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A Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies (ages 12-18)
The Annual Professional Development Event of the NAMTA Center for Montessori Adolescent Studies (NCMAS)
June 22-July 24 and November 5-8, 2009
Cleveland area, Ohio

Why Take the Orientation?
2008 Program Description and Schedule
A Community of Speakers
NAMTA's Role in the History of Montessori Adolescent Programming
Application and Fee Information
Readings for Seminars and Discussions
For More Information

Click here to view the event brochure in pdf format. Registration for this event is now closed.

A Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies builds an integrated and holistic view of the Montessori adolescent in relation to Montessori psychology, methodology, and philosophy. Content is presented within the context of the Montessori planes of development. Participants can express their respective specialization as part of a total Montessori vision, allowing them to develop an adolescent program that is uniquely Montessori, using Montessori principles to address the needs and characteristics of early adolescence.

The participant realizes that, although the Orientation is a thorough and comprehensive Montessori-theory-into-practice approach, the burden of any school’s program design is derived from the research and applications carried on within the constraints of local programs and specialists on site. Also, Montessori training at the early childhood and elementary level will be invaluable to successful leadership of any Montessori adolescent program.

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Why Take NAMTA's A Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies?

NAMTA offers a Montessori Secondary Studies Certificate for those teachers who wish to know more about adolescents, their needs and psychological characteristics, as well as Montessori principles and authentic practices. The NAMTA Orientation provides a variety of implementation models unified through Montessori theory and presented by leading AMI practitioners and AMI trainers in the field. Therefore, this professional development experience forms the teacher as a refl ective decision maker who is able to apply Montessori principles to a variety of practices and school conditions. The key practices presented are time-tested and have been refined by practitioners, many of whom have taught in Montessori-specific adolescent programs for fifteen years or more. Maximum opportunity for participant interaction will develop confidence and skills for those seeking to understand Montessori’s third plane of development. Small faculty teams are especially successful in this format.

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2009 Program Description and Schedule

Week One (June 22-26):
Foundations of Montessori Theory:
The Adolescent in the Context of Whole Human Development
(Located at Hershey Montessori School adolescent program on the farm)

The Adolescent Orientation finds its roots in Montessori history, theory, and practice. The first week looks at the context of Montessori’s developmental stages, including the intrinsic psychological characteristics of early childhood through adulthood and the concept of successive optimal environments in response to each “plane of development,” with a specific introduction to the prepared environment for the adolescent’s maximum growth. From the outset, participants will experience the art of the seminar, journal writing, and applications of three-period lesson design (didactic presentation, exploration, and student presentation). Analysis of Montessori primary readings will emphasize the key concepts of Montessori philosophy.

Weeks One and Two take place on the farm, which brings to awareness the ebb and flow of community life around meaningful work. The needs and tendencies of the adolescent emerge along a full living out of various practical aspects: community meeting structure, problem solving techniques, decision making frameworks, knowledge as embodied in the environment, the role of the adult (both generalist and specialist), observation, record keeping, organizational systems, and work periods—all meeting the needs of the adolescent’s true nature.

Week Two (June 29-July 2; holiday July 3):
Pedagogy of Place: The Montessori Educational Syllabus on the Farm
(Erdkinder-inspired design)
(Located at Hershey Montessori School adolescent program on the farm)

This week focuses on the impact of place on community: How does one build a sense of belonging and usefulness, leading to an engaging plan of adolescent work and studies as suggested by the Erdkinder Appendices? Place has a human past and a geological-biological set of relationships in the present so that both science and history, which are intrinsic to an ecosystem, are naturally emergent studies.

The farm is not only a learning laboratory but a microcosm of society. Participants perceive a social, economic, and natural mesh of systems that frames intimate knowledge of a local environment, including fl ora and fauna, the archives of a region, its historic architecture from its settlement period to the present, practical arts, creative expression, physical training, and the farm cycle throughout the year. In this holistic experience, learning fl ows through both community (boarding) and individual development.

Week Three (July 6-10):
Pedagogy of Place in Urban and Other Settings: Technical Aspects
(Located at Case Western Reserve University)

Montessori principles originally practiced in the Erdkinder-inspired farm setting are transferred to suburban and urban settings holistically so that participants can apply pedagogy of place to their own settings. Every community site can be considered for its specific features, which evolve into a comprehensive curriculum derived from the dynamics of neighborhoods, cities, urban community gardens, commercial and museum districts, or even the urban Montessori campus itself. Topics include detailed studies in:

  • Garden to kitchen; food production and sales
  • Business development
  • Community service
  • Urban studies
  • Applied science outdoors; ecology
  • Living history in depth
  • Applied social sciences (anthropology, psychology, geography, peace studies)
  • Integrated arts
  • Research on the Montessori adolescent in nature

Weeks Four and Five (July 13-24):
The Disciplines as a Means of Development
(Located at Case Western Reserve University)

Montessori divides the “Educational Syllabus” into three parts. The first, “opportunities for self-expression,” encompasses artistic, linguistic, and imaginative activities—music, language, and art. Next is “the ‘formative’ education that will construct firm foundations for the character,” consisting of moral education, mathematics, and languages. Finally, “general education” is presented as “the preparation for adult life,” encompassing three divisions of history. “The study of the earth and of living things” pertains to natural history; “the study of human progress and the building up of civilization” refers to the history of human achievement and technology; and, finally, “the study of the history of mankind” encompasses the physical and intellectual range of human activities: migrations, exploration, human settlement, government, and civics.

Closer examination of these divisions of history suggests a myriad of integrated intellectual and occupational studies. Integration refers to an overarching perspective throughout a course of study that knowledge will have unity and meaning from beginning to end, that the disciplines will “hang together” throughout adolescence using an overarching theme. Fundamentally the studies emerge around one theme, the whole of nature and civilization, and every subject is incorporated into a central view of society and the natural world. This allows the cultivation of a universal intelligence that can be applied to any specialized subject; a student can explore any aspect of human social experience with “sureness of footing and certainty of touch.”

Participants will not only explore a framework for studies for ages 12-18 but also generate their own program prospectus for either 12-15 or 15-18, outlining principles that support their teaching of specific details, always in the context of the whole child and the universe of knowledge. Small group work will be based on the kind of adolescent program participants intend to practice: 1) urban classroom-based, 2) urban place-based, 3) urban transitioning to rural, 4) purely land-based, or 5) high school.

Seminar Choices for Weeks Four and Five (July 13-24)

Current Orientation participants will choose one of the following three workshops during the final two weeks. In addition, all three workshops will be open to past Orientation certificate holders.

1. A National Meeting of Montessori High Schools will work on consolidation of what defines a Montessori high school, including a developmental approach to the disciplines, community engagement through staging areas, the focus of an integrated general education, the role of individual and separate specialties, collaboration, and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. This will be a retreat for all high school developers who have participated in Project 2012, open to past Orientation certificate holders for a fee of $200.

2. The Montessori Math Council National Workshop (led by John McNamara, Chris Kjaer, and Mike Waski) will look at mathematics approaches in keeping with Montessori mathematics methodology for both 12-15 and 15-18 levels. Topics include a comprehensive history and philosophy of mathematics, the relationships of math and science, and some materializations of algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. Open to past Orientation certificate holders for a fee of $200.

3. Language Arts, Humanities, and Occupations Workshop will be presented by experienced adolescent teachers Pat Ludick and Jacqui Miller. Full explication of underlying teaching principles will be followed by specific lesson planning. Language arts topics include literary responses, writing groups, poetry, seminar techniques, writing mechanics, and essay writing. Humanities and occupations planning will cover project fl ow, research, key lessons, and student inquiry methods such as maps, timelines, charts, experiments, debates, and third-period presentations. This workshop is open to past Orientation certificate holders for a fee of $200.

This seminar portion of the course is open to past Orientation certificate holders at a cost of $200. Housing is an additional fee.

The November Seminar and Graduation
(November 5-8, 2009)

A return to Cleveland serves to reconcile theory and practice, to bring closure to the Orientation, and to further refine prospectus design based on reality and review. Certificates are awarded at lunch on November 8, 2009.

Certificate holders are entitled to discounted consultations at their respective schools.

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A Community of Program Speakers

David Kahn, Program Sponsor, serves as founder and executive director of Montessori High School at University Circle. He holds a B.A. in fine arts and classics from the University of Notre Dame (IN) as well as the AMI Montessori Elementary diploma from Bergamo, Italy. He has seventeen years of Montessori teaching experience, twelve of them as teaching principal at Ruffing Montessori School (Cleveland Heights, OH).

Jenny Höglund is approaching the status of Auxiliary Trainer as she pursues the AMI Training of Trainers Programme at the Elementary level. She is in her fifth year of assisting Baiba Krumins Grazzini in Bergamo, Italy, at the International Centre for Montessori Studies. She earned her AMI Elementary diploma at the Ohio Montessori Training Institute and her AMI Primary diploma at the Washington Montessori Institute. She has worked with Montessori adolescents in Sweden from ages 12-15. She intends to specialize in adolescent teacher preparation as she prepares to be a fully vested AMI Elementary Trainer.
Laurie Ewert-Krocker is Head Teacher at Hershey Montessori adolescent program on the farm, Huntsburg, Ohio. She holds AMI diplomas at both the Primary and Elementary levels, a B.A. in English from John Carroll University (OH), and an M.A. in English from the University of Washington. Ms. Ewert-Krocker was the founding head teacher of the Hershey farm program.
John McNamara is Head of School and director of the middle school at Ruffing Montessori School West, Rocky River, Ohio. He received his B.A. from the University of Windsor, Ontario, his master’s in educational administration from the University of Toronto, Ontario, and the AMI Elementary diploma from Bergamo, Italy. Mr. McNamara founded the Montessori adolescent program at Ruffing.
Linda Davis began her Montessori work in 1971. Her adolescent work began in 1992 and has included starting programs and advising schools. She has participated in all four Adolescent Colloquia; has been on staff at the NAMTA Adolescent Orientation since 2003; and has given presentations at AMI, NAMTA, and other Montessori conferences. Currently she is program director of the Adolescent Program of the Montessori School of Lake Forest (IL), a land-based program.

Jacqui Miller holds a B.A. in architectural design from the University of Pennsylvania and the AMI Elementary diploma from the Washington (DC) Montessori Institute. She has taught adolescents at Arbor Montessori School in Atlanta, Georgia, for nine years.

Christopher Kjaer is currently principal of Montessori High School at University Circle in Cleveland, Ohio. He completed his Montessori Elementary training at the International Centre for Montessori Studies in Bergamo, Italy. He holds a B.A. in mathematics from Cornerstone University (MI) and an M.A. from Marygrove College (Detroit, MI). In his five years at New Century Montessori High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he was twice listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers for his work as a mathematics teacher. Areas of research have included topology and classroom use of primary sources in math and science.

James Moudry is administrative director at Montessori High School at University Circle in Cleveland, OH. He holds the AMI Primary diploma, a B.S. from the University of Minnesota with majors in math, philosophy, and psychology, and an M.Ed. from Loyola College in Maryland.

Michael Waski is a math and science teacher at Montessori High School at University Circle in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds the AMI Montessori Elementary Diploma from International Centre for Montessori Studies in Bergamo, Italy. He completed NAMTA’s Orientation to Adolescent Studies in 2005.

Pat Ludick directs the adolescent program at Hudson Montessori School, Hudson, Ohio. She taught humanities in the middle school program of Ruffing Montessori School East (Cleveland Heights, OH) for eleven years, and served as middle school coordinator at Ruffing. She also spent two years as Project Director of Land School Model at Montessori School of Raleigh (NC).

Alyssa Conklin-Moore is a full-time mother and a former Assistants to Infancy teacher at Hershey Montessori School in Concord Township, Ohio. She received her B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology from Oberlin College, her master’s in education from Cleveland State University, and her A to I diploma from The Montessori Institute in Denver, Colorado.

Under the direction of Laurie Ewert-Krocker, the summer staff of Hershey Montessori School adolescent program on the farm will assist participants during the first and second weeks. Staff includes a biologist, a naturalist, a wood shop
director, a farmer, a bioshelter manager, a cook, a fine arts specialist, humanities leaders, and AMI-trained Montessorians.

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NAMTA’s Role in the History of Montessori Adolescent Programming

Since 1976, NAMTA has provided both documentation and international leadership in bringing the efforts of Montessori adolescent education into focus and providing Montessori guidance for teachers in newly formed or existing adolescent programs. NAMTA’s seminars, conferences, and summer intensives have established a strong heritage of best practices through evolving school programs. The work has included baseline research, school consultation, publications, and four colloquia that were attended by AMI trainers and practitioners, including Renilde Montessori and Camillo Grazzini. In addition, NAMTA established a national resource coordinator, Pat Ludick, for on-site consultation and documentation of ongoing projects.

The NAMTA Center for Montessori Adolescent Studies (NCMAS), opened in June 2004, represents the culmination of NAMTA’s more than thirty years of Montessori adolescent leadership. The work of the NCMAS is to establish program design and validity based directly on the educational syllabus or framework suggested by the writings of Maria Montessori found in the Appendices of From Childhood to Adolescence. Already having set in motion a prototype Erdkinder-inspired model for ages 12-15 (Hershey Montessori School adolescent program on the farm), NCMAS, under the direction of David Kahn, will endeavor to match the Farm School’s innovative success with the corresponding authentic extension of the Montessori adolescent program through age 18. Subsequent to establishing its own working model, NCMAS will share design elements with a variety of other implementers, documenting a diversity of models to be studied with enough common ground for Montessorians to share experimental results on a universal basis.

In 2003, NAMTA began a summer professional development program titled A Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies. The Orientation is based on the practices of hand-picked programs (approximately 10 selected to date, including the Farm School). In addition to its professional-development offering for Montessori adolescent teachers, the Orientation provides the following services:

  • consultations for start-ups;
  • whole-school integration of a sophisticated plan of work and study for middle school and (currently under construction) high school;
  • ongoing professional support; and
  • adolescent research from outside the Montessori community in order to facilitate a dialogue with the national adolescent school reform movement.

Montessori adolescent teachers from all over the world have attended the Orientation program; a majority of participation is from Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

1996 Adolescent Colloquium participants, front row, seated: John Long, Larry Schaefer, Joen Bettmann, Pat Schaefer, Allyn Travis, Monte Kenison; second row, seated: Tom Postlewaite, Pat Ludick, Linda Davis, Laurie Ewert-Krocker, Peter Gebhardt-Seele, Virginia McHugh, Renilde Montessori, Bob Fleischhacker, Mike Strong, Debra Hershey Guren, Jenny Höglund; standing: John McNamara, Camillo Grazzini, Kay Baker, Margaret Stephenson, Patty Pantano, Deborah Bricker, Alcillia Clifford-Williams, David Kahn. Photo taken by participant Orcillia Oppenheimer. Absent: Paula Polk Lillard.

Origins: Montessori Adolescent Theory into Practice

In 1996, the Montessori Teacher Education Collaborative (MTEC) sponsored a seminal event, The Adolescent Colloquium, in Cleveland, Ohio, bringing together eminent teacher trainers and adolescent practitioners of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI, based in Amsterdam). One outcome of this first Colloquium was the founding of a Montessori farm school in northeast Ohio in 2000 by David Kahn, Debra Hershey Guren, and the Hershey Montessori School. The Hershey Montessori School adolescent program on the farm answers the need for a new kind of experiment, a need articulated at the 1996 Colloquium by both Camillo Grazzini (Director of Training at the prestigious AMI teacher training center in Bergamo, Italy) and Renilde Montessori (General Secretary of AMI and granddaughter of Maria Montessori):

The funds and resources . . . could . . . be used for setting up an actual Erdkinder community. This could then serve as a model and point of reference for the whole country, as a sort of national Erdkinder which would be open to adolescents from all parts of the country and which could provide a physical base for all further initiatives.. (Camillo Grazzini)

The Farm School was assisted by considerable outside philanthropy, including four major donors: The Hershey Foundation, Mrs. Orcillia Oppenheimer (capital), The Dekko Foundation (capital and research), and the O'Shaughnessy Foundation (research). From its inception until November 2003, this farm school experiment received the pedagogical review of Camillo Grazzini, who collaborated directly with its founding Program Director, David Kahn. Mr. Grazzini passed away in January, 2004. He will be followed by two lead AMI trainermentors, Baiba Krumins Grazzini and Annette M. Haines. The Hershey Montessori School adolescent program on the farm is the only Montessori adolescent program in the world that has developed a complete prepared environment as described in Maria Montessori's writings (the Appendices to her book From Childhood to Adolescence ), with a full boarding component. The Farm School is the only existing Montessori adolescent project with an Erdkinder-inspired prepared environment, including a youth "hostel" (dorm), a bed-and-breakfast, an operating farm, and a functioning microeconomy with a community farm market (shop). The Farm School model proved that the Montessori Syllabus is workable and able to provide structure that is comprehensive and uniquely connected to the psychological characteristics of the adolescent. The focus of NCMAS is also to work with other willing experiments in order to find a universal Montessori approach to working with the adolescent. Once a clarifying model has been set up in Cleveland, the most central focus for consolidation and definition of adolescent program design is the restructuring of third-plane studies to follow a universal syllabus or framework as suggested by Dr. Montessori.

Camillo Grazzini
Camillo Grazzini

Mr. Grazzini mandated this approach in the paper he presented at the 1996 Colloquium:

Therefore, what needs to be set up is not an Erdkinder teacher training center, but a single permanent organizing committee for the whole country, a committee made up of Montessorians.. The task of this committee would be to coordinate all the experiments already existing in the country and to oversee new initiatives in such a way that a reform of the secondary school is gradually brought about, a reform which reflects ever more faithfully Dr. Montessori's ideas.

In its efforts to universalize the needs of Montessori adolescent programs and their teachers, the NAMTA Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies continues to be subject to scholarly review by university specialists as well as AMI teacher trainers and AMI-trained adolescent practitioners, in order to develop specific requirements for what constitutes Montessori adolescent education for ages 12-18. Thus, the NCMAS will develop a heritage base, working toward a consolidated, if not definitive, Montessori adolescent program for ages 12-18, derived from Montessori writings, AMI trainers, and AMI practitioners working collectively in relation to good adolescent experiments.

The NAMTA Center for Montessori Adolescent Studies (NCMAS):
Project 2012 Completes the Developmental Continuum

NCMAS is dedicated to the furtherance of the AMI effort as it considers the Third Plane of Development (ages 12-18). The AMI tradition refers to the evolving planes of education “from conception to maturity both at home and in society” (AMI article 4b).

Project 2012 is linked to the International Centre for Montessori Studies (Bergamo, Italy), which originated the Montessori elementary movement in the development of the Second Plane of Education; Washington Montessori Institute (Washington, DC); and the Maria Montessori Institute (formerly MMTO, London, England). The solidity of the adolescent theory model for Project 2012 was established by Camillo Grazzini, Director of the Bergamo training center. Subsequently, David Kahn was appointed to the Bergamo staff as part of the adolescent studies arising out of Mr. Grazzini’s devotion to the cause. The work therefore remains in the context of the AMI heritage “to maintain, propagate, and further the ideas of Dr. Maria Montessori for the full development of the human being” (AMI Objectives).

In 2004, The Hershey Foundation, Mrs. Orcillia Oppenheimer, and the Dekko Foundation committed to the funding of Project 2012 over the next eight years for the sake of Montessori secondary experimentation and consolidation. We are now five years into the project. In its first four years of development (2005-09), Project 2012 accomplished the following: 1) the connecting of eight high school projects, 2) the opening of Montessori High School at University Circle (Cleveland, OH), 3) significant progress toward realization of the Montessori/International Baccalaureate high school curriculum, 4) the expansion of the Montessori Orientation to include high school, 5) the implementation of the third and fourth Adolescent Colloquia, and 6) the formation of history and math “councils” or curriculum initiatives.

In October, 2005, sixty participants from all over the world attended the third Adolescent Colloquium, which endeavored to generate a framework for authentic theory into practice for ages 12-18, with both AMI trainers and practitioners envisioning a universal picture of the whole of adolescence and the breadth of Montessori education. In April, 2008, the Fourth Adolescent Colloquium convened in Chicago, putting forward a specific profile of rural-urban programming from 12-18, including the full frameworks for algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus; chemistry, biology, and physics; literature and writing; environmental systems and geography; visual arts, drama, and music; psychology and human development; and theory of knowledge.

The NAMTA Center for Montessori Adolescent Studies is taking the last steps to complete its mission by establishing Montessori High School in University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio (MHS). MHS offers students an interdisciplinary experience focusing on change, nature, and society in keeping with the themes found in cosmic education and in Maria Montessori’s book Education and Peace. Taking on the academic challenge of the International Baccalaureate Programme, the curriculum weaves academic subjects evolved from within the high school with diverse specialized environments including in-depth connections with many of the cultural institutions located in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. These include The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Institute of Art, Case Western Reserve University, One to One Fitness Center, The Cleveland Clinic, and The Cleveland Play House.

This place-based approach within the one-square-mile cultural center of University Circle fully integrates the scope and sequence of the International Baccalaureate Programme with the neighborhood’s institutions and residents, an arrangement augmented by the school’s boarding approach. MHS opened in the fall of 2008. In addition to its cultural immersion in the Cleveland community and institutions, MHS is also devoted to providing a model for export for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, with full documentation of its curriculum program and experiential process.

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Application Information

This orientation will be held on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Application Procedure: Registration for this event is now closed.

  • Orientation to Adolescent Studies Tuition, June 22-July 24: $4,500 (includes tuition for Fall Seminar)
  • A National Meeting of Montessori High Schools for Orientation certificate holders July 13-24: $200 tuition
  • The Montessori Math Council National Workshop for Orientation certificate holders July 13-24: $200 tuition
  • Language Arts, Humanities, and Occupations Workshop for Orientation certificate holders, July 13-24: $200 tuition

Room and Board: Different packages available on Case Western Reserve University’s campus; package prices can be found in the Orientation application.
Attendance at all five weeks and the Fall Seminar is required. No partial enrollment will be considered.

Participation is limited; applications considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please direct inquiries to:
NAMTA
13693 Butternut Road
Burton, Ohio 44021
Or call: 440-834-4011

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Readings for Seminars and Discussions

These readings are required for all Orientation participants. They may all be purchased online: click here for order form.

All Orientation participants must have these readings before the start of the program because they will be used during the sessions on the first day.

  • Montessori, Maria. The Absorbent Mind. ($16)
  • Montessori, Maria. The Formation of Man. ($14)
  • Montessori, Maria. The Secret of Childhood. ($17)
  • Montessori, Maria. To Educate the Human Potential. ($13)
  • Montessori, Maria. From Childhood to Adolescence. ($15)
  • Montessori, Maria. Education and Peace. ($16)
  • Montessori, Maria. Basic Ideas of Montessori’s Educational Theory. ($20)
  • The Montessori Adolescent: Analysis in Retrospect. The NAMTA Journal 26:3, 2001. ($17)
  • Standing, E.M. Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work. ($17)
  • The Third Adolescent Colloquium. The NAMTA Journal 31:1, 2006. ($17)
  • The Fourth Adolescent Colloquium. The NAMTA Journal 33:3, 2008. ($17)

For More Information

For more information on this or any other NAMTA conference, contact NAMTA.

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in affiliation with Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), Amsterdam, Netherlands