A new chapter in West Virginia education history will unfold when the state’s only Montessori middle school welcomes its charter class of students tomorrow, Monday, Aug 18.
The Mountaineer Montessori Middle School, located at Unity of Kanawha Valley at Myrtle and Bridge Roads in Charleston’s South Hills neighborhood, is a new concept based on some old-school values: high academic standards, responsibility and real-life work for students.
The new program, serving seventh and eighth graders, was developed in response to an enrollment jump of nearly 50 percent at Mountaineer Montessori School (MMS) and increasing requests from the community for alternatives to one-size-fits-all education. The Montessori adolescent program is designed to help students develop academically, socially and emotionally in an environment that encourages their unique and great potential.
The Mountaineer Montessori Middle School program will offer a program of high expectations based on an academically rigorous, project-based curriculum emphasizing STEM, arts, entrepreneurship, environmental stewardship and community service. A farm-to-table agricultural program will be implemented the first year. Students will devote their mornings to classroom studies and apply those lessons in their “occupations” — gardening, cooking, beekeeping, trail builds, school maintenance and running their own businesses – in the afternoon.
The program is based upon Dr. Maria Montessori’s vision for a “school of experience in the elements of social life,” emphasizing work that is meaningful, collaborative and adult-like. Her plan for work and study offers adolescents true integration of knowledge and experience as well as opportunities for genuine contribution to their community. The result is intellectual independence, an awareness of human connections and the strengthening of moral character.
A community open house and official ribbon cutting ceremonies are planned for Sept. 23.
The MMS Middle School faculty team will be led by Suzanne Sanders. Sanders, a graduate of Penn State University, has more than 15 years of experience in authentic Montessori classrooms in Costa Rica, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Charleston. She trained this summer with educators from around the world at the AMI Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies program presented by the North American Montessori Teachers Association at Hershey Montessori School’s Huntsburg Farm Campus near Cleveland — the only Montessori adolescent teacher training of its kind offered in North America.
MMS Head of School Dana Gilliland, whose more than 25 years of Montessori experience includes opening a Montessori middle school program in Indonesia, is offering overall guidance for the new program. Gilliland and Sanders are the only two educators in West Virginia certified in 6-18 year Montessori education.
Rachel Scarpelli, a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, will serve as the middle school classroom assistant. Scarpelli is in her second her at MMS.
