If you have been on campus at Hollis Montessori School at the end of the day lately, you may have noticed Adolescent Program (AP) students and guides hiking up from the pond looking wet, tired, and happy. They have been studying Dunklee Pond in the Hollis Town Forest. This fall they are doing a water quality assessment of Dunklee Pond to submit to the NH Department of Environmental Services. The Adolescent Community has taken on a water quality study every few years so they have now begun to accumulate long term data and can begin to look at the trends.

At the beginning of this year, some of the oldest students in Upper Elementary had the idea of reviving a school newspaper that had been written by UE students in the past; they remembered getting the editions of the “HMS Press” when they were in Lower Elementary, and they wanted to start it back up. What a big work they were about to embark upon!

In Montessori education, there are some very special stories, called Great Stories, that we tell at the beginning of each year. The Great Stories are for the whole community, and they introduce each of the areas of study we explore throughout all six Elementary years.

The first of these stories is The Great Story of the Universe...

What an exciting time to learn more about government! It seems to be working its way into all levels here at HMS. Last week, the Lower Elementary community went on a wonderful field trip to the New Hampshire State House in Concord. This is a politically charged time of year, and with the Presidential election coming up this year we really wanted to spend some time learning and thinking about how our government works. We are so fortunate to be close to Concord, and jumped at the chance to see this government building in action.

The first time I went to Hillside Middle School to cast my vote as a resident of Ward 2 in Manchester, NH, I noticed that all of the workers appeared to be older, probably retired residents of our community. I couldn’t help but notice that there were no younger members of my local community among them. I asked the ward moderator how one would become a person who works at the polling place on Election Day, and so began my entrance into the Ward 2 election worker community.  I’ve worked ten elections now, first as a volunteer ballot clerk and later as an elected official, one of three selectmen in our Ward. I’ll admit: it was incredibly exciting to see my name on the ballot…

New Hampshire is an amazing place to study civics! Although they aren't yet of voting age, the students of Hollis Montessori’s Adolescent Program (AP) got to experience being active participants in the democratic process this winter. The theme of their studies this term has been governance, and this was a great year to work on that topic. In addition to lessons on the structure of government, the rise of governance (going back to early humans, how laws are made, and political media, they got to visit presidential candidates, the State House, a Courthouse, and attended a convention and debate.

It is really hard to describe the incredible growth and learning that happens through putting together a big event in the Adolescent Program. Adolescents thrive on real, big, creative work that happens in community with others. When I say “real work,” I mean work that has a purpose besides one’s own learning, work that affects other people, work so complex that if you don’t pull your own weight other people and the quality of the whole will suffer. The recent Shakespeare Dinner Theater, our classroom Gala project, was one of these events. 

Imagine if the whole world was your classroom. Within the walls of the school, we have a prepared environment that sets the stage for our students to learn. But for elementary children, who are intensely curious about the world, what is within the classroom is not enough. In order to answer their many questions, students in the elementary often need to look to resources beyond the classroom and their families.

Hollis Montessori opened in 2008 with classes for children age 3 through 6th grade. In 2011, we added the Adolescent Program for grades 7-9. As a young school, we have fairly young alumni, but after 15 years, some of our alumni have become adults. Over the next few issues, we will be featuring stories about them in our “Where Are They Now” series. In Part Two, we talked to Allie Campbell.

Children’s House 2 Lead Guide Jessica Robson spent the last year simultaneously teaching and pursuing her AMI (Association Montessori International) Primary Diploma from the Montessori Northwest Training Center in Portland, Oregon. It was an amazing and intense experience that “profoundly impacted” the way she thinks about children and about teaching.