September Letter:

Dear families of Junior High students:
We are looking forward to meeting with you all individually for SLP meetings in the coming two weeks, and then of course we are very excited about the first gathering of our student community on Monday, September 17th. Our projected move into new space in an adjacent building in November provides us with some ideal opportunities for Occupations, or work projects, both indoors and out. We have begun to receive student interest forms back from some of you and are starting to get a feel for what you will be interested in pursuing in the coming year. (For those who haven’t sent those forms in—we await them eagerly!) We are beginning to wrestle the current SVEC Library space into some kind of interim classroom. We are also finishing up our summer-long course with Jenny and Polly on the Montessori Elementary curriculum, which has been fascinating, and very well facilitated.

We’d like to give you all a heads-up about what we are planning to provide in terms of curriculum. We do this with the understanding that we do not know yet now where the students’ individual and collective interests might lead them over the coming year. There are so many firsts for all of us this year that we will need to proceed slowly and cautiously. However, we do have an academic plan, outlined below, based on our Montessori Adolescent Syllabus (reproduced at the end of this communication).

The following plan we call Stage One, which encompasses our time away from our new space. This period may last until Thanksgiving. The schedule below is for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But we encourage you all to think of the whole week and the whole Syllabus as we make our plans together.

Communal work in AM: Three hour work blocks in AM: 9-12 AM:

I. The beginning of a two year cycle, The Study of Nature, which proceeds from Self to Cosmos. This includes:
A. Self-study (human needs, human physiology, learning styles, nutrition)
B. Land study (biology, chemistry, geology and history of Monroe, its watershed and ecological profile; developing plans for outdoor Occupations)

II. The beginning of a three year cycle, The Study of the History of Humanity. This year we will proceed from the beginning of Human Writing to the Invention of the Printing Press. (This will be a lesser component until we can move into the new space and develop our library and other resources.)

III. Occupations: Indoor environment projects (decoration, interior design, furniture design and construction, etc.) Outdoor projects (landscape design, gardening, design of recreational space)

Individual and group pursuits in PM: 1-3:30 pm
Electives offered by guides, or individual work: 1-2:50
clean-up: 2:50-3
journal time: 3-3:30

CY electives for first trimester:
§ Montessori Key Lessons in Science
§ Math learning group (tutorial?)

AR electives for first trimester:
(the top three choices will be offered, based on interest):
§ writing group (creative writing with some writing skills exercises)
§ reading group(s)
§ visual art group
§ philosophical dialog group

Indoor and outdoor occupations work: (This may require a rotation of parent supervision in the afternoons.)

We can review these offerings in Stage One during your SLP meetings, and we will be looking at them again with the whole learning community when we gather, starting the 17th.

Parent Meetings: we have heard from some but not all of you about your preferred monthly parent meeting times. Please remember to bring your preferences with you to the SLP meeting. These are times for moms AND dads, by the way, so let us reiterate that we are willing to stay in Monroe into the evening once a month to ensure maximum participation. So far the third Wednesday afternoon option is the most popular. These meetings will begin in October.

See you soon!

Andy and Cynthia

THE ADOLESCENT SYLLABUS

Maria Montessori first published her thoughts on the syllabus in 1948.

Self-Expression:
Music
Language (Creative Writing And Drama)
Dance
Athletics
Visual Art

Psychic Development:

Moral education
Mathematics
Language(s)

Preparation for Adult Life:
The Study of Nature (The Earth and Living Things)
(geology, geography, biology, cosmology, botany, zoology, physiology, astronomy, comparative anatomy)

The Study of Human Progress and the
Building Up of Civilizations
(physics, chemistry, mechanics, engineering, and genetics integrated into the history of science and technology—“supranature”)

The Study of the History of Humanity
(scientific discoveries, geographical explorations, relation of humans to the environment, contact between different peoples, war, religion, patriotism, a detailed study of one period, a detailed study of the life of one person, the present day and nation, law and government, literature and the arts)

SVEC Montessori Junior High
Requested Supply List for Shared Classroom Supplies
2007-2008

We invite families to help build up our store of classroom supplies as follows, to be brought in by students on September 17th:

1 dozen #2 pencils with erasers
1 dozen black pens (erasable or not, depending on your preference)
2 packages of lined 3” x 5” index cards for note-taking
1 package of five 3-ring binder subject dividers
1 package of Pink Pearl erasers
1 package recycled college-lined 3-ring binder paper
1 package glue sticks
Several report binders/covers for storing completed work

Requested Supply List for Individual Student Supplies
2007-2008

We request that each student provide for him or herself, beginning Sept. 17th:

1 reusable water bottle
1 journal for recording daily and weekly work, and for journaling
1 personal 3-ring binder for storing current work (2” recommended)
(Optional) pocket calendar for planning long term work and keeping track of assignments.

We assume that every student will come each day with a healthy lunch prepared and stored in a conveniently stowable lunch box or other container. We will be examining what a healthy lunch might consist of during our fall nutrition unit.

We will have an additional voluntary sign-up sheet with requests for other classroom supplies, including art supplies, kitchen supplies, and cleaning supplies, at the SLP meetings.

An Invitation to the Present Moment

Dear Angeleah, Avery, Bailey, Bethany, D’Marco, Emerald, Erin, Gabe, Haley, Hannah, Jessica, Kennedy, Kyanna, Lindsey, Marissa, McKayla, Megan, Mical, Miekayla, Monica, Rachel, Talia, Taylor, and Tyler,

Wow! There are 24 of you. Surprised? I am, seeing as the class size in the final year of our middle school program in Seattle was only 5 students.

Cynthia and I are getting ready to be with all 24 of you, by doing the following:

• We enjoyed our time beachcombing with the Montessori elementary families at Fort Flagler. What a warm and welcoming community! Those of you students who will be "new" like us are in for a treat.



• We are also spending time at Sky Valley this summer, learning from Jenny and Polly about the materials and methods of the elementary classroom.



• Together with Cynthia's husband Peter Donaldson we are teaching a class of fifteen middle schoolers at the University of Washington Summer Program.



• And I'm spending some of my time this summer pondering three words: education, adventure, and sustainability.

EDUCATION:

What thoughts or feelings come to your mind when you hear that word? Some of mine are frustration with too much sitting indoors, or the feeling of being defeated before I’ve even begun because of the long list of “have-to’s” keeping me from my own secret personal list of “want-to’s”, or better yet, "dream-to's." The Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, warned us about how we use the word. Educare in Latin means to lead out of. But out of what? Ignorance? Poverty? Childhood? All those uses of the word suggest to me that somehow I'm not good enough for the world. That I'm lacking something. That I'm empty of value. But Yeats paints a different picture. He said, “Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire."

I appreciate his image. It suggests that each of us has some precious gift--our passion, our unique perspective--to bring to the world. It also reminds me of what Maria Montessori had to say about human beings as learners, how we all have an inner guide, the Teacher who is within. Have you sensed your own inner fire? What kindles it? Have you heard the voice of your own inner guide? What has that voice called you to, in your life so far?

ADVENTURE:

So, what about that word? Is it a cliche, especially when used to describe a learning experience? What I'm thinking of looks something like this:

Does this mean that I'm feeling a bit "at sea?" Not exactly, although there are a lot of new things to think about. The word adventure comes from the Latin verb advenire, which means to come to, or to arrive, or to happen. So for me, adventure is what is happening right now, right at the borderline between the present and the future. If I were an icebreaker, one of those ships that plow through polar ice, then adventure would be the sound of ice crunching and cracking and the spray and pattern of ice pieces scattered to either side of my prow. Adventure in this case would not be recklessness. It would be alertness. It would be my careful progress forward through the ice, keeping my eyes on my nose (without going cross-eyed.) And on the horizon, and on the sonar screen for what’s below the surface, and on the cleared trail behind me. Looking at life as an adventure means learning to live in the moment, to be aware, awake, paying attention to what is happening, to what is arriving, to what is coming at me. Looking at life as an adventure means lighting a fire inside and taking care to make sure it doesn’t go out. I'm trying to tend my fire. I'm trying to stay alert, and pay attention. How is your fire doing? What is happening in your neck of the woods? What is commanding your attention this summer?

SUSTAINABILITY:

We live in a global consumer culture. What this means to me is that when people all over the world decide they need something, they go somewhere outside of themselves, outside of their own homes, or property, or land, or region, or country, or continent to get it. And I don’t mean just get it. I mean consume it. To devour it from the bottom up, utterly. You eat just the raspberries picked from the bush and more will grow next year; you eat up the whole plant, roots and all, and the world has one less source of raspberries come next spring.

If I want to sell something in a global consumer culture, I need to learn how to advertise it on a large scale, so that all over the world people will learn what it is that they need. As an advertiser, I have to be very smart, because I need to persuade people that they need something—my thing—enough to be willing to leave home to get it (consume it). This means lots and lots of money spent on advertising, and on lots and lots of labeling and recognizable packaging, and on lots and lots of traveling back and forth—of people and products. Which means lots and lots of gallons of fuel.

Of course, in some places there is now ordering over the internet, and overnight shipping, so that some of us can pretend we don’t need to leave home to get (consume) what we need. We can pretend we aren’t responsible for all the energy it costs to get that item to arrive at our front door from halfway around the world.

To put it in a nutshell, there’s a lot of waste that goes into a global consumer culture. In fact, there’s enough waste to fill many nutshells. And the evidence suggests that all this waste is catching up with us. So much so that it threatens to overwhelm us, and the rest of nature along with us. To cram one more thing into my last nutshell, there's enough waste in our global consumer culture to damp the fire inside of ourselves. There probably aren’t enough squirrels in the world to provide us with the nutshells we’re going to need, unless...

...unless we can learn how to become a global sustainer culture. (Here's a clue: we should pay more attention to squirrels.)

To sustain has the Latin word for hold and the Latin word for under in it, and describes the action of holding something up from underneath, the way a foundation holds up a house. Sustaining means understanding first principles, the foundations of how things are, and then supporting those principles. Living by those principles. To live by the principles, we need to learn about them, to pay attention to them, as they are revealed in nature. Ranger Rob reminded us at Fort Flagler that without crabs--aquatic janitors and sanitation engineers--scuttling across the floors of the world's oceans, we would be buried in the litter of sea life. We'd suffer the same fate on land (buried alive!) if not for all the slugs, snails, beetles, worms, and microbes that make up the family of mostly invisible sustainers we call the Decomposers. That's good news, to me. What's good news? That nature has already figured out how sustainability works. If we can just pay attention, nature can show us the way.

I'm still at the beginning stages of understanding all this. Probably some or all of you are already well on the way to figuring this sustainability thing out. As a geezer-in-training I'm not as flexible as you springy young whippersnappers, and my habits are more established. But the challenge of learning a new way to be in the world has definitely kindled my inner fire, and I feel that trying to live and work and learn sustainably is an adventure worth embarking upon. The good news is our global consumer culture is going to have to change into a global sustainer culture in the next thirty years, and your generation will be involved in a major way in creating a new civilization. I wonder what amazing sustainable solutions you will come up with?

Our first assignment as a new learning community at Sky Valley is to plan how we can create a school environment and culture that is as green, as waste-free, as sustainable, as possible. As we go about planning our Occupations for the coming year, our constant guiding question will be: "What is the most sustainable way that we can accomplish this task?"

In the next week, you'll be getting an Occupations questionnaire from Cynthia and me in the mail. Please fill it in and send it back to us as soon as you can, to help us in our planning. Eventually, no doubt, you will be teaching me how to do all of this kind of communication paperlessly, online.

I look forward to the EDUCATION.

Or should I say... ADVENTURE ?