Beth enrolled her children in a small Montessori school in Herndon and completed the AMS Montessori Early Childhood Certification within a few years. Along the way, she grew to understand the unique benefits of the Montessori classroom and was surprised to find that this philosophy worked just as well at home with her children. She didn’t know it then, but her choice to share Montessori with her family planted the seed for what MAB is today.

Her middle child, Bart Theriot, was raised as a Montessori child along with his two siblings. As MAB’s Head of School and Co-founder, Bart will tell you that those first years of life ensured that he would one day return to Montessori.

Even Beth’s husband, Larry Theriot, founding teacher and curriculum advisor of our elementary program, was not immune to Montessori’s draw. Though he had spent a long career as an economist, when the opportunity came for a change, Mr. T jumped in with both feet. Within
just a few years of MAB’s first day, he would go on to earn both the upper and lower AMS elementary certificates. He still spends most of the school year working with the elementary students.

Beth’s years of experience gave her a vision of what Montessori could be. Her devotion to children and undeniable passion for this type of education empowered her with the confidence to set out on her own to the small but rapidly growing town of Ashburn, Virginia. Thus, in 2001,
the Montessori Academy at Belmont Greene had begun.

Beth has always understood the importance of building and retaining a closely connected faculty who share a devotion to children and a shared philosophy of Montessori as a way of life. One by one, each teacher who joined us in those first years adopted the same goal of sticking together and growing as a family. We knew individually and collectively that this was, and is, the key to authentic Montessori and ensures the best for all students.