@houstonmontessoricenter
Active 9 months agoForum Replies Created
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I, too, am interested in learning more about Earth Charter and how it can apply to our secondary program.
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Kyle, yes it is very frustrated with the demands that your school district making on your program. There is work to be done at every level of Montessori when it comes to navigating the testing culture. The National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (www.public-montessori.org) supported by AMS and AMI has been formed to advocate for Montessori publically funded schools be more authentic. I have adolescents programs that have navigated the culture well with their school district and others who struggle. In my experience Montessori organizations or teacher education programs usually cannot tell a school district what to do unless they are a current practicum site. That is why in 1990 David Kahn and I wrote a document call Essential Elements of Successful Montessori Schools in the Public Sector which all Montessori organizations endorsed. It needs to be updated which I believe the National Center will be doing. The last AMS conference in Dallas, which I co-chaired had two adolescent workshops options at each time period which is a nice portion of the conference that serves at least 8 different tracks of levels (one being Montessori public school). So as the number of adolescent programs grow there are more and more opportunities for more resources as you suggested we need. I believe the Montessori community is working on it; it is frustrating when we trying to change the paradigm of educational values. -
Cosmic education in Montessori is a spiral curriculum. We carry forth the sensorial experiences of first plane to the elementary plane and then take both the sensorial and intellectual work to the adolescent programs. In our adolescent programs and teacher education course we revisit all the great lessons again each year from different perspectives and especially with a focus of the past with gratitude for all that came before us, the present impact we can make (personal responsibility), and our legacy for the future. There are several different programs available on the internet that support this work with adolescents like Big Picture History and 100people.com.
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