oooh - a high school!

[Rose-Roget]

So ds is only in 1st grade, BUT I ran into another M-minded mom who has toured every Montessori in town. She told me that 2 Montessori-minded teachers who used to teach at the public Montessori middle school (I think I heard they were actually "pushed out" by the non-Montessori-minded principal) opened a Montessori high school! It's not public, but the tuition is reasonable right now. We'll see if it's still around (and reasonable) when ds is at that age, but I'm pretty excited by the prospect! What's high school like?

[sapphire_chan]

I'd talk to them now and find out if they can get you the inside scoop on the good teachers in the public montessori.

[Lillianna]

We have a relatively new Montessori high school that I am really excited about! It is in our cultural hub and the students will be using the nearby institutions (art museum, nat'l history museum, botanical gdns) as extensions of their lessons. They have an extremely well developed science lab and much of their course work is self-directed. Of course, housework and handiwork is offered and explored. This particular high school incorporates the international baccalaureate diploma also.

[MattBronsil]

Montessori's ideal environment for this age is a farming community. Due to many reasons, that's a hard thing to pull off. (Cost, anyone?)

I'm going to try to visit Clark when I am Cincinnati next month. I wanted to, but the whole time I was home was one big snow day. You might want to look up the video they did for the Barak Obama thing.

[bobandjess99]

neat. One of our M schools has expanded to include junior high, and that was a big thing for our community.

[nanette0269]

Our school goes to 8th grade, then almost all of the students attend the IB program in a public high school...so its a school within a school. gets them acclimated with the real world, but still keeps them in a smaller school with their peers, so i think they will get the best of both worlds.

That being said, there is an M school that finishes at high school nearby: http://www.newgate.edu/ ....but I'm not sure if I want that. I like the idea, but I really dont want the kdis entering the "real world" when they go away to college....I think i'd much prefer them experiencing it all when they are still at home with me

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by MattBronsil

Montessori's ideal environment for this age is a farming community. Due to many reasons, that's a hard thing to pull off. (Cost, anyone?)

yup. We have a Montesori farm school here in NM. If we ever moved to Santa Fe (the school is about 30 minutes north of Santa Fe), I'd seriously consider it for my kids - assuming they were interested.

http://www.caminodepaz.net/

Maria Montessori had a vision about farm schools where the young teens actually lived there (at least during the week). The thought was that parents and friends who weren't part of their school were a distraction, plus they were doing more than farming, but bartering, making clothing, canning, running little stores, etc. Basically, working together as a small community to meet their needs.

Anyhow, our district has plans to add another year of Montessori every year - at this point, they only go up to 3rd grade but hope to add a 9-12 class in the next year or two - with the idea of going all the way up through 12th grade (assuming funding allows, and parents want it). I'm not sure what the M high school would exactly be like, but to me, it would be much better than a traditional high school - so I'd be happy if it were an option.

[Lillianna]

I just found this also:

http://www.michaelolaf.net/montessori12-18.html

[Aliyahsmommy]

I just heard about that too! I am also quite excited at the prospect...it is a junior high and high school program by the way. If it becomes a really good program before my daughter reaches that age then that takes away my worries of where to send her after elementary

[physmom]

I've really been wondering about this too! DD's not even in preschool yet but we're looking now for next year when she'll be 3.  One of the schools we're looking at goes up to 9th grade and I was wondering how that worked with homework etc.  I'm not sure if the farming thing would work for us since we live in a big city I do wonder, though.... DH and I are very math/science orientated.  I was thrilled will classes like calculus/physics/chemistry etc in high school, how would you incorporate that in a farm environment?  I'm all for kids picking what topics interest them and going with it but wouldn't living on a farm (and just focusing on farm like areas of academics) limit kids quite a bit when it comes to preparing them for college? Don't get me wrong, I think you could learn A LOT from living on a farm but what if a kid is not interested in that type of stuff?  When I was a teen that wouldn't have sounded very appealing to me, although now I might be more interested in it.  I'm going to look at that link and see if I can understand it better.

Also, there's another school near to where we're about to move that does have a high school.  It has a lot of pictures of the school and it seems like half of them are of kids sitting in a big auditorium listening to a lecture, so it doesn't seem really like what I understand of Montessori but it might just be that school. 

[physmom]

I actually found this on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfGsQN1GlI0&feature=related and thought those schools looked pretty cool. 

[Rose-Roget]

That's a great link.  I think I've seen parts of it before, or something similar.  Love that conflict resolution wheel! 

I wonder if the Ohio public school offers consulting or is recognized as a model for other public Montessoris.  Our district goes through 8th grade.  I haven't toured the m.s. yet (ds is in 1st).  It seems like I get a lot of "there are compromises in a public school because we are expected to meet state standards" comments, though.  It seems like the kids in the classrooms profiled would easily meet and excede standards, as well as have a few more valuable life skills to carry with them!