My name is Anne Perrah. I
have created this web site because I want to communicate with like minded
individuals who agree that a vital task of proactive parenting is to help our
children understand what it means to be human. I believe that helping children
get off to a good, empowered start in life is the most important job on the
planet. Since 1975, I have operated Montessori Children's House in Cypress to
express my vision of this most vital of human endeavors.
Please click here to view the website for Montessori Children's House in Cypress.
If asked what are my passions in life, or, if asked what I love to be doing, so much that I'd show up even if they didn't pay me to do it, my two answers are the same: storytelling and learning design, mostly with and for young children. I have a passion and, I believe without hubris, a gift, for both teaching and writing. I get a deep satisfaction out of creating child-inspired learning experiences, and I enjoy making up interactive, open-ended stories that help children learn everything from math to conflict resolution.
I am what you might call a perpetual student myself, given that I have been in the classroom as teacher and as student, fairly steadily, since 1967. [My bio is attached.] There is something magical about the process of connecting ideas together and exploring different creative ways of thinking about things.
Given one wish for this web site, it would be that it will connect me with with people who have a sincere interest in making a difference toward helping our children learn to think in new ways about what it means to be a human being. I want to team up with those who choose to stay awake and prepared, committed to building a viable future for our planet home.
"The future is here in the embryo."
Recently, I have been working on a book that addresses the concept of 'revisioning' the stories by which we define our lives. By this I mean that we can each reconsider the importance and meanings that we have attached to the stories which, for good or ill, we took to heart and from which we formed our beliefs, attitudes and world view.
Click to view a description of Dr. Perrah's new book, Taken to Heart.
Two articles that I have written on related subjects are:
Connections...and our Children
...and
Cultivating Community / Cultivating Imagination
Most of the following section is TBA and will be expanded in the future.
"Whenever we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the universe"
John Muir