Our Background

Since 1988, our organization was known as Thomas More School, begun in Bozeman, Montana, and then moved to Emigrant, Montana, in Paradise Valley where we incorporated as a small, non-profit independent school (The Thomas More Schools, Inc.) serving preschoolers through high school students in this beautiful mountain valley, with the Yellowstone River “running through it.”

From skiing lessons at Bridger Bowl, to shelter digging on an island in the Yellowstone River, to Shakespeare productions at Emigrant Hall and overnight hikes into nearby mountains – the challenging school curriculum of literature and grammar, math, science, geography, history, art, phys ed and more had plenty of extras to keep life interesting. Our preschoolers enjoyed the richness of a Montessori environment.

With declining school population in this very rural area, after more than a quarter century serving our students, we turned our attention to serving youth by serving families and teachers on the internet. Now with a new name, Thomas More Education Services, Inc. , we hope to be a useful voice at a crucial time in our nation’s history when clarity is needed regarding the role of parents in their children’s lives and education. Likewise, the role of schools needs to be clarified, along with the scope and content of curriculum. Both online and locally, we aim to be a resource, exploring new pathways in education.

To what end education? Whether in our public or private school systems, in homeschooling, or in new approaches parents have always sought when they were not satisfied with what was available, we want to prepare our young to deal successfully with the opportunities, responsibilities and challenges they face in today’s changing world.

EnlightenedParentingAndEducation.org

Our first online outreach is this, EnlightenedParentingAndEducation.org, dedicated to helping parents appreciate and utilize the wonderful learning opportunities within family life itself, as well as evaluate and explore schooling opportunities for their sons and daughters.

We will be developing a Library of free and for-sale reports, booklets, audio and video content, related to issues of family life, the extended family, community resources, finding right schooling (early learning through high school) helping young adults in their educational and career aspirations, and other topics to enrich family life and to help parents feel empowered and confident in finding and speaking up for what they feel is best for their children.

We encourage ideas and feedback from parents and extended family in response to our monthly blog topics (see tab above, Family Strengths) and news they can share regarding new Schooling Options they discover which can be of value to other families. We develop this website, also, as a valuable resource for teachers to follow, not only as parents, but as professionals who can learn more about what parents value and are seeking for their children’s education.

Meet Our Team

Christine Thomas - Editor and Office Administrator

Christine believes in the importance of parents as the child’s first and most important educators. She has raised two delightful children, has a BA in education, has been a certified Montessori teacher, which taught her to follow the child’s inner knowing and interests in learning. She has multiple years of experience working with parents and children as both teacher and administrator.

Her special interests are in the social-emotional development of children. And she has a passion for helping parents who are raising and trying to educate a family at this confusing time when many educational principles have changed so dramatically. She would like to connect parents and teachers to some of the excellent resources available today. Understanding and restoring right educational principles that are timeless is her goal.

Christine enjoys beautiful music, watching sunsets, reading, and research and she finds joy in living a life of service to the wonderful community she lives in. She values being an American and believes we must teach our children to understand and support our beautiful country and restore the values it was founded on.

Marjorie Lombard - Writer and Content Manager

Marjorie was recruited out of a college classroom to help meet the baby boomers as they crowded into schools across the country beginning in the 1950’s. She was given a carefully guided internship as she met her first students, 50 fifth-graders, in what was the start of a 60-year-plus career, working with ever-new generations and ever-changing challenges in education.

During those decades she taught preschoolers through high schoolers in regular and special ed settings, local and residential schools, public and private. She brings that experience, both as teacher and sometime administrator, to a new career in writing and public speaking.

Marjorie is aware that “today, more than ever, our children and youth – their parents, teachers and others serving them – are in need of encouragement and help as they navigate a sometimes unfriendly or chaotic environment. Even in such an environment, life is full of possibilities.

“As the young create the adults of tomorrow, we, their elders, want to offer the best of ourselves, and the best homes, classrooms, culture and nation we can manage, for their wholesome, skilled and fullest development.”

Circle of Friends

These are volunteers who are gathering, helping us to “get off the ground” with our new venture.

Each conversation, each brain-storming session, and each experience or idea shared, is a treasure. We are grateful!