MAP: Montessori Adolescent Program

Photo credit: MAP

The Montessori school our boys attend is amazing. We are so proud to be a part of this community that puts the emphasis on experiential learning and following the lead of the child to take charge of his or her educational experience. There is so much trust and common sense in the Montessori method; once you are a part of it, it is difficult to imagine returning to a typical school environment. Watching our boys become (or continue to be) so self-directed, motivated to learn, and confident has been a lesson for us as parents. There is not a day that goes by when our boys fail to use the skills they have learned (in particular, finding imaginative ways to apply lessons they have learned in school to solve problems they encounter outside of school). Often, they come home and ask to research something they have learned in school that interests them (lately this has involved geometry, square roots and squares), writing out long lists and equations that make my head swim. In short, the Montessori method has opened up the world to them rather than closed it off to them. They are excited to learn because they are in charge of the process and lead the way with gusto and passion.

Because we love this program so much, we were starting to worry a bit about what to do once our boys outgrow their school, which only goes through sixth grade. There is the option to rejoin a traditional public middle school. And while we are confident our boys would adjust fine to such a change, the more invested we become in Montessori, the more in love we fall with the whole philosophy. It would be ideal to continue the hands-on, experiential, self-directed learning that they are used to.

“My vision of the future is no longer of people taking exams and proceeding from secondary to school to University but of passing of one stage of independence to a higher, by means of their own activity and effort of will.”      — Maria Montessori

So you can imagine our delight when we became aware of MAP (Montessori Adolescent Program) opening in Grand Center in 2016. In their words, MAP St. Louis “provides adolescents with a Montessori learning environment that allows students to meet their full potential as they journey toward becoming creative, critically thinking, and socially conscious adults. Meaningful, place-based work allows students to develop as individuals and encourages commitment to the well-being of the community.”

Photo credit: MAP

The location itself of MAP is a conscious recognition of and nod to the third plane of development in Montessori (ages 12 – 18) during which youth seek to understand their place in society and search for opportunities to contribute to their social community. Grand Center is surrounded by a rich, diverse arts and technology community, including the Contemporary Art Museum, KWMU (St. Louis Public Radio), KDHX, St. Louis University, Fox Theatre, UMSL, Powell Symphony Hall, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Cortex (a 200-acre innovation and bioscience research, development, and technology district surrounded by nationally ranked universities and medical centers).

Being surrounded by such a rich community will enable MAP students to venture beyond the walls of the classroom to discover concepts in real-world applications, nurturing the social independent aspects of the third plane of development which include willpower, motivation, mission, and purpose.

“The combination of academic lessons with the experiential learning process allows our students to internalize the intellectual ideas they are exploring.”     — MAP

Photo credit: MAP

“Pedagogy of Place… states simply that learning that is implicit to any location can be made explicit to the adolescent. Place inspires belonging. Place inspires history. Place allows for responsibilities to arise within the perimeter of that place where students develop ownership whether it be city school or farm, neighborhood or small town, cosmic or microcosmic.

“Place refers to the larger economic, ecological, geological, social, political, and spiritual possibilities of the immediate surroundings. Place is a context to which the adolescent feels he or she both belongs and contributes.”                — David Kahn

Above is an example of a similar school, Post Oak High School, located in Houston. This place is so inspiring — the space, the active learning, the community involvement, the clear use of executive functioning at the adolescent’s level, it’s what Montessori is all about at a higher level. Take five minutes to watch to get a better idea of what MAP is striving to be.

I recently heard a story on NPR about the success of a local middle school in St. Louis experimenting with “expeditionary learning,” during which classroom lessons are reinforced by real world experiences. What they have found is a style of teaching that has experienced success with everything from classroom performance to school behavior. The relatively new field of educational neuroscience supports such learning, learning that involves harnessing the type of “physical and and social interactions that influence what kind of connections the brain will keep into adulthood.” Basically, this school is figuring out what Montessori education already knows about this age group. And it is working wonders.

In addition to the regular middle school subjects such as math, humanities, science, writing workshops, history, and language classes, the MAP curriculum will include daily community meetings (which satisfy the social aspect of the third plane of this age group), workshops, and weekly community work which happens outside the classroom. The curriculum enables students to take ownership of their educations while avoiding the boredom and idle time that occurs in many traditional school settings. Success here has to do with executive functioning, thus preparing each student for lifelong learning and self-direction.

MAP is now enrolling 7th grade students for the 2016-17 academic year, and will grow with their students and expand by one grade level each year to ultimately include grades 7 through 9 in the 2018-19 academic year. I am so excited to see where this goes, and will be sure to update you with photos and information as the process unfolds. If you know of a soon-to-be middle schooler who is seeking to take more control of his or her own education, please contact MAP here. And check back for regular updates!