Like all great undertakings, the establishment of Mother Goose Playskool (MGP) started as a vision in the heart and mind of its founder, the late Dr. Luis F. Samson.  Daddy Luis as he is known to the family was a self-made man, an icon among his peers and a symbol of excellence and integrity in the community that he served.  His greatest passion was education such that the schools he founded (MGP and University of Luzon) rank as two of the best providers of competitive education in the entire country today. 

 

Long before realization of his dream, Daddy Luis had already constructed the template of a unique approach to education that would employ the ideology and method of the Montessori-Piagetian-Open Classroom method.  He wanted to make this approach available to the people of Pangasinan in particular, and to those who value their development as future leaders and professionals.  True enough, this vision continues to make a difference in the character and complexion of the educational firmament in the country to this day.

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To serve as his allies and able collaborators, Dr. Samson initially tapped the services of his two daughters, Aurora and Gloria whom he had encouraged and directed to pursue masteral and doctoral degrees in education, principally in New York.  Both daughters were requested to come home to pave the way for the birth of the first MGP School in Dagupan.  Gloria was its first Director as Aurora had to go back to the US to complete her studies.  Eventually, Aurora assumed the position of Director for Academic Affairs while Gloria slid to the post of Director for Administration.  Since 1972 up to the present, they occupy the same posts.

 

When MGP opened its doors in 1972, it had a total of forty-one (41) students in the nursery, kindergarten and prep level.  Each year, another level was added so that in 1979, MGP had been able to register its first graduates.  Years later, MGP embarked on a special education program that would provide learning to mentally challenged children with Down Syndrome.  But prior to this, MGP already flexed its wings when the first school outside of Dagupan was established.  This was in 1976 when MGP opened in Pasig City under the ownership and management of Gloria and Danilo Beltran.  By 1988, it had already graduated its first batch of elementary students.  MGP Pasig has consistently earned recognition from the Department of Education (DepEd) due to the high passing percentage in the National Elementary Achievement Test (NEAT).

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It was in June 1979 that a Special Science High School was made an integral part MGP Dagupan.  In its first year of operation, Aurora ran for the school as its principal.  However, the following year, Gertrudes Cuison Samson, an MA major in Educational Administration from New York University (NYU) and the wife of MacArthur Samson took over.  They had been recalled from the US by Daddy Luis at great cost and sacrifice.  Mother Goose Special Science High School (MGSSHS) has been adjudged as one of the top five secondary schools in the Philippines.  Every year, it continues with its tradition of garnering a 100% passing percentage in the National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE) with a high median score of 96-99%.

 

Buoyed by its success and consistent with its mission to provide quality education to as wide a reach as possible, MGP expanded its network to three more branches within the Province of Pangasinan.  These are in Urdaneta, Bayambang and San Carlos.  In Dagupan and Urdaneta, MGP has gone into secondary education with the establishment of its High School Departments.

 

In accord with its social commitments, MGP thru Gloria Beltran, spearheaded the operationalization of an outreach school guided by the same educational framework named after her mother, Dona Josefa Mendoza Samson in 1980.  This Day Care Center caters to the educational needs of the underprivileged and marginalized.  So far, it has graduated 200 boys and girls in the preschool and elementary levels on a full scholarship basis.  In 2003, Gloria inaugurated another outreach program, this time in Montalban, Rizal.  This year, another outreach will be added offering pre school and grade one programs at the Jaime Cardinal Sin Village in Punta, Sta. Ana.

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Greatly influenced by their grandfather, Daddy Luis and their mother, Gloria S. Beltran, Gloria’s children have decided to join Mother Goose Playskool in their capacity as teachers and administrator.  In 1997, MGP – Marikina City came about and is owned and managed by spouses Vince & Danielle Beltran Arellano, Gloria’s second child. Mother Goose Tribeca in Lipa City, Batangas opened in 1999 and is managed by Gloria’s third child, Gerome, along with his wife Michelle.  Vince & Danielle Arellano then opened MGP – Makati City Branch in Salcedo Village in 2002.  The youngest, Carmela, after working abroad as Montessori Head Teacher for Toddlers at a Montessori School in Manhattan, New York, USA for 10 years opened the MGP-Greenwoods Campus with her elder sister Marlo Beltran-Calimlim in 2010.

 

In a span of nearly fifty years (50) it can be safely concluded that MGP’s enviable stature can be attributed to the energy and vision of Dr. Luis F. Samson for his many sacrifices – all for the education, enlightenment and the molding of the character of the Filipino youth.