Tommy's story answers what it looks like to center the child – when energy spent on control becomes available for curiosity. But it raises the question: how do two people sustain that kind of work — constant observation, flexibility, release of control — without burning out?

At the start of this school year, Leah and Kirsti, Teacher Leaders at Spicebush Montessori, a teacher-led Wildflower school in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, were facing a decision no educator wants to make. Tommy, a neurodivergent four-year-old, was pushing, scratching, biting, hitting, and throwing things at students and teachers every single day. Staff took turns helping him regulate, one exhausted teacher handing off to the other, all day long. An expulsion conversation was on

This fall, as new Wildflower schools open across the country, we’re taking a moment to go inside the story of one. Born of deep partnership and shared purpose, Mountain Laurel Montessori embodies a radical idea: educators stay in the classroom, families are co-creators, and nature and Montessori are central.

Wildflower is launching schools in and around Philadelphia! Known for its diverse neighborhoods and history, Philadelphia is a city filled with possibilities. As a racially and economically diverse city, Philadelphia is rich with the history and opportunities to grow schools that can address its educational inequities while upholding the values and traditions for which the city is known. It is a fertile ground and culture to adapt the liberatory principles of Montessori to th