When people hear the word Montessori, they typically think of preschool. As an experienced middle school teacher and dedicated Montessorian, expanding people’s knowledge of the breadth and scope of what Montessori has to offer is one of my favorite activities. It is true that Maria Montessori herself never taught adolescents. The vast majority of her body of work pertains to the infant and elementary planes of development. She did, however, believe that adolescence is one of the most important times in a person’s educational journey. As our children become adolescents, they enter what Dr. Montessori calls the stage of the “social newborn.” Often, this time in a child’s life is considered negative or bad; a chore to get through for both the adolescent and the adults in their life. Increased self-awareness, along with a heightened sense of concern about fitting in or not can make life challenging as we go through puberty and start thinking about our futures as adults. Maria Montessori believed that adolescence is, instead, a uniquely wonderful time of profound growth and development.
We are lucky that some brilliant educators, including Dr. Montessori’s son Mario, worked hard to develop a model of secondary best-practice after her death. This is the pedagogy that I implement in my classroom to expand upon the learning that my students have experienced through childhood. We use research on adolescent development to ensure that the environment is well-suited for all students to flourish academically and socially. Our students use a syllabus to plan and execute how and when they will complete daily, weekly, and longer-term assignments within unstructured work time.
Collaboration is also at the core of an environment uniquely suited to the needs of adolescents. Group work is one of the biggest lessons that our school teaches: a dynamic environment where specific tasks are designated to different-sized groups. Group work offers adolescents the opportunity to co-construct knowledge on academic topics, but more importantly, it offers them a space to develop an understanding of themselves and others through socially oriented work. Montessori describes the adolescent environment as “the school of social life.” Adolescents need to be engaged in creating a trusting community and learn to interact with each other in a manner in which every voice is heard and strong relationships are built.
If you are like me, you probably don’t remember the majority of the facts that you learned in middle school - instead, you remember the relationships you built and the skills you developed, and the ways those skills supported you into adulthood. That is what we do - support students in building the capacity to be compassionate, independent, and intellectually curious during the critical time when they begin to turn into the adults they will become.
Open House
Discover the possibilities of Montessori Elementary and Middle School! Register for our Open House, Monday, April, 25th at 9:00 am, at our Marshdale Campus, 6969 Highway 73. Learn about the Montessori Method, hear from alumni families, and tour the classrooms! Questions? Email Christiane, Director of Enrollment Management, at cleitinger@montessori-evergreen.org.
- Monday, April 25, 2023
- 9:00 am
- 6979 HWY 73, Evergreen
RSVP here to let them know you are coming.
