Mae Carden demonstrated that children can gain an understanding of their own language and attain the ability to use it correctly when reading, listening, speaking, or writing.  Her goal was to teach children to think; her main techniques were analysis and rhythm.  Her educational philosophy and teaching techniques became an integral part of the Carden Curriculum.  Teachers, children, and parents have shortened the name of this interrelated, eclectic group of approaches to learning.  They call it Carden.

The accomplishments of her students attracted the attention of educators.  By the early 1940s, Mae Carden was presenting courses in her educational philosophy and teaching techniques.  She closed her school in 1949 to be of greater assistance to the teachers and schools who had chosen the curriculum.  Public and private schools in twenty-two states use Carden materials.  Young students in Beijing, China, are also learning English the Carden way!

The curriculum begins with three-year-old children and continues through the grades, each level reinforcing and building upon the strengths gained by the student from the previous year.

This Carden school began in 1963 in Arcadia, California.  In 1970 it moved from its first site and Pauline Hoit, Anna Roginson, and Gayle Mangham became partners and directors.  It was then named Carden of the Foothills.  In 1980 the school moved from Arcadia to its present site in Monrovia.

The school is a non-profit organization which is governed by a Board of Directors.