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The aha moment
Ty Durekas | October 27, 2009 | Comment
If I may be so kind as to say it, I’ve really enjoyed bringing The Grove School to life.
First a bit of background about me. I’ve been an entrepreneur in the education space for 18 years and have always enjoyed creating innovative and progressive organizations that focus on the needs of families, as well as children and their cognitive, social and emotional development. And so when I was asked to run The Grove School, I got excited about bringing together the right people, formulating a great team and moving from concept launch.
We have many fantastic people in our organization who have extensive educational experience. We also recruited top talent for specific skill sets. I asked around about individuals who were the most progressive, who would contribute substantively to a new brand and bringing it to market, and helping us move forward successfully.
Then I handpicked all seven people for our original team. I invited them and gave them the challenge. I told them this wasn’t a team where you can attend meetings and not contribute. They would truly frame and shape a wonderful new preschool experience.
With the team in place, we looked at best practices and got ideas from educators with 7-10 years of experience. We asked them about the challenges in early childhood education, and what would be the right way to proceed. We took that insight and formulated the school you see today.
There was also an aha moment. I remember a team meeting where I looked around the room. Everyone was contributing really great ideas and there were a lot of what-if questions. It was then that we decided not to put any barriers on our thinking. We knew we had the right people in the room and resources to make all of this happen.
That was the turning point. I realized this was unique and would resonate with families. Given the social and environmental consciousness of families today, we could align with their core values. We could truly extend what children are learning in their homes into a preschool environment.
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