{"id":36,"date":"2014-08-16T09:08:42","date_gmt":"2014-08-16T09:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.headstart.edu.in\/?page_id=36"},"modified":"2026-03-14T14:01:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:31:58","slug":"how-it-all-began","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/how-it-all-began\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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History<\/h3>\n

I envisioned a happy place<\/em>
\nWhere children can grow and learn without fear
\nWhere you hear the sounds of children\u2019s laughter year after year
\nWhere teachers reach out with love and with care
\nWhere differences don\u2019t matter
\nAnd there\u2019s harmony to share
\nWhere children can be themselves
\nNot forced into a mould
\nWhere their growth is self \u2013propelled
\nSo they naturally unfold
\n<\/em>Samina Mahmood \u2013 Founder, Head Start Montessori House of Children<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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      Head Start Montessori House of Children was started in 1984 by Samina Mahmood, under the inspiration of the late Perweez Mahmood.<\/p>\n

      Discovering the Child through the eyes of Maria Montessori was like a spiritual awakening for Samina. She had to respond, not in words\u2013but by implementation. With only meagre funds available, a small garage was the first home of Head Start Montessori House of Children, and it opened its doors and its heart to children on July 4th 1984. There was no name board, no advertisements or publicity, no business plan; just a dream, a vision, and the passion to make a difference in the lives of young children.<\/p>\n

      The first learners were three little boys. The three became 20 boys and girls within a year and Head Start kept growing. Love for children and the spirit of Maria Montessori were the guiding forces and it was this love and guidance that propelled the Head Start movement. For Samina, the realisation dawned that starting and running a school is actually a deeply emotional experience.<\/p>\n

      The garage became too small and Head Start moved to a house. This house also became too small and then needed one more house. The family of children and teachers worked out of two houses for a few years, calling them the Blue House and the Red House for purposes of identification; then moved out of the Blue and the Red into one big house. The big house also became too small! New skills were learnt along the way; how to pack furniture, materials and equipment several times over the years; how to set up Montessori environments in odd shaped rooms and houses; and how to make the best possible utilisation of space. Cardboard cartons were never thrown away but neatly folded and stored for future use. We never knew when we would have to move again. But we were getting tired of moving\u2013and moving\u2013and we had a few hundred children!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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      With mounting pressure for admissions, we started our Afternoon Session, believing that giving children an opportunity for a Montessori education was better than turning them away.<\/p>\n

      In 1996 Riad Mahmood joined us and said, \u2018How long can we keep moving and moving?\u2019 With his determined efforts, the search for a permanent place began. Close to Head Start\u2019s twentieth birthday our prayers were answered and we were allotted a Civic Amenity Site by the Bangalore Development Authority, in Koramangala. Resources were meagre. We struggled and fretted but avenues opened. Blessings came and resources followed. We were actually able to build our own House of Children! This was not only a milestone \u2013 it was like a huge burst of the spirit that cannot be described in words; the same spirit we felt in the little garage but magnified a million times, and shared by many, many more hearts. It was an overwhelming feeling.<\/p>\n

      In 2004 our nomadic existence ceased. Head Start Montessori House of Children, Koramangala, finally had its own space and we moved in with joy and gratitude.<\/p>\n

      The Head Start Group has stretched out further to Sarjapur<\/a> and Whitefield<\/a>. We continue to remind ourselves that we are a community of learners, and our educators and children are always learning and looking for ways to enrich their experiences meaningfully. Montessori\u2019s belief that education is for life, not the classroom, is an inspirational thought.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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        History I envisioned a happy place Where children can grow and learn without fear Where you hear the sounds of children\u2019s laughter year after year Where teachers reach out with love and with care Where differences don\u2019t matter And there\u2019s harmony to share Where children can be themselves Not forced into a mould Where their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-36","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":69,"href":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7187,"href":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions\/7187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/headstart.edu.in\/koramangala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}