Part of the “Houston Schools That Inspire” Series
By Meron Tekle
Ninfa Laurenzo Early Childhood Center is a 2025 School That Inspires because it reimagines early childhood education through immersive, real-world learning experiences that honor children as meaning-makers rather than empty vessels. By building a rich schema before focusing on standards, this PreK center creates a foundation where language, discovery, and joy fuel academic excellence.
Most teachers spend a significant portion of the school year reminding children to pay attention instead of staring out the window, but at Ninfa Laurenzo Early Childhood Center, looking outside is the point. You can hear an unspoken encouragement in each classroom, in the displays of learning artifacts and prints of museum classics, and in the laughter of children and the cheer of the adults who teach them: “Open your eyes, my love. There is a world beyond these walls.”
You can hear an unspoken encouragement in each classroom, in the displays of learning artifacts and prints of museum classics, and in the laughter of children and the cheer of the adults who teach them: “Open your eyes, my love. There is a world beyond these walls.”
At Laurenzo, that world is everywhere: walls that reflect community rather than compliance, learning that begins not with standards but with stories, and language that treats children not as empty vessels to be filled but as explorers and meaning-makers who are already filled to the brim with knowledge, needing only the right words to invite the rest of us inside. The result is a school where rigor has been redefined.
Intentional, thoughtfully curated spaces that foster student learning, reflecting community rather than compliance.
Valuing creativity and curiosity over standardization
Developing rich background knowledge before focusing on isolated skills
Systems that preserve excellence while allowing for teacher creativity
Building vocabulary through topics worth knowing as a foundational element of literacy development
The exterior of Laurenzo looks like hundreds of other schools in Houston. As you enter, however, it becomes clear that this is so much more.
Displays of apples, balls, or cups to symbolize the alphabet and the usual excess of primary colors are missing here. Instead, the learning spaces evoke a childlike sophistication, from the student paintings of owls to the prints of the Eiffel Tower that grace bulletin boards in student workstations.
Principal Janet Benavidez and her instructional coach Sarah Tovar, who has been at Lareunzo for over 20 years, guide me through the halls, eager to share how their students build language by exploring the real world. The classrooms are filled with art, nature, and tangible learning materials, transforming every lesson into a hands-on experience. There’s no data wall in sight, no obvious markers of academic standing. Instead, the walls are alive with the children’s work, reflecting their creativity and learning. The walls are rich with deep learning and evidence of deep knowledge acquisition through projects, writing, and experiments.
Supported by families and community members who help co-create and curate this experience for their children, Laurenzo is taking a different approach to what it means to be a student. It’s not about standardizing the learning experience but embracing multiple pathways for discovery.
Call-out: To walk through the halls of Ninfa Laurenzo is to step inside a museum, not the kind that archives the past and politely asks you not to touch, but one that curates the present and welcomes you to play and learn with everything and everyone you meet. In every corner, there’s evidence that children are not just learning content; they’re being exposed to a vast world of ideas.
This is a school built not just by educators, but with and for families. As Principal Janet Benavidez says, ‘We do this work because the community wants it. We honor and respect their voice and decision-making power. We invite them in with us.”
Walk into many early childhood classrooms, and you’ll quickly spot the signs of learning: alphabet charts at eye level, reading levels on display, and teachers leading students in repeating letter sounds. These are familiar markers of foundational instruction.
At Laurenzo, the learning is quieter. A four-year-old isn’t learning about insects because the letter “i” is this week’s phonics focus. They learn about bees because bees make honey. They discover crickets because they hear that animal outside their windows when “the stars at night are big and bright.” This is schema-building in action. Children aren’t just taught to decode words; they’re given rich ideas and reasons to keep thinking. That clarity of purpose, learning to understand rather than perform, makes Laurenzo extraordinary.
Laurenzo’s approach lays a strong foundation. When students build rich background knowledge early, they’re better equipped to tackle complex ideas later, not just to pass tests, but to understand the world around them.Teachers provide students with the foundations of language through the Oral Language Lab, a crown jewel of Laurenzo’s collaboration with Rice University, which is built on vocabulary words related to topics worth knowing. As students progress through school, teachers will use these topics to focus on skills such as inference and evidence-gathering. Laurenzo’s little learners will grow into students who can analyze complex texts without getting tripped up on comprehension, because the necessary background knowledge is already in place.
This approach to early childhood education is what earned Laurenzo recognition as an exemplary PreK center, they understand that developing rich background knowledge and vocabulary at this critical age sets children up for academic success throughout their educational journey.
While many early childhood programs emphasize alignment and consistency across classrooms, Laurenzo offers something more fluid and responsive. Here, the structure is built around children’s curiosity, not just the clock. The focus isn’t solely on teaching letters and numbers in the same way to every child, but on making space for students to learn in ways that feel natural, meaningful, and joyful. Educators are trusted to follow their students’ lead; creating space for multiple paths to understanding foundational concepts like letters, numbers, and language.
Laurenzo chooses a different path.
This school views this foundational learning stage as an opportunity to encourage creativity, rather than contain it. With the dual language model, classrooms are intentionally mixed-age, offering students extended opportunities to model and scaffold one another’s learning. Instead of narrowing learning to fit a script, they expand it to meet each child’s innate curiosity. This values-driven stance is grounded in a belief that joy is not in competition with academic success but is a prerequisite for it.
At first glance, the Laurenzo experience might seem informal or free-flowing, but there’s deep intentionality beneath the surface. In too many sectors, including education, success is often built on memory, relying on a few charismatic individuals who “just know” how to do things. But when those people leave, the whole structure crumbles. At Laurenzo, what matters most has been carefully codified, not to impose uniformity, but to preserve and pass down the practices that help children feel both challenged and cherished.
“The Booklet,” a kind of operating manual co-created by teachers and leaders, brings together everything everyone needs to know to teach and serve well at Laurenzo. It reflects the school’s core commitments and institutional knowledge, supporting new and veteran staff alike in carrying out the work with clarity and creativity.
What emerges is a school where successful practices are simultaneously individual and institutional. This approach ensures that excellence doesn’t depend on who’s in the classroom but on systems that support all educators in delivering meaningful, developmentally appropriate instruction in practical, thoughtful, and sustainable ways. From the campus OWL Lab, a language rich learning space developed in partnership with Rice University, to classrooms where students build castles inspired by fairy tales, everything is designed to nurture curiosity and build deep knowledge.
Perhaps the most powerful outcome of Laurenzo’s approach is that children are learning to navigate worlds, and truly be in community. They are being prepared to be thinkers, artists, scientists, and storytellers. They are building knowledge and identity. They are seen. They belong.
At Laurenzo Early Childhood Center, every child is both a visitor and curator in this living museum of learning. Laurenzo students don’t just memorize facts, they build foundations of knowledge that will allow them to interpret, create, and contribute to the world around them. In a landscape where early childhood education is often reduced to rote learning, Laurenzo stands as a school that truly inspires, showing us that when we honor children’s curiosity and build knowledge through joy, we create not just better students, but more engaged citizens of the world.
Celebrating Houston Schools That Inspire With Good Reason Houston