Feynman School Seeks To Educate Montgomery County's Gifted Children

In fall 2010, Feynman School in Darnestown opened its doors to its first group of eager, young and gifted students. Now school founders and Maryland natives, Susan and Robert Gold, hope the path they pioneered in 2010 will provide an alternative for gifted and talented education in Montgomery County for years to come.

Feynman School, which serves a number of Potomac students, offers a truly unique learning environment for bright children based on discovery, high-level thinking and interdisciplinary connections between the arts, sciences and mathematics. By nurturing the young student’s creativity and critical thinking ability, and at the same time fostering character development and a sense of civic responsibility, Feynman School is educating the leaders, entrepreneurs, creative thinkers of tomorrow, the founders told Patch.

No strangers to gifted and talented education programs, Susan and Robert Gold did their homework before opening Feynman School.

“We visited and researched well-respected and established gifted and talented schools and met with a number of gifted program educational gurus,” Mr. Gold said.

The Golds said they began researching the idea of opening a school when their oldest daughter approached school age and they found there was a lack of programs to celebrate her intellectual curiosity. 

"Even staff at Maryland Department of Education concurred there was an acute need for this kind of school in Montgomery County," he said. "We were convinced we could offer something extraordinary to local families."

Formerly an MCPS educator and member of the National Association for Gifted Children, Susan Gold designed the school curriculum and serves as one of the school’s primary teachers. Her goal is to foster a love of learning; keep the students engaged and challenge them to realize their potential.

“Everything flows from great science,” Mr. Gold said. “It is the cornerstone of learning.”

The students are given every opportunity to explore and discover things for themselves, to satisfy their intellectual curiosity and find the answers to their questions. With science at the forefront, the Golds named the school after Dr. Richard Feynman, renowned scientist, Nobel Prize winner in physics and legendary physics teacher. Dr. Feynman is perhaps best known for his work on the Space Shuttle Challenger commission where he demonstrated the susceptibility of the shuttle’s O-rings to cold temperatures. Feynman’s brilliance, multifaceted approach and dedication to the pursuit of truth made him the perfect “citizen scientist” model for the school, the Golds said.

In addition to science and mathematics, Feynman students are exposed to reading, music and arts, with plans to add more dramatic arts to the schedule for next year. Spanish is presented daily to lead toward a part-immersion program. The classes are kept small (with a student teacher ratio of 7:1 and maximum class size of 14) and are highly individualized to meet each child’s skill level and learning style. The Golds said the emphasis is to keep learning challenging, but fun, with ample time for unstructured play and outdoor activity.

Anne Carey of Potomac, whose 4 year old son attends the school, told Patch she was thrilled to have found Feynman School after her family relocated to the Washington, D.C. area.

“I know that here my child’s needs are being met,” said Carey, who began looking for a school that would keep their child challenged and motivated as soon as she came to the area.  “Each child has potential and this school gives them all the tools they need to gain it. There is nothing else like it."

The Feynman School plans to build on this year’s successful pre-K /Kindergarten program by adding a first grade section in fall 2011, second grade in fall 2012, and so on, up to and including eighth grade. Currently the campus is located at 15601 Germantown Rd. in Darnestown, in the space it shares with , and the school hopes to relocate closer to the Beltway/I-270 by fall 2012.

Tuition for this very specialized education program ranges from $16,000 to 19,000 for the school year.

But, Mrs. Gold said, "We want people to know that we make our school accessible to the kids that need to be here." 

Applications are currently being accepted for fall 2011 kindergarten and first grade class.