Marshall, North Carolina, US
By Rachel Maietta
Mountain Breeze Preschool in Marshall, NC, situated on land bordering two master units, has recently become a licensed five star center in a residence. With a lot of emotional support, volunteer hours, and donations of items and funds, we have created a beautiful community Neohumanist preschool. We had 10 inspections in 7 months. North Carolina is very detailed and particular about who they award a license to. We passed all building, fire, environmental health, safety, and early childhood education inspections. I am so very happy to say we are a NC FIVE STAR LICENSED FACILITY. To become five stars you have to fulfill all of the regular licensing and then you have an in-depth assessment of everything, our curriculum, how many seconds we wash our hands, how we talk to the children, how we represent other cultures, etc. This is an important step because we are now able to accept childcare vouchers and offer care to families that are in financial need.
I am so happy to say that through jumping through all these hoops we never had to compromise our philosophy of Neohumanism. In fact, many of the inspectors praised our curriculum and philosophy and said children are “blessed” to go to school here. Our children learn yama and niyama and we focus on one per month. They meditate every day, sing Baba Nam Kevalam, do Namaskar, practice the weekly yoga posture, and eat vegetarian food. We follow the Circle of Love curriculum.
Children are pure magic, I am convinced of it. It has been a busy first week of school with 14 families coming from 5 different towns. I hope to start a Mountain Breeze Family Meditation Group this year. Our teachers are truly wonderful and fell in love with our NHE model. I am so grateful for them and what they bring to our school.
