Four local educators are combining their super-powers of Mentorship, Student Support, Socratic Dialogue, Fine Arts and Music studies, to inspire children in a new educational paradigm known as the Ann Brown Memorial School – Center for Inspired Education (ABMS).
Founder Melissa Graham, formerly of Austin Texas, is the driving force behind the school. “Ann Brown Memorial School offers a fresh new approach and new educational choices for local children and their families. We are a Reggio Emilia inspired school where the child’s dignity and respect is always at the forefront, and the most integral part of everything we do.” Graham says.
Graham, her husband Paul Davis, and Arbor and Rebecca Buchanan combine forty years of accumulated educational experience to support, mentor, monitor and educate the whole child.
“We are a project-based, child-driven, mentor-supported learning environment where every child’s ideas, dreams, desires and learning levels will be honored in a personalized program.” Graham continues.
Rebecca Buchanan, Educational Coordinator and Lead Mentor at ABMS, goes on to say: “I am excited to have the opportunity to teach in a free and natural way, absent the pressures of tests, homework and worksheets. I love and respect children and I believe in their inherent ability to learn everything they need to know, in a personalized way that excites them the most, thereby making the learning most effective.”
“We are a different kind of school, for a special kind of child.” Buchanan continues. “We believe in the dignity and respect of all living beings, including the youngest among us. That is why we call each other mentors, rather than teachers. Some days I teach them, every day they teach me.” Buchanan adds.
Ann Brown Memorial School honors the accomplishments, the legacy and the memory of local educator and friend to the Fayetteville community, Ann Brown. Brown and her family started the Farm: a haven of safe spaces for artists, musicians, and young world- changers. One of those young world-changers who found her way to the farm seventeen years ago, was ABMS founder, Melissa Graham. Graham was so taken by the love she felt at the farm, from Ann Brown and her family and from Fayetteville itself, that she returned fourteen years later with her husband, Paul Davis.
“We base our school upon the sacred traditions of educating the whole child. We all are on a sacred path and we have different roads to get where we are going. Ann Brown Memorial School understands that children learn differently. We respect that. We honor that. We encourage that.” Graham continues.
ABMS is currently accepting children 5 to 7 years old. To learn more or to apply for enrollment visit: www.annbrownmemorialschool.org or contact us by phone at 512-788-1835.
Please join us on Sunday, July 22 for “Jam and Toast” a fundraiser to support ABMS. For more information find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AnnBrownMemorialSchool
