Middle School Program

Ado­les­cent Program

We do not want com­pla­cent pupils, but eager ones: we seek to sow life in the child rather than the­o­ries, to help him in his nat­ural growth, men­tal and emo­tional as well as phys­i­cal, and for that we must offer grand and lofty ideas to the human mind… Maria Montessori.

The Ado­les­cent pro­gram plan for Cres­cent Montes­sori School is guided by the pri­mary task of this crit­i­cal period in life, the trans­for­ma­tion from child to adult. Dis­cov­er­ing the true ado­les­cent is the foun­da­tion for the plan­ning jour­ney. The uni­ver­sal char­ac­ter­is­tics and ten­den­cies, which deter­mine the spe­cific needs of this devel­op­men­tal period, pro­vide the frame­work for our plan.
Pro­gram Goal

The plan is to imple­ment a Montes­sori Ado­les­cent Pro­gram in Sep­tem­ber 2012 as a nat­ural exten­sion of the exist­ing pro­gram at CMS. This plan will com­plete another phase toward a full spec­trum Montes­sori school across the planes of devel­op­ment. Spe­cific aspects of the plan are detailed in the nar­ra­tive sec­tions that follow.

The ado­les­cent shows up with three ques­tions:
Who am I?
Where do I fit in?
How can I serve others?

The loca­tion of CMS in terms of the Sonoma Com­mu­nity Cen­ter itself and the Center’s loca­tion on East Napa St. make it an ideal site for the appli­ca­tion of the prin­ci­ple of Ped­a­gogy of Place. Ele­ments of urban and farm expe­ri­ences are within walk­ing dis­tance of the school. Cul­tural oppor­tu­ni­ties abound, both within the Cen­ter and within the town of Sonoma. Uti­liz­ing this oppor­tu­nity to build a sense of belong­ing and a sense of respon­si­bil­ity to the larger com­mu­nity of Sonoma and the Sonoma Val­ley is a pri­or­ity for the ado­les­cent plan of work and study at CMS. Activ­ity on the land and in town enriches aca­d­e­mic work by fur­nish­ing the rela­tion­ship con­nec­tions the ado­les­cent looks for to val­i­date his experience.

UNIVERSAL ELEMENTS OF ADOLESCENT PROGRAM DESIGN:

Head / Hand

Montes­sori urges us to never give more to the head than we give to the hand. Devel­op­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for occu­pa­tions (real and mean­ing­ful work) as they relate to place and con­nect to the dis­ci­plines will be the pri­mary focus of the staff in prepar­ing the plan of work and study. Prior to the first year of the program’s launch, pilot pro­grams involv­ing the Upper Ele­men­tary stu­dents will take place, begin­ning the process of com­mu­nity con­nec­tion and pro­vide a trial period of imple­men­ta­tion and review. These pro­grams which have already been put into action are: Gar­den to Mar­ket project at Quar­ter Acre Farm and Gar­den to Table Project at the Sonoma Com­mu­nity Cen­ter. A descrip­tion of the Gar­den to Mar­ket project is included in the syl­labus that accom­pa­nies this prospectus.

Pro­duc­tion and Exchange

The Gar­den to Mar­ket project will pro­vide and intro­duc­tion (an extended first period) to the ele­ment of pro­duc­tion and exchange which will become an inte­gral aspect of the ado­les­cent pro­gram. The world of adults in all cul­tures is shaped by eco­nomic activ­ity. Ado­les­cents becom­ing adults need to try on the roles of those around them. Work, with the ele­ment of pro­duc­tion and exchange, has the advan­tage of com­bin­ing the quest for inde­pen­dence with eco­nomic inde­pen­dence. The work is real in that it has all the ele­ments of an exist­ing cul­ture or com­mu­nity. Prod­ucts and cur­rency gen­er­ate activ­ity. This work dif­fers from the work of an adult in that the work of the ado­les­cent is a means to devel­op­ment, while for the most part, the work of adults in a career is often a means to an end.
Expe­ri­enc­ing Nature and Super–Nature

Mak­ing con­nec­tions between the nat­ural and human built world fur­nishes the back­drop for the sci­ences in all of their splen­dor. Sci­ence inquiry is a fun­da­men­tal process for learn­ing and think­ing. It is a sub­tle, demand­ing and flex­i­ble process. The goals of the inquiry / project based approach to sci­ence is to involve math in every aspect of the work, to help the stu­dent com­mu­ni­cate sci­en­tific data and thought in writ­ing and speak­ing and ques­tion­ing and to remain curi­ous and always reach for the next ques­tion.
Com­mu­nity

As with the other ele­ments of the envi­ron­ment, com­mu­nity plays a key role through activ­ity. The ado­les­cent emerg­ing into the adult is in the state of expec­ta­tion. He needs and wants to know how to fit in. The prac­ti­cal life expe­ri­ences of grace and cour­tesy develop as a nat­ural con­se­quence out of the neces­sity to live and work in coop­er­a­tion with one another. Care of the envi­ron­ment and con­sid­er­a­tion for oth­ers is built into the plan through the tech­nique of divi­sion of labor. Struc­ture and rules pro­vide a foun­da­tion for adap­ta­tion. Col­lab­o­ra­tion trig­gers social engage­ment while inde­pen­dence opens path­ways for self-sufficiency. Both are valu­able in a com­mu­nity as the mem­bers look out for each other and them­selves. An envi­ron­ment of car­ing rela­tion­ships means car­ing about one’s own self, oth­ers and the envi­ron­ment. This type of envi­ron­ment cre­ates the com­mu­nity sup­port and safety ado­les­cents des­per­ately need dur­ing this vul­ner­a­ble time of growth and transformation.

The Sonoma Com­mu­nity Cen­ter is just that, it is one cen­ter of a diverse com­mu­nity. Our school stu­dents and staff have the expe­ri­ence of being part of this unique com­mu­nity on a daily basis. We have a mutu­ally enrich­ing exchange as a result of being together. The cen­ter is the home to the visual and per­form­ing arts. The poten­tial for per­sonal expres­sion, occu­pa­tions and human­i­ties are within reach of any direc­tion. The cen­ter has a pot­tery stu­dio, art stu­dio, a water-wise gar­den that attracts birds and but­ter­flies. The gar­den, home to sculp­ture instal­la­tions hosts events that draw the com­mu­nity together. A newly remod­eled kitchen is avail­able for the schools stu­dents to use.

Our stu­dents attend school in an his­toric build­ing that is shared by many other groups and orga­ni­za­tions. This unique expe­ri­ence builds a nat­ural affin­ity for and com­fort with com­mu­nity. This exten­sion will con­tinue to play a big part in the ado­les­cent pro­gram. The ado­les­cents will be able to make the most of the suc­cess­ful long-term rela­tion­ship CMS has with the cen­ter.
His­tory

Sonoma is a won­der­ful com­bi­na­tion of con­tem­po­rary life super­im­posed on an old his­toric town. An agri­cul­tural com­mu­nity at heart, Sonoma is sleepy and vibrant at the same time. We are right in the thick of things at our school loca­tion. It is pos­si­ble for our stu­dents to walk out the door in any direc­tion and cre­ate a study that would weave into any of the dis­ci­plines. Here are a few exam­ples: creek study, (sci­ence, human impact, geol­ogy, ecol­ogy, weather), culi­nary arts, (sci­ence, econ­omy and exchange, lan­guage arts inter­views, math, busi­ness) gar­den­ing, (biol­ogy, math, ecol­ogy, art, data col­lect­ing). The list is end­less. Our staff is ded­i­cated to help make the most of these rich pos­si­bil­i­ties and make them avail­able for our students.

Cre­ative Expres­sion and Phys­i­cal Expression

This has always been a sig­nif­i­cant part of the school’s every day life. Our stu­dents expect to have time for expres­sive pur­suits. Our ado­les­cent stu­dents will find the same and more avail­able to them in their ever widen­ing explo­rations of the local com­mu­nity as well as through their explo­rations with the human­i­ties. The impor­tance of cre­ative expres­sion and phys­i­cal expres­sion (Phys. Ed.) goes far beyond art lessons and phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion. They pro­vide a valu­able means for “open­ing up of ways of expres­sion, which through exer­cises and exter­nal aids will help the dif­fi­cult devel­op­ment of the personality.”

Phys­i­cal Expres­sion
Goals of the Ado­les­cent PE pro­gram are to:

1. offer many dif­fer­ent oppor­tu­ni­ties to explore ways to stay phys­i­cally healthy.
2. allow for indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences in phys­i­cal abil­ity and interest.
3. bring spe­cial­ists in when possible.
4. rotate projects that will last long enough to develop some pro­fi­ciency but change often enough to sat­isfy inter­ests. (6-week projects)
5. pro­vide choice.
6. pro­vide some oppor­tu­nity for orga­nized com­pe­ti­tion and team-building.
7. equip stu­dents with the most up to date infor­ma­tion on per­sonal Health and Nutrition

What We Observe Regard­ing Phys­i­cal Devel­op­ment of Adolescents:

• they seek phys­i­cal challenge
• they still like to play—especially if it’s a social activity
• they also work towards indi­vid­ual accomplishment
• they can be competitive
• they are explor­ing dif­fer­ent ways of using their bodies
• they want to know their phys­i­cal lim­its and potential