Aria Montessori School, formerly known as The Children's House, has a long history extending back to 1913 when it first opened its doors to the children of Pasadena. It has served as a haven for children in the community, and its reputation for educational excellence is well known in Pasadena and the surrounding area.

On lovely Euclid Avenue among the familiar trees and homes of an earlier Pasadena, Aria Montessori School carries on a tradition of children's education that began in 1913. The 72 young students at Aria trace letters, teach themselves about the world and how to take care of themselves by using the materials, child-sized tables and low-level windows and shelves that were built into the classrooms in 1916. May Davies opened the school in 1913, embraced the Montessori Method in 1915 and named the school The Children's House.

May Davies was an innovator in children's education who trained at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. In Pasadena, her husband Augustus Davies, converted a hayloft into a classroom so May would be able to open a kindergarten class. Her first class was comprised of her son, Elton and a little girl named Marion Harwood.

In 1915 May had learned of the brilliant success of the Montessori method with poor children in Rome and took classes from Dr. Maria Montessori when she visited the United States that year. By 1918, there were more than 72 young students at The Children's House.

May Davies was an avid student of educational techniques but she remained a proponent of the Montessori method. "Her choice of the Montessori method was made for a number of reasons," recollected her son Elton, "the strongest was her greater respect for the Montessori concept of freedom. It seemed to her based on a more accurate understanding of a child's nature and needs."

Elton Davies returned to the site of his childhood in 1986. He was shocked to find the school his mother had founded at 693 South Euclid still operating out of the same buildings that his father had constructed. He saw children using the drawers for materials that he had used, they were learning letters by running their little fingers over sandpaper cutouts and numbers using spindle boxes, beads and blocks just as May Davies had taught.

JoAnn Aria, current owner of the school, recounts how the children listened raptly as Elton Davies told them about the cows that once grazed nearby and how he chased the ice wagon as a youth. May Davies died at the age of 80 in 1947, two weeks after completing a summer session, but her legacy lives on at Aria Montessori.

JoAnn Aria is the fifth owner of the school that has continually been open since 1913. Nine teachers guide 72 students ages 3 to 5 in the four traditional areas of Montessori education.

The Practical Life area encourages focus, coordination and caring for self and the environment. Sensorial exercises help a child to discriminate senses using colors, scents and shapes to teach the skills of categorization. Mathematic skills develop from the use of concrete concepts and items like grouped beads or blocks with dots. Finally, language skills are also encouraged through the use of hearing, seeing and touch exercises to build vocabulary.

The key to the Montessori approach is that none of the children are forced. Children progress at their individual rates and are encouraged to follow their natural desire to learn, work and concentrate. It was a revolutionary approach in 1915; it is very effective today.

Elton Davies voiced what May Davies might think if she could visit Aria Montessori today. "Both my parents, my mother especially, would be happy," Elton wrote after his visit. "Thanks for what you have achieved - are achieving here."