Meet Ileana Gómez of Seed Montessori in Near West

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ileana Gómez.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Seed Montessori is the culmination of my lifetime of work as a Montessori teacher of elementary aged children. I am AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) for 28 years, I worked as a classroom teacher, both private and public, in Chicago, IL/ Corte Madera, CA/Baton Rouge, LA. I taught in wealthy private schools and in public schools where 98% of the children qualified for free lunch.

After many years in those various settings, I determined that the time was right for me to spread the Montessori pedagogy to a larger community, working with children in an after school setting. I reasoned that there I could teach, unencumbered by demands for testing, free from the ever changing rules of the state and federal governments.

Montessori makes no demarcation between work and play, so I figured I could work and play just as well after 3pm. Moreover, because my Seed students attend traditional schools, this classroom is a chance for them to experience the wonder and hands-on curriculum that are Montessori. Of course, I could not have done it without support. Two friends offered to invest, and without them I could not have gotten off the ground.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Um….no. No smooth road! The first challenge was to find a suitable location and prepare the classroom. It took a while to find this beautiful space. Luckily for me, the room had been empty for many years and the owners had undertaken a big update. This meant that I could have a few special things done: put in a triple sink, have push-bars installed on all the doors for safety, etc.

Of course, it’s never as easy as it seems. Construction was delayed, preventing me from being open at the start of the school year. I laid the floor tiles myself, and I couldn’t begin until the subfloor was laid. The subfloor couldn’t be laid until the HVAC, plumbing and electrical were done. All in all, I was set back about 3 months. That’s a significant problem, because once the kids are established in a program, families usually don’t make a change mid-year. That was bad, but it wasn’t the worst of it. Water was the worst of it.

Before I opened, my space got water damage 5 times. Five. And then once more. Six. The building had been neglected so long that a tuck pointing problem allowed water to stream into my room damaging paint, ceiling tiles and materials; that happened 5 times.. When they finally got that resolved, the very next week a tenant upstairs let her sink run over and I got another 6o gallons of water through my ceiling. It was literally the evening of the first day the floor was finished. That night I was mopping up water and broken ceiling tiles. Next, I finally got the room set, and the whole building was encased in scaffolding while they took several weeks to tuck point the whole thing. There I sat, my beautiful windows with the gold leaf signage, all but invisible.

My next challenge was to arrange transportation from the schools to my business. We live in a kid-friendly neighborhood and I had imagined that kids might walk over. When that proved not to be true, the search for transportation began. I found a good company, and then they folded at the end of my first year. Next, I had to buy a 15-passenger van…and a dozen booster seats. Argh.

Seed Montessori – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Seed Montessori is an after school classroom for educational enrichment. We serve students grades K-5, exposing them to a broad curriculum of activities. We study math, science, geography, art, history, current events. We have animals to observe, hamsters and geckos, which give us a chance to see both warm and cold-blooded animals, observing their characteristics and habits. This helps the children to not only understand THESE animals, but also gives them a deeper understanding of the fact that all animals have adaptations relevant to their habitats, predators, etc. We have a hydroponic tower garden where we grow lettuce and kale and chard and tomatoes. The children start from seed and see the entire life cycle of the plant. Seed is a community.

At Seed, we have very personal relationships with children and families. Each child is dealt with in a way that addressed their whole being: academic, social, physical, emotional. Like all Montessori programs, at Seed we work very hard to cultivate an environment that is child-centered. Here at Seed children have a lot of freedom and a lot of responsibility. They can choose work and activities that appeal to them, they can choose with whom they work, and they are expected to treat other people and materials with respect. They clean up after themselves, and contribute their opinions to the decisions which affect the group. We know the older and younger siblings of our Seed students by name, even though they may not attend.

Each year we walk in the Memorial Day parade as a group and parents turn out in big numbers to support us and walk along. I am very proud of the individual consideration that each child receives at Seed. The families I have served are very pleased with the service their children receive, and word of mouth is my mainstay. Last year (my first full school year of service) I was so touched when a mom called me during the day to inform me of a death in the family. She wanted me to be aware that the child might be struggling emotionally, The call made it clear that parents were beginning to see the full potential of Seed. We are not just a safe place to be after school; we are a program that addresses ALL of the child’s needs. Our academic scholarship is unrivaled.

Other programs in the area teach math after school, but I know of none other than Seed where a child in kindergarten is calculating the area of rectangles or adding fractions. No other program after school has them dissecting owl pellets. No other program after school was visited repeatedly by a dietician, or a cupcake decorator. Seed has done all of that. There is a local program that is all art after school, but here at Seed we have tie=dyed t-shirts, students have built paper maché masks and serving trays. Some programs focus on theater.

At Seed, we have a stage where kids perform skits and where this year we will do a poetry performance for parents. Some programs have time dedicated to homework, but no other program is run by a trained teacher with decades of experience and shelves full of manipulative materials that make learning clear and lasting. Other programs do pieces of what we do, but our program does it all. As you’ll see in the photos, we also go to the park and play games! Seed kids take field trips, too! We have our own van, and we go to the library, the conservatory, the history museum and a variety of other local attractions.

On occasions when children are here full day, we have sometimes taken the train into the Loop and visited the Art Institute and other interesting locations. Lastly, kids are learning, their curiosity is growing, their confidence is growing, their independence is growing and they like to be here. Often, when parents arrive for pick-up, the students protest. Watching these young people gain mastery over their own decision making, watching them develop positive communication and problem solving skills, watching them work together cooperatively and seeing them seek more answers to their own questions, all the while developing lasting skills–THAT is why Seed is here, and THAT is working.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
After school programs may see a lot of change in the next decade. Political winds will continue to blow, and if the US does what is right, programs like mine may be greatly affected, even eliminated. For example, there is a lot of talk about longer school schedules. That would impact Seed. Or if we were to elect a government smart enough to mandate after school programming in every school, it would wipe me out (and I would rejoice). We are long overdue in rethinking education policy. Montessori is at a crossroads and poised to grow. If the government does things right, Montessori will get a lot more play in the next design. Unfortunately, that remains to be seen. But we’ll see…

Contact Info:

• Address: 500 Madison Street Oak Park, Il 60302
• Website: seedMontessori.com
• Phone: (708) 613-5860
• Email: seedMontessori@gmail.com

Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.