapter book, to divide triple-digit numbers—and is rewarded with the hard-won self-confidence she needs to continue to set her sights even higher.
At Guidepost, we promote a value of agency, one that results in children who:
- Choose independently to invest their time and energy in achieving meaningful, ambitious goals
- Connect their goals, their understanding of the world, and their actions together into a harmonious whole—one that leads to their success
- Take ownership over their actions, their education, and their life
A love of connecting with others
By creating a community of mixed-age peers, and by fostering an appreciation for effort and success within this community, the child helps create a rewarding, benevolent society. She celebrates the success of her friends, collaborates to achieve mutually selected projects, and experiences the pleasure of participating in an uplifting community—one where each individual’s unique contributions and abilities are valued and rewarded.
At Guidepost, we encourage a value of trade, one that results in children who:
- Reciprocally exchange the full range of human values—from mutual work on a joint project to shared laughter over lunch
- Celebrate genuinely the effort, success, and achievements of themselves and their peers
- Discover and create win-win solutions to solve the disagreements that arise when working together toward a common goal
The Guidepost Advantage
The core values of knowledge, work, agency, and trade come together to form the benevolent, aspirational culture that is common to every Guidepost classroom.
This culture is at once universally constant—the same whether you visit Guidepost at Foothill Ranch in California, at Hollywood Beach in Florida, or at Magnificent Mile in Chicago—and wholly singular—taking on the unique personality of the individual parents, guides, and children that form each particular community.
The end result of such a culture is more than children who learn to read, write, and think mathematically years ahead of their peers. The result is more even than children who can think, work, and succeed independently—and enjoy the process. The end result is children who can look across the span of their whole lives, work to understand the infinite texture of choices and paths open to them, and confidently craft a life that is good, purposeful, fully their own and fully lived.
This is the mission, the vision, and the advantage of Guidepost Montessori—and we can’t wait for you to join us.
Ideas from the Guidepost Blog
Parenting tips, Montessori explainers and strategies for helping your child become an independent, capable human being — The Guidepost Team is here to help parents succeed.
