HISTORY
Torbank Nursery School’s Beginning
It was early summer 1956 in Torbank, a neighborhood in Ossining. Young mothers Mojave Weissman and Betty Green were sitting on the back porch over a cup of coffee. Viewing the new building of St. Paul’s-on-the-Hill Episcopal Church, Mojave said, “ This would be a good place to have a nursery school.” “I think so too,” replied Betty. Nothing more was said that afternoon.
A week later Mojave approached St. Paul’s pastor, the Reverend Benson Fisher, with her idea, finding him interested and enthusiastic. Reverend Fisher had hoped, he told her, that someday, someone would organize a cooperative nursery school in Torbank.
And so Torbank Community Nursery was born. The first classes were held in the fall of 1956 after much research, hard work, and cooperation from neighborhood parents.
For its first 32 years, Torbank occupied rooms in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ossining. Since 1988 the school’s home has been the Ethical Society building on Pinesbridge Road. Throughout its entire history, Torbank has been totally nonsectarian. No religious instruction is given and all faiths are represented in the school.
Why Cooperative?
“The original aims of our unborn cooperative nursery were to create a community service for Torbank—a nursery school of the highest educational standards at a tuition that everyone in the community could afford.
Our educational aims…never wavered: to create a learning situation for both parents and children in an atmosphere geared to the needs of the pre-school child. To help the parent understand and deal with the “ages and stages” of the pre-school child and to help the children learn to work and play constructively with their peers, using creative materials and equipment appropriate to their stage of development. To give the mother the opportunity to understand her child in interaction with the other children of his own age. To give parents the opportunity to study child development and compare problems with other interested parents. Finally, to do all this in an atmosphere of community cooperation…that would make a lasting impression on our children of the value of cooperation.”
Mojave Weissman Torbank cofounder