Journey to a Montessori High School
You made the right choice. You enrolled your child in a Montessori school from pre-school, supported the journey up through grade three, grade six, or if you were very lucky, up to grade eight. You’ve given them a great foundation for education and life, but now where do you send them?
This is the question Pam Butler had been asking herself for a number of years. As Director of The Westwood School in Dallas, Texas, Butler felt a responsibility in translating the philosophy of Montessori all the way to college and university. She takes the long view in terms of a child’s education, thinking and planning down the road. But finding the stepping stone between her Montessori school and college proved to be very challenging. Area schools had strong traditions and programs, but none had the commitment to the principles of Montessori that she was looking for.
As she researched programs, she came across the International Baccalaureate’s (IB) Diploma Program(DP) and Middle Years Program (MYP). She learned that the heart of the IB is the “mission to create a better world through education.” In addition, IB programs are characteristically holistic, child centered, and help children to develop a sense of life-long learning – just like Montessori. The more she looked, the more she realized that the IB was the key.
But how to find a nearby IB school that would fully understand her Montessori children? IB schools are rare enough. This is when she got the idea to start an IB program in her own school. Upon the advice of Tim Seldin, President of The Montessori Foundation, she introduced the IB MYP in combination with her seventh- and eighth-grade Montessori program. Working with her amazing staff, and the additional help of consultant Jamie Wheal of Stagen, she developed her program into a great middle school success. However, she was unsure if this could be extended into the high school all the way to grade twelve. How could Westwood be sure that students are prepared for college? This is where I came in.
Before Westwood, my experience with Montessori was mostly theoretical. As an experienced international teacher, researcher, and administrator (including working for the IB directly), I had great respect for Montessori. Talking with Butler, I was initially uncertain about extending the Montessori Method to the high school, as Maria Montessori had limited writing about the older teen.
I had seen a number of Montessori schools in the international setting, but visiting Westwood was different. I was so impressed, that I agreed to move half way around the world and join Westwood as founding head of the high school. I knew that the key of the Montessori high school would be in the spirit of providing opportunities to continue the Montessori teaching philosophy, but at the appropriate developmental level of our young adults.
The primary learning motivation for the student is exploration, guided ever so carefully, at a distance, by teachers. The young Montessori child, in practice, explores the shelves for basic knowledge and skills. Activities must be developmentally responsive; as the child develops, the activities on the shelves become more complex.
At the upper level of development, it becomes difficult to model the world with activities on our shelves. My experience with IB told me that, for our high school, our shelves would be mostly located outside in the real world. The tool to reach these shelves would be the DP (diploma program) in grades eleven and twelve. This would automatically bridge the gap between the Montessori school and college.
Montessori’s focus on self-directed learning would foster an understanding that the student is a full member of a greater community of students, teachers, parents, city, and world. These are also key characteristics of IB, part of the IB learner profile. Abstract work in these community relationships requires that the students engage directly in the subject areas in which they have interest and gives them opportunities to acquire confidence and competence. This requires a serious level of academics and the rigorous and integrated nature of the two-year DP meets this challenge. In fact, it more than meets this challenge. The DP gives students the opportunity to demonstrate academic standards that are internationally respected and recognized as the highest standard in pre-university education.
This process was an enormous undertaking for a school of our size, but we knew that our students deserved to be part of the very best academic program in the world. Developing the DP under the direction of the IB was a very positive experience. It challenged Westwood to appropriately identify resources at all levels and meet the goals that would best prepare our students for college and university. Recently, our hard work paid off, and Westwood became the first private Montessori school to be authorized by the International Baccalaureate to deliver the Diploma Pro-gramme. We remain steadfast in our commitment to provide a world-class education for Westwood students within our Montessori framework, from pre-school through high school, and we encourage other schools to consider the IB and develop their own Montessori high schools.
J.V. Marc Corbeil is the founding Head of High School at The Westwood School, a private IB – Montessori school in Dallas, Texas. He is an internationally respected lecturer with a special interest in the teaching of mathematics and critical thinking, and is a former professor of mathematics and philosophy. He was recently appointed as an assistant examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization and is a former IBO curriculum and assessment administrator. For further information on the IB program, please go to www.ibo.org.
