Press Release

Public School Montessorian Fall 2006: Issue 73

The Children Shall Teach Them

Good Things Happen When High School Students Observe a Montessori Preschool

 We must lay the foundation for peace ourselves by constructing a social environment, a new world for the child and adolescent, so that their individual consciences may develop. A vast education reform and above all a vast social reform are called for today.

Maria Montessori

By Gail Longo

As Montessori educators, we enjoy a system that remains devoted to meeting the needs of individuals who grow and develop from infancy to adulthood. From time to time we consider ways to extend that reach, to turn our work into a social reform movement.

Building that movement requires touching people we do not normally touch and embracing boldly some new ideas and models.

That is what we have done at Ballard High School in Seattle.

With the Casa Maria Montessori Lab School (CMMLS) and the Maria Montessori Language and Cultural Center (MMLCC), we have built an innovative approach to use a Montessori environment to reach a non-traditional Montessori group—students in traditional high school programs.

Through our preschool program located in the high school and a human development class, we have brought high school students into a Montessori preschool environment and have begun simultaneously to explore how 3 to 5-year-olds, as well as 15 to 18-year-olds, can communicate and resolve problems peacefully.

Some might question the value of having a Montessori program in a high school, but the Seattle School District is actually looking for ways to expand the Montessori presence due to rising parent demand. There are already Montessori kindergartens and early-grades at two Seattle public schools and there is talk about developing another Montessori program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. Why this upturn in interest, and why in a high school?

Read the full article written by Gail Longo, "Description of the Maria Montesori Language & Cultural Center’s(MMLCC) programs..."

The following article is about the lab school written by a BHS student:

Montessori School

As a young child, I was doodling unrecognizable animals while giving them mistaken sounds to match. Imagine my amazement the first day I walked into Casa Maria Montessori School and overheard a group of ten or so children not only reading the calendar abut reading it in both Chinese and Italian. Upon asking how old these children were, I was shocked to find out that they were only between the ages of three and five.

Many students are completely unaware that there even is another school attached to our own. Most walk past the gated playground located just west of Mrs., Knobbs N220 classroom without much thought as to why there is a mini-park with a Playskool slide on the grounds of our high school. It is usually after seeing the children playing within the gardened play place that one begins to put two and two together. There is some sort of pre-school-type thing here...

The Casa Maria Montessori School working closely with the Family and Consumer Sciences Department at Ballard High School, students from Mrs. Knobbs’ Child Development class are able to not only learn about children’s development through in-depth class work, but also from first hand experience and observation. These students are allowed into the children’s environment and are able to observe and then eventually work with the children in the Montessori atmosphere.

Of course, by now many maybe wondering," What exactly is a Montessori School?" It is a school based around the Montessori teaching method. This method was developed and studied by Italy’s first woman physician. Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) in the late 1800’s and throughout the 1900’s. It emphasizes learning by doing and at the child’s own individual pace. Students make their own choices during designated work time, where they can choose work ranging from multiplication and letters to life skills such as zipping and buttoning coats and jackets, using kitchen utensils and performing household chores and activities. The children are placed in an environment where they are able to enjoy learning shaped by their own individual personalities and are able to work as independent people.

Casa Maria Montessori School is a wonderful program. Since the first day I witnessed how incredible Montessori education was, I have been lucky enough to spend time with those amazing children and observe them in their element. If you too, would like to be involved in the Casa Maria Montessori School please contact Mrs. Knobbs in N220.

Reprinted from Ballard High School TALISMAN, Vol 87, Issue 1, Oct 25, 2004