FBS History

A School Designed for Meeting Children’s Needs

In 1981, Paula Polk Lillard, Lynn Lillard Jessen, and Jane Sheehy Linari decided that if we were ever going to start our own Montessori school, now was the time. We loved to teach but were frustrated by the monopoly approach to education in the public sector, and the control of many school boards in the private sector by parents whose career experiences have not prepared them for this role. We wanted to teach in a school that consistently put the needs of children above the needs of adults.

Compared to the needs of adults, the needs of children are simple. The areas of development that children need to master in a literate and numerate society are: the ability to write and read, to think mathematically, and to develop a love of learning for life. For civilized behavior and the ability to relate positively with others and their surroundings, children need knowledge of good manners, respectful behavior, and care of self and the environment.

The Challenges of Conventional Schooling

What we experienced in our previous thirty years as parents and teachers in schools, both public and private, was the dividing of the day into strictly scheduled short time slots for teaching of separate subjects by different teachers and specialists with the constant interruptions this entailed. There was a universal emphasis on assigned nightly homework, constant testing for memorization of prescribed information, the assignment of letter grades that are essentially meaningless as an assessment of each child’s overall intelligence, constant additions and substitutions in the curriculum, and teaching materials that were not proven by either solid research or reliable practical experience in the classroom.

The following of these constantly changing fads resulted in increasingly higher costs per child with little or no overall improvement in the children’s progress. Often there was even regression. We wanted to show that we could build a school that met the needs of children with time-tested quality results for their development of character, academic learning, and interest in exploring the world for a lifetime, and to do so at a reasonable financial expenditure.

We were all three, as teachers, familiar with Montessori education and believed that its principles and practices were well suited to meet our goals.

The Early Years

In 1982, we rented available space in a public school building and opened Forest Bluff School. Our first class consisted of 14 three- and four-year-old children. Lynn Jessen, our Montessori teacher-cofounder, taught the class and managed its day-to-day administrative duties. 

Meanwhile, our other two cofounders, Paula Lillard and Jane Linari, commuted to Milwaukee everyday to take a course at the Montessori Institute of Milwaukee, becoming AMI Montessori teachers, as well. Eventually, we became a school of 150 students from ages 18 months to 14 years with a faculty of ten AMI Montessori teachers. Our office staff consisted of a school secretary and a business manager.

An International Impact

Throughout her career, Paula Polk Lillard has written four seminal books on Montessori education: Montessori: A Modern Approach, Montessori Today, Montessori in the Classroom, and Montessori From the Start (coauthored with her daughter Lynn Lillard Jessen). These books have been important for the international Montessori community, and have impacted generations of educators. Paula has given talks across the country and the world, and is considered one of the foremost authorities on Montessori.

Paula Lillard Preschlack, teacher and former Head of School, has written countless articles on Montessori and published her first book The Montessori Potential: How to Foster Independence, Respect, and Joy in Every Child. She is a well-known and engaging speaker, traveling across the country to lecture on the benefits of a Montessori education. 

Angeline Lillard, Paula Lillard’s daughter and a professor at University of Virginia, contributed to the Montessori and the educational community at large with her book Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius. This work analyzes the principles of Montessori against the basis of developmental research, discussing exactly how the educational approach is supported by modern science.

The Gift of a Montessori Legacy

Now, after more than 40 years, Forest Bluff School continues to meet our initial two goals: to serve the basic needs of children in their self-formation and to do so as a successful not-for-profit business. “Successful” to us includes being financially viable, charging as low a tuition as possible, and operating each year on a balanced budget. Happily, to date, we have met both of these goals.

Our graduates are achieving excellent records at public and private high schools, large and small, local and national. We regularly balance our budget. We have achieved all this by concentrating on the needs of children for quality education and simplicity in their lives, and basing every administrative decision on what is most helpful to children, whether or not it is the most convenient one for adults.

Our journey of building a school has been rewarding in every sense. Our relationships with our parents are deep and lasting. Our love and respect for them and for our children know no bounds. As teachers of Forest Bluff School, our bonds of support and appreciation for each other carry us through every new challenge. Our knowledge of teaching and how to help children in their self-formation deepens with each passing year. Our gratitude to Dr. Maria Montessori and her colleagues for giving us the gift of traditional Montessori education, with its extraordinary means for helping children to explore and discover their world, is everlasting.