A case study: Bright Beginnings, a good model/commercially successful preschool in Bangalore

Aruna Anandkumar, the director of a Montessori Preschool Programme, received LVEP Educator Training from Chithra Lakshmanan, one of the directors of the national LVE association in the USA! Mrs. Anandkumar wrote to report: “I am thoroughly enjoying implementing LVEP, both at my school and with my own children, aged 12 and 8. I live in Bangalore and run a Montessori Preschool Programme and a Parenting Class. “Bright Beginnings” was started during June 2004 in a farm setting just outside of Bangalore. We have completed our second year and have 35 preschoolers, and 15 toddlers who come with a parent. Our student body comprises of children from all over the world and this makes it all the more interesting. We take a thematic approach and do plenty of art and craft and music. We have some animals that our children help take care of and often take the children on nature walks to the farm behind our school. Each of our children has their own garden-patch which they tend to every day.

LVEP has been an integral part of our programme ever since the inception of our school. Now that we have completed two years of our Preschool Programme, I can very happily say that what has made our school so successful is the continuous implementation of LVEP. I see it having such an impact on our children; little sayings from 3-year olds like, "You must love yourself before you love somebody else", "I feel so peaceful inside", "I feel good inside". We had our last day of school on the 31st of March and organized a Parent Workshop after which some parents gave us feedback about our programme. What stood out the most was how they, as parents, loved our Value Education Programme. I am extremely happy that I have been introduced to this and in turn I too have been sharing this with all my educator friends in Bangalore. I have gifted the LVEP books and the cassette to another Montessori Creative Foundation and am really hopeful that it is working as well in their school.

I really do believe that India is ready for this and that it will make a tremendous impact on our next generation if many, many more educators believe in it and spread this beautifully packaged, very easy to implement values programme.