Goochland couple aim to open Montessori-style school

All 12 of Doug and Tamra Adams' children have learned on the family's 131-acre farm in Goochland County, mostly in the 70-year-old granary they affectionately call "the little red schoolhouse."

Now, the parents want to open their learning farm to other youngsters.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will consider a zoning change to allow the operation of a Montessori-style school on the property. The method emphasizes an individualized learning program by which children progress at their own rate and direct much of their activity.

"It's more child-led than teacher-led," Tamra said. "It's not a free-for-all. It's very disciplined, and it involves the whole child -- all the senses."

If approved, Adams International School would teach children in a renovated barn, the little red schoolhouse and a variety of outdoor classrooms where dogs and rabbits coexist and a tricycle track covers the globe -- or a scaled-down version of it.

The school grounds also would include a double-decker treehouse, miniature park benches, child-size vegetable and flower gardens, and a 16-ton pile of sand. Call it a Garden of Eden for the preteen set.

"I think the board will pass it," Supervisor Malvern R. "Rudy" Butler said. "It's great to have something like that to offer stuff that our schools can't. It's a great concept, and the Adamses will make this a success. They've been in a few businesses, and they put their heart and soul in it and they work hard."

. . .

The Adamses, who moved to Goochland from Henrico County in 1998, recently sold their wine distribution business, The Country Vintner, to fund their latest venture. They converted the office, formerly a barn, into the new schoolhouse.

"This has definitely been a labor of love," Tamra said. "We feel passionately that education is a very personal achievement, and with children in seven different school environments, it gives us a clear picture of what we believe is beneficial for children."

Five of the Adams children have graduated from, attended or are on their way to Virginia governors high schools.

If approved, Adams International would enroll 3and 4-year-olds for the fall, possibly allowing some 5-year-olds with a Montessori background. The Adamses plan to make the school a nonprofit and hire a full-time Montessori teacher and other part-time staff.

The curriculum would focus on practical life and sensorial learning. Children would learn to wash hands properly, trim nails, prepare snacks, do dishes, polish silver, arrange flowers and change batteries. Other studies would focus on smelling, hearing and measuring as well as botany, geometry and working with animals.

The Montessori classroom, equipped with $50,000 worth of learning materials, an aquarium and birds, would function as the core of the facility, with a dance studio upstairs complete with professional lighting and sound. The barn's silo is the fire escape, and a five-bedroom pre-Civil War farmhouse has been converted into a guesthouse for visiting teachers from around the world -- hence the "International."

One of Tamra's ideas is a "week without electricity" class, where students would learn to make do without power.

"It's going to be about how you think," Tamra said. "It's going to be about, can you solve this problem? And that's what we need to teach children to do. We don't need to teach them to memorize, we need to teach them to create."

. . .

As the students grow, so would the school, eventually ranging from ages 3 to 12, and perhaps beyond. The Adamses hope to later convert their current home into a boarding school for middle school students who would work a farm on the property.

For this year, the school would establish a founder's club to build its foundation of students.

"We're going to be rather negotiable with our tuition just to get the learning community established. From that point on, we'll be competitive with area Montessori schools," Tamra said.

The Richmond Montessori School on Parham Road in western Henrico County has tuition in the $11,000 to $12,000 range for primary and middle school students.

Adams said she has received much interest from the community but has not begun taking applications until Goochland signs off on the school.

"We're committed to opening no matter the enrollment," she said, adding that the school would operate year-round. "I told my children when I taught them [that] if they ate every day, they might as well learn every day."

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .