Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993 TAG: 9306150156
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Drummond, who established the first Montessori school in Blacksburg in 1976, is retiring this month after more than three decades of teaching children.
When a student herself at Municipal Teachers College in Frankfurt, Germany, Drummond learned about Maria Montessori's theory of childhood education. Her interest intensified to the point that after college in 1952, Drummond enrolled in the one-year Montessori training program.
Montessori methods were not very popular until the 1970s, so Drummond spent her early teaching career in traditional settings while homemaking and raising three children in the United States, France and Germany.
In the mid-'60s in Denver, she heard about a Montessori school and went to register one of her children. There was a school, but it wasn't opening because it couldn't find a trained Montessori teacher.
So Drummond took the job.
Ten years later, Drummond was living and teaching in the Washington area when she was asked to come to Blacksburg to talk with about 20 parents who wanted a Montessori school. She met with the group four times and agreed to start a school if 15 pupils ages 3-6 could be registered.
"There were just 12," said Drummond, "but my husband agreed to follow me in a year if the school was successful. So I came, rented classroom space in the Presbyterian church and opened the Montessori Primary School of Blacksburg."
Obviously, husband Chuck moved here a year later.
In 1982, Drummond was able to construct the present building on Tall Oaks Drive with help from a bank and from parents who offered personal loans of $1,000 per family. As their children left the Montessori school, Drummond repaid the parents.
When the first group of preschoolers was ready to go into kindergarten, parents once again banded together and approached Drummond.
Would she start a Montessori kindergarten? She did, and the parents were back the next year for first grade, and the next year and the next and the next and the next.
Drummond could not teach and oversee all those classes, but Terri Cook could. Cook, also a trained Montessori teacher, became responsible for elementary school grades, and the Montessori Elementary School was operating.
Ann Cassell and several other high-school seniors are the first graduating group to have attended through the fifth grade at the Montessori school. Cassell says that she received "an excellent academic foundation which proved to be an advantage" when she transferred into the public school system.
Cook resigned in 1985, and Drummond was forced to eliminate the elementary grades three years later. She did, however, start infant and toddler programs for siblings of enrolled pupils.
History has a way of repeating itself, often with a twist, and Cook has returned, not only to teach the elementary grades, but also to purchase the school from Drummond.
"We shall miss Christa's calming nature and reassuring presence. Children gravitate to her, and she has a terrific sense of humor," Cook said. "But we are delighted that she will still teach German, and I can continue to draw from her experience, wisdom and insight."
Drummond teaches German songs to the preschoolers and German grammar, culture and history to the older children.
A kindly looking, dark-haired woman with a ready smile, gentle German accent and warm countenance, Christa Drummond has touched the lives of many youngsters who will always remember "The Rainbow Song":
Rot und gelb rosa und gruen
Orange und lila und blau
Wir singen einen Regenbogen,
Einen Regenbogen
Sing es ganz genau.
In English, that's "red and yellow and pink and green/ Orange and purple and blue/ We can sing a rainbow/ Sing a rainbow/ Sing a rainbow, too."
by CNB