(This is the 2nd in an eight part series on the Monarch School of New England. Articles and photographs will showcase the history of the school: its journey in becoming one of the state’s most highly recognized schools for its work with students with significant disabilities.)
ROCHESTER — In the June 24, 1971 edition of the Rochester Courier, Allan Rowell, president of the Rochester Association for Retarded Children stated: “We accomplished three things this year, the most important is toilet training. It may not seem like much but they (parents and teachers) were changing a child’s clothing two or three times a day. Now, they go the entire day with no problems. Second, with special therapy and the social associations they received, these children could communicate. Some put two and three words together, and third, they learned to get along together.”
Until the opening of the Rochester Child Development Center in 1969, there was no place available for children with significant disabilities. What began as a school/playgroup for two children to give moms a few hours of free time during the day, by the end of the first year, grew into a program that served eight children.
The center opened because parents had a need and a desire for their children to have better lives. Although today’s Monarch School of New England looks very different than that of its early days, the concept remains the same: helping to build a better life for students with significant disabilities.
Mrs. Marianna Estabrooke was the school’s first executive director. Her goals were to “teach the child to care for himself: toilet training, feeding, brushing teeth and washing.” She also wanted to improve a child’s speech and social skills so that he (or she) could get along with others.
Unlike today’s school, the Rochester Child Development Center had a pre-school program where it worked with children three years and older. Children would play games, color and have time for free play, which Mrs. Estabrooke considered critical as “retarded children often lose the ability to choose for themselves.”
In New Hampshire, the Rochester Child Development Center was a pioneer in its work with children with disabilities as there were no other schools in the area that worked with such students.
The field of special education began to take hold after World War II when such advocacy groups as “The United Cerebral Palsy Association” and “The Muscular Dystrophy Association” formed, the result of the Civil Rights Movement. It wasn’t until the 1960’s under President Kennedy that more schools granted access to children with disabilities; it was also during this time that the Education of all “Handicapped Children Act” was established.
So it was not unusual for the Rochester Child Development Center to feel like it was working in uncharted territory. Mrs. Estabrooke in the June 24, 1971 Rochester Courier article, said, “The field of pre-school education and all special education is very new and largely experimental. We try new approaches, some work with our children, some do not. Any suggestions are welcome.”
It was — and is — this creative spirit that laid the foundation for the unique programming the Monarch School of New England currently provides to its students.