Glacier Montessori was created with the dream that all children could have the equal opportunity for Montessori education. From this dream Elena Martinez, the founder and director, was inspired to provide a unique sliding scale tuition that works with each individual family. Glacier Montessori has been formed and founded by forward thinking people to create a school for children of differing socioeconomic classes and cultures. Our first inspiration for our school model is Maria Montessori, the creator of the Montessori Method, who started the first casa dei bambini in Rome for a group of children who had no place to go and who would be roaming the streets otherwise. This school was provided for free with some support from the government. Maria Montessori developed and executed this philosophy in Italy during the early 1900’s. She felt the development of the whole child was vital so that the child could develop into an adult who loves to learn and feels driven by their own interests and ideas. Our second inspiration was Dr. Annette Haines, she was an AMI Montessori trainer and a US Montessori representative. She founded the St. Louis Lab School and has trained and inspired over a hundred Montessori Guides all over the world. She was the trainer of Elena Martinez and taught the importance of having multiple languages used in the classroom. She was also an avid horse trainer and loved Montana, inspired by her loving and dedicated spirit we chose the horse as our school mascot. To remind us of the amazing and bold people who came before us.