Our History
The Eliot Montessori School was founded in 1971 by a group of parents and educators who wished to continue their children’s experience in Montessori pre-school education into the elementary grades. Today, Eliot teaches children from Kindergarten through the eighth grade.
Trudy Hackett, a trained Montessori elementary teacher, was hired as a teacher. Ms. Hackett grew up in the Netherlands, where she attended Montessori schools through high school and trained in the Montessori Method. Ms. Hackett initially came to the United States at the request of Mario Montessori, the son of Maria Montessori, to teach at a Montessori school in California. She was also involved with Montessori schools in Maryland, Wisconsin, and New Jersey before moving to Massachusetts.
In 1977, the school relocated to the Eliot Historic District in South Natick. In 1981, the school was named the Eliot Montessori School, in honor of John Eliot, a minister and one of the earliest settlers of Natick. In 1982, the school moved to its present site, a stately brick building built in the 1930’s to house Natick’s Memorial School.
Ms. Hackett and Betsy Kluchman, an Eliot Montessori School parent, co-directed the Eliot Montessori School for twenty-five years. Sadly, Eliot lost Ms. Kluchman to breast cancer in 1995. There is a memorial garden in her name on the Eliot Montessori School campus to honor her for all her hard work on behalf of Eliot.
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