Our Story

Education is not a race. A child who learns to read at age three has in no way “won” over a child who learns to read at age six or seven. A true race has a well-marked finish line that all participants must cross to determine the winner. In contrast “learning to read” is a lifelong process.

- David Elkin

The Founders | Dr. George & Mali Rand

Happy Birch Preschool is the dream of the founders.

George was a Professor in the graduate program in child development at Columbia University Teacher’s College, and later at UCLA’s Department of Architecture + Urban Design. With his extensive background in child development research, he has been critical in forming and supporting the school philosophy as well as the design of the school environment.

Dr. Rand is also a clinical psychologist with training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.  At UCLA he became an advocate of the value of the studio environment as a central resource for design education. In an open studio setting, students work individually or in small teams. Their ideas are shared and they learn from each other. This studio spirit is reflected in the way our school was designed as a place for experimentation and inquiry.

Mali has degrees in both education and business. She came to understand the importance of the environment of the school as well as maintaining an experimental attitude with children.  She knows child development to be a kind of ongoing research project where one experiments with different strategies as children and parents develop a dialogue based on mutual acceptance. She has built a school environment for young children based on her understanding of the early childhood education teaching profession as well as knowledge gained through research on child development.  Over years of directing the preschool, Mali has been influenced by the Outdoor Classroom Movement as well as the Last Child in the Woods movement designed to help children connect to nature.  Her landscaping and design of the gardens and paths contributes greatly to the sense of peace and calm that the children express from the time they enter the campus.