The History of Rocky Mountain School of Discovery

Rocky Mountain School of Discovery was founded by Anne Helene Garberg in 2001. As a native of Norway, she arrived in America in 1998 with a four year old in tow. She quickly learned that the approach to early childhood education and education in general was quite different from her home country. She reluctantly sent her barely five-year-old son to kindergarten but it troubled her knowing that her son would spend his days inside in a very structured environment while his peers back in Norway would still be exploring, climbing trees and jumping puddles without a worry. The push for early academics and lack of outdoor, unstructured play seemed simply wrong. Children were deprived of their childhood. When her second son was born, she had no doubt that she needed to start her own school based on her Scandinavian background in addition to being inspired by Reggio Emelia, Montessori and Waldorf philosophies. She also saw the need to have a curriculum that would connect the children to the natural world.