Many things have changed in the Fort Hunt and Hollin Hall community since World War II, but one thing hasn’t: the Tauxemont Cooperative Preschool program. It now educates 65 preschool children from 2 1⁄2 to 6 years old.
The program has endured over a half century of continuous private financial and volunteer support by participating families. It receives no federal or state financial assistance. The school has had an almost iconic impact in the community for former students and parents, according to the staff. Parents and former students frequently return after decades to see the school and visit the staff, grounds, and classrooms.
Located in the heart of Mt.V ernon on Fort Hunt Road, Tauxemont Cooperative Preschool is tucked away in the woods in the community of historic Tauxemont.
Parent volunteers characterize the school environment as "magical." It is run by teachers and parents in a natural environment which emphasizes "learning in a positive trusting environment which allows children to be children" as Barbara Bradley, the longtime — over 20 years — teacher and current director describes the school’s approach to the children and families who participate. Architecturally and aesthetically, the building design — and the casual nature of the school atmosphere — defies any cookie cutter description typically associated with suburban school settings. The program offers camp, craft making, field trips, creative outside play, reading, writing, drawing, socializing — for parents too — and, because of heavy parental involvement, a clear signal to the children that learning is an important priority with mom and dad.
"We use the local community as part of their curriculum," Bradley said. "For example we take them out to the nearby shopping center at Hollin Hall, to the post office, to parks. We use the cycle of the year and the things they see in this natural and nurturing setting as they come and go and use indoor and outdoor play to spark projects, social interaction, and learning. Our classrooms have one basic rule: we are kind to one another. No worksheets, no flash cards, no memorization, but learning to learn, and growing to love to learn."
The Tauxemont neighborhood where the preschool building and grounds exist has always been and still is considered a non-traditional community by present day suburban standards. Homes blend in with the heavily wooded area. Young couples moving into the neighborhood during WW II saw a need for a preschool program of some kind. In response, the Tauxemont Community Association in 1942 founded the first preschool program initially as a playgroup and met in homes with basements.
In 1945 the school bought a pre-fabricated war surplus building from the Army for their first building. Then in 1948 the building was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt by parents in 1949. In the interim the preschool program continued to meet in an upstairs room of what was at that time a Firehouse south on Fort Hunt Road.
Some call the current building and surrounding landscape reminiscent of entering a farm with a barn.

BRADLEY AND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Dawn Matthews guide a regular staff of three teachers and two assistant teachers complemented by qualified volunteer parent-teacher aides — a mandatory admission requirement for parents is to contribute volunteer hours in some capacity. The school’s teacher-pupil ratio is 1-4 for children 3 years of age, and 1-7 for children ages 4-6. The Virginia State teacher-pupil license requirement is 1-12 for early childhood education schools. Tauxemont is licensed by the state and is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
The Tauxemont pre-school building is also used by the Tauxemont community for meetings, social gatherings, a longstanding community tradition of holding "dutch" suppers (food indigenous to different countries), and is the setting for fund-raisers that provide approximately 10 percent of the school’s budget. The remaining financial support is derived from tuition. Sixty percent of the students served come from the surrounding Mt. Vernon neighborhoods. The other 40 percent of the students come from elsewhere in northern Virginia, including the City of Alexandria, Lorton, and Springfield. Bradley points out that each year the school provides tuition scholarships to families in need. Approximately half of the parents who send their children to the school are two-parent working families.

THE CURRENT PRESIDENT of the governing board is Elizabeth Brokamp. Asked what is special about the school, Brokamp replied: "The teachers and parents provide the kind of consistent and loving way of interacting with the children that promotes a supportive learning environment indispensable in an effective early childhood education program."
Tauxemont Cooperative Preschool also provides Summer Nature Camp opportunities to more than 400 children staffed in part by 50 volunteer summer intern teenagers. For many of the interns, it is their first experience in a work environment.
The Tauxemont preschool program is steeped in the history of the development of the Mt. Vernon community from the WW II to the present. For example, the nearby former Hollin Hall elementary school — since 1983 converted to a community center — benefited from the experiences of the parents of the Tauxemont preschool program. Their leadership and the attendance of their children in the Hollin Hall elementary school are chronicled in historic documents written by Tauxemont parents. Some descendants of the original Tauxemont residents continue to live in the community and use the Tauxemont preschool program for their children.
Bradley, on the school’s philosophy and goals for the children who attend Tauxemont: "We’re not really interested or concerned if your child makes it into some select program in elementary school, can read by the time their four, play select soccer, or is ever first chair clarinet. Our goal is to establish the basis for inquisitive responsible adults, with good mental health, that contribute to society and, of course, marvel at the world and the people around them."