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Students at Liberty Lake Montessori School show the paper mache globes they made.

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Profiles: Montessori approaches three-decade milestone
9/28/2015 2:49:46 PM


Splash photo by Staci Lehman
Liberty Lake Montessori School owner and teacher, Debbie Vaughn-Byrne, shows the area of her classroom devoted to different cultures.

By Staci Lehman
Splash Contributor

Even after 29 years, Debbie Vaughn-Byrne loves her job. 

"It keeps me smiling all day. I love kids, and I love to watch what they can do," said Vaughn-Byrne, or "Miss Debbie," as the students at Liberty Lake Montessori call her. 

Vaughn-Byrne started the school in 1986 and has no plans of quitting - only growing.

Montessori education is based on the belief that children educate themselves and emphasizes self-reliance and independence in a child. Children are allowed to choose what they learn by choosing what tools to use. Vaughn-Byrne's school is stocked with materials that teach kids about numbers and counting, tracing shapes that start them on the way to writing and items to measure and move from one container to another to improve fine motor skills. It's up to each child to decide which materials they use each day, and up to Vaughn-Byrne to observe and guide as needed.

"It's really letting them learn at their own pace," Vaughn-Byrne said. "They're doing what they desire, but it's not playing, it's learning."

Liberty Lake Montessori focuses on preschool and kindergarten-age children, with students 3 to 6 years old. Generally, the school has 10 to 14 students at a time. With Vaughn-Byrne and one other teacher, that's a seven-to-one student-to-teacher ratio. This allows the teachers to observe each child closely and note their triumphs and accomplishments, which Vaughn-Byrne loves to share.

"I call parents in the middle of class all the time and say, ‘Guess what she just did?'" Vaughn-Byrne said.

Parent Janet Schmidt says she's sold on the Montessori concept - and Vaughn-Byrne. She sent all three of her children to Liberty Lake Montessori, despite not being familiar with the Montessori approach when she first discovered it.

"It wasn't really the Montessori for me. She came highly recommended," Schmidt said. "I sent Ben, my oldest, and it was phenomenal for him. She's like the dog whisperer for kids."

Schmidt said Ben's ability to understand the concepts behind math, a skill he learned from Vaughn-Byrne, has served him well all the way into high school.

Because Montessori is deeply rooted in science and nature, it's not all classroom time at Liberty Lake Montessori. Students spend time outside, planting sunflowers in the spring, taking nature walks (and walking the school's mascot, Lily, a shepherd/chow mix dog) and feeding the worm farm from the compost pile that Vaughn-Byrne teaches about and has students help with. 

Another fundamental belief of Montessori is that learning continues long after students leave the classroom, and that's true for teachers as well, in Vaughn-Byrne's case.  She attends workshops and reads up on the latest education developments, as well as occasionally observing at other Montessori schools to get new ideas.

One of the rewarding aspects of being in a job for so long is that Vaughn-Byrne often has second-generation students; the children of former students.  She keeps track of many of her students as they grow up and says many are now engineers, teachers, doctors, nurses, organic farmers and even wine makers. 

Vaughn-Byrne has noticed some changes in children over the years. She said kids today seem to need more direction from adults and to be entertained more. She also noted their reliance on technology for learning and entertainment.

"There are too many quick answers for kids and parents today that they're getting lazy," she said. 

She feels her school's curriculum balances that out.

"This is the perfect environment for that," she said. "Then they (students) start doing stuff by themselves all the time."

With no TVs and computers to distract the children, they spend more time touching and tracing (learning fine motor skills), gardening and even learning to make their own snacks. They even cook a feast for parents once a year. Vaughn-Byrne feeds others, too. She teaches her children about the importance of helping others and serves meals to homeless people through the Blessings Under the Bridge program once a week.

After almost 30 years of teaching, what's next for Vaughn-Byrne? She doesn't even hesitate when she answers: "Teaching parenting classes." 

"It would be on raising your child in a Montessori environment and how to set up your environment," she said. "In that kind of environment, all the other problems fall away. The discipline issues, the ‘I'm bored,' and it teaches them to be independent." 

Parent Janet Schmidt agrees. 

"With Ben, she never used the word ‘no,'" Schmidt said. "Which is hilarious because he heard it all the time, but she didn't need to."

For more on Liberty Lake Montessori, call 255-9512.

• • • 

Profiles: Debbie Vaughn-Byrne

Age
53

Family
Two adult sons, ages 22 and 24

Hobbies
Walking her two dogs, horseback riding and tutoring

How she got her start working with kids
A car accident when she was 18 kept Debbie from finishing business school. Instead, she started working at Head Start.

Fun fact
Debbie has a garage full of do-it-yourself projects she's seen on Pinterest

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