Junior High - Erdkinder
A place of real instances. A place where change is realized. A place for me.
"Erde" is the land. Marin Montessori School's Junior High is located in San Rafael, CA. The campus provides students a thirty-acre land-lab with golden meadows, streams, forest, and orchard. The prepared environment is land-based, designed to engage students in a world where they have the opportunity to make differences on a daily basis. The natural environment calls each student to adventure and, using knowledge and skill, to create a just and sustainable future for the planet through instances of awareness and application. Experiential learning makes academic studies immediately relevant and applicable as the student performs real work and takes the first steps on the road toward becoming a contributing adult.
Marin Montessori School's Junior High campus lends itself naturally to experiences in sustainability, animal husbandry, horticulture, habitat restoration, and ecological understanding, which are subject areas that are not simply taught, but lived daily. Service and responsibility to one's self and to others are themes the students put into practice as they interact amongst themselves, the greater bay area, and beyond.
Initiate challenge. Engage the will.
Celebrate humanity.
Courses of study are introduced, explored, and learned through a project-based curriculum that is interdisciplinary across the realms of human knowledge. Science-based occupation projects include applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, botany and zoology. Humanities projects, addressing Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, or 20th Century United States, consider the complexity of human history and encompass anthropology, history, geography and philosophy. Additionally, the Junior High offers exploration and mastery of foreign language, fine arts, music, drama, and both creative and physical expression. Students become well practiced in their writing, speaking, and presentation skills as they demonstrate their project discoveries and newly attained knowledge through both informal and formal presentations.
Microeconomics is realized through entrepreneurial projects, such as organic gardening, and is firmly based in Dr. Maria Montessori's plan to meet the developmental needs of the adolescent age group. Students realize the independent and self-sufficient nature of their efforts through the economic fruits they bear in these projects. Organic gardening offers an experience in managing products and services, budgeting for deficits and surpluses, and interacting with the Marin community through exchanges between real individuals.
Open. Optimistic. Outgoing.
Teachers at Marin Montessori School's Junior High are true generalists who work side-by-side, guiding the students and preparing and designing the environment with choice-filled experiences that provide academic and social challenges for the group, as well as the individual.
Additionally, students have access to specialist teachers, such as Civil Engineers, Business Administrators, or Artists, across a variety of fields. Both the generalists and specialists are well-trained adults who function as knowledgeable resources for the students as they navigate through classroom curriculum and projects.
