We are a cooperative community of parents and teachers dedicated to creating a safe, loving and nurturing environment for our children. Behind our gate is a pathway to a lovely private hidden garden where children play under huge trees, make rivers in sandboxes, create masterpieces in our writing house, and pedal tricycles all around the yard. Our rich developmental and multicultural curriculum offers opportunities for exploring science, math, pre-reading, writing, and most importantly, enhancing socialization skills - all learned through play.
As a cooperative nursery school, our parents own and operate this program with the help of a paid professional Director and teaching staff.
Mission Statement:
The purpose of the school shall be to provide a school program based on a developmental approach to learning; to further the education of parent-members in the principles of child development, child care, and child welfare; and to create an environment in which parent-members work closely and co-operatively in administrating the school. Little Village is committed as an institution to the ideal of diversity with regard to race, ethnicity, religion, economics, politics, gender, sexual orientation, and disability in its parent population, student body, faculty and staff.
History of Little Village
Sometime in 1946, a small group of parents decided to form a cooperative nursery school in Los Angeles and Little Village Nursery School was born! Evelyn Finkle was the first director; Thea Logan, one of our first teachers, was the second. Parent-members included some of the city's most prominent psychoanalysts, including Ralph Greenson, Hannah Fenichel, Roz Wyman, Judd Marmor, and even Anna Freud as an advisor.
Thea Logan and her teachers quickly came to the conclusion that parent education is an essential function of a nursery school co-op...and specifically, that her staff's job was to give parents confidence in their child-raising skills, not to take it away. This was pre-Spock, so there were few sources to consult while developing this new approach to early childhood education!
Little Village’s new approach required parent involvement, but it also insisted on professionally trained teachers. There were support meetings for parents, professional development for teachers, and many opportunities for parents to share their skills with the school community. As for the children’s curriculum, the focus was on developing social skills, learning how to communicate, developing through play.
It’s now over sixty years later. The school has moved from its original campus on Westwood Boulevard, the teachers and directors have changed over the years, and Los Angeles itself has grown up. Yet the Little Village of today remains remarkably true to what it has always been: a delightful, shady little haven for children, and a friendly, involved community of parents and teachers!
