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HistoryClonlara School was founded by Pat and Jim Montgomery in 1967 as an alternative to public and private schools. Pat began her teaching career in religious and public schools. Once she had her own children, however, she felt that the existing schools did not offer an ideal approach to a child's education. She admired the work of Jean Piaget, who researched young children and how they learned through play. While studying for her Master's Degree, she learned of Summerhill School in England that had been operating since 1920 by A.S. Neill, and was inspired to start a school based on her own vision of an ideal education. Jim and Pat purchased a house on Jewett in Ann Arbor, and Clonlara opened as a nursery school in October, 1967. Financing came from their own out-of-pocket contributions, loans and fundraisers. (No effort was too small: They sold apples for 5¢ each at Michigan Football games and, later, hot dogs and Coke at the Ann Arbor Art Fair.) Pat served as teacher and director for 38 years in a voluntary capacity. As the school grew, an age and a grade level were added each year. Today, enrollment covers students from Kindergarten through high school. Clonlara grew from one house to two when the Montgomerys bought the house next door in 1969, then two used portable classroom units were added in 1970. These accommodations were in service beyond all reasonable estimates of their usefulness, and they were lovingly put to rest in 1997 when Pat & Jim donated the properties to the school, and our current building was constructed. Jim Montgomery, Clonlara School’s most beneficent donor and co-founder, died in December, 2007. The continuing operations of the school and the Home Based Education Program are dedicated to his memory. HOW HBEP WAS BORN In 1978, a family requested that Pat help them teach their nine-year-old at home using the approach she designed for the students of the campus school. Pat was aware that John Holt, who had previously been a vocal proponent of alternative schools, was beginning to advocate for parents teaching their own children at home. She agreed to help the family, seeing the wisdom in exporting the experience she had acquired over the past decade. In 1979, the Clonlara School Home Based Education Program was officially begun. We have served families in all 50 states and in over 30 foreign countries. Our programs and ideals enrich students around the globe. Clonlara currently has divisions of HBEP in Japan, Spain and Germany that operate in those native languages, and we now have families enrolled from 16 other foreign countries. In October of 1985 Clonlara's Home Based Education Program was featured in Omni Magazine. Six schools in the U.S. were chosen as representative of differing educational types that a panel of experts recognized as "the future of education." Clearly, we're still going strong, and plan to continue well into the future! CONTINUED GROWTH In 1985, three years after Pat was invited to Japan to share her experiences in alternative education, Clonlara's Japanese Division was created to provide services to Japanese students who were seeking assistance from our Home Based Education Program. Since then, Clonlara has helped Japanese students earn an American high school diploma. In 2000, Clonlara parents from Spain translated our HBEP materials and curriculum into Spanish, and opened Clonlara España, our office in Barcelona, Spain. And in 2004, home educators in Germany did the same thing, founding Clonlara Schule in Germany. Not only are Clonlara's materials translated into these languages, the programs are culturally significant to the native lands.
Clonlara has a history not only of education, but of advocacy for alternative education and home schooling. Clonlara School is the founding member of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools (NCACS). As one of the oldest alternative schools in the U.S., Clonlara was chosen as the headquarters for the NCACS from 1976 until 1985. Pat served as its president from its inception until 1983. Clonlara and Pat remain participating members. In the mid-80s, parents who were teaching their own children in Michigan were being increasingly prosecuted for making the choice to home school. They were even being put in jail. On a wing and a prayer (as far as the funding for such an action was concerned), Pat Montgomery filed a lawsuit on behalf of Clonlara and home educating families against the Michigan State Board of Education. [Clonlara, Inc v State Bd of Education, 442 Mich 230, 240; 501 NW2d 88 (1993)] Clonlara School contended that the school officials were enforcing policies against home schoolers as if those policies were law. Clonlara won and the first level and the state appealed. Clonlara won in the Michigan Court of Appeals, and the state appealed again. Finally, in 1993, the Michigan Supreme Court also ruled that the rules the State Board of Education was attempting to enforce did not have the weight of law. The victory was a coup for homeschooling across the country because it provides legal protection for homeschoolers. The decision rendered by the Supreme Court in Clonlara's favor has been used as precedent in other cases. LEGACY CONTINUES Though Pat Montgomery has never separated herself from the causes and concerns of alternative education and the home school movement, she did realize that the time had come for her to turn over the reins of the day-to-day operations of the school. She gathered a team to study the effects of such transitions so Clonlara would continue to succeed when its visionary founder stepped down. In 2005, the final result was that Chandra Montgomery Nicol, Pat's daughter stepped up to share her expertise in keeping Clonlara both true to its history and prepared to continue its services for a long time to come. Clonlara School has a dynamic team on staff to ensure that the practices and vision at Clonlara marry the past with the future.
IN SUMMATION... Pat Montgomery sums up her valiant, life-long pursuit on behalf of educators, parents and children this way: "I just want to be the keeper of the flame, to make sure that the values standing beneath Clonlara remain intact."
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