The Key Financial Reports That We All Need To Understand

by The Montessori Foundation Staff | Administrative Team, Finances, Montessori Administrators, The International Montessori Council

Many of us who end up in school administration or serving on a board would not consider financial planning and analysis to be our strongest skill area.

Despite this, we are all responsible for keeping close tabs on our schools’ finances and for making decisions about the future based on accurate information, as well as intuition. You can accomplish all this, without a sophisticated knowledge of financial planning and analysis if you learn to ask for and use five essential financial reports on a regular basis: your budget versus actual report of income and expenses, your school’s balance sheet, your cash flow projections, aged receivables, and your attrition reports and projections.

These reports provide a snapshot of your school taken from one of several different perspectives, which, when used together, show how the school looked at that given moment in time.

One way to think of these financial reports is to compare them to the instruments and idiot lights on your car’s dashboard. The speedometer tells us how fast you are traveling. The mileage meter tells how far you’ve traveled. The fuel gauge tells us how much fuel you have in your tank. There are idiot lights or gauges that warn us if the engine in overheating or if the alternator is not recharging your car’s battery.

It is important to understand that these reports reflect a moment of time that has already passed by the time you see the data summarized in this form. Therefore, what they reveal has already happened. To be used in managing your school you have to pay attention to the trends and project ahead in time to estimate what this information means. This offers you the opportunity to act accordingly to try to affect the future. If you see that expenses beyond your control are proving to be higher than expected, or if income is falling short, you can choose to rebalance the budget by spending less where you do have control over spending choices, or by finding some ways to generate more income.

Remember, one important aspect of good leadership and sound governance is your commitment and ability to look ahead to see what’s down the road, so you can make adjustments in time to avoid problems before you hit them head on.

So here are the five key financial reports to which you want to pay close attention.

1. Profit and Loss Statement

This report is simple and essential. It summarizes all of the income that your school brought in, along with all expenses that the school incurred, during a given period of time: usually a month, three months (a quarter), or a year. The phrase “bottom line” comes from this report, since its bottom line reveals whether the school made or lost money.

Effective leaders delegate responsibility for specific elements of your school’s overall operation to one member of your team to whom you have given clear-cut responsibility for everything that happens in his or her area. This responsibility can be as broad or limited as you choose, just be sure that every aspect of the school’s operation is someone’s direct responsibility. In some cases, this may be an area where no income is directly earned, like the school office, in which case the person who you put in charge would be responsible for overseeing office equipment, purchasing office supplies as needed, and ensuring that specific tasks are accomplished. In others, the division or department of the school may have both income and expenses, and you may decide to place the responsibility for both (sales) income and expenditures. The key is to get a number of people responsible for managing and overseeing the flow of money into and out of their part of the budget. This gives you a two-level financial planning and control system: school-wide and program-specific. This allows you to break a large overall budget down into more manageable pieces, assigning part of the planning and management responsibilities to a number of other staff members.

The second critical use of the Profit and Loss Report is to compare a budgeted projection of your estimated revenues and expenses for that period of time with the actual amounts that the school brings in and spends. For management purposes, this should be done on a month-by-month basis.

Some schools also compare current revenues and expenses with last year’s actual income and expenses for the same period. I’ve always found this to largely be a waste of time. The time to study last year’s spending is when you are developing this year’s budget. Spend your time studying what happened in the past, consider what you want to change for this new year, and then develop a projected budget for the year. Use it, compare it with actual results, and be sure to understand the reasons for variances.

Having set up an internal control system based in part on the profit and loss statement, the next step is to back off. For ninety days. Monthly blips up or down occur too frequently in most agencies to take them seriously until there is a trend. Reviewing actual versus budgeted performance with those in charge of all Lost Sleep Centers every three months gives a chance for trends and patterns to develop while still leaving enough time to correct problems.

3. Cash Flow Projections

Now we arrive at the reports not ordinarily part of a standard financial accounting package. This one should be. It is hard to overestimate the importance of cash to the entrepreneurial nonprofit manager. In for-profit entities, it’s usually outsiders with some sort of financial stake in the organization—banks, shareholders, owners, etc.—who decide whether and when to fold up and go home. Because nonprofits have no possibility of ownership, and have perhaps more leeway from bankers and suppliers, the impetus to shut them down is more likely to come from within, and the most inescapable way that that happens is when the agency simply runs out of cash. Put positively, the surest way to stick around as a nonprofit is to have enough cash at all times.

The cash flow report should be as much a part of your regular control system as the first two reports. It starts with a cash flow budget for the coming year. For the agency as a whole, the first step is to associate the cash inflow for each month for each type of revenue, then do the same for each type of expense. Computerized spreadsheets make it easier to do this, but in all honesty the chief requirement for doing it correctly is the ability to tolerate a heavy dose of tediousness. Estimating the amount of cash received for each month and the amount paid out for each kind of expense takes persistence, thoughtfulness, and a speck of imagination. Unfortunately, a cash flow projection put together without benefit of all these qualities hovers dangerously close to being useless.

Once you have a projection for the year (consider turning it into a graph for those uncomfortable with seeing endless columns of numbers), take a moment to ponder the implications. I once managed an association heavily dependent on member dues, which came in during the period from December to February. The real problem with this pattern was that it was extremely hard even for the experienced among us to keep from getting positively giddy each winter when we had stored up cash equal to eight or nine months’ expenses. It took constant training and reminders to ourselves that we’d be one hungry pack of squirrels if we didn’t leave some of those acorns for the following November.

Next, apply the exact same comparative structure that you did with your budgets: show where you expected to be each month versus where you actually are. The only differences are that for expenses it’s acceptable to use a single number showing the amount of cash spent during that period, and that you also need to account for cash outflows released for the purpose of acquiring assets.

How often you revisit your cash flow projection will depend on how volatile your cash How is. The more stable the flow, the less frequently projections need to be redone. Generally, quarterly re-projections should be sufficient except in periods of predicted volatility, when monthly or bimonthly would be advisable.

4. Aged Receivables Report

Finally, a report you may never have considered could be the key to organizational health and good fortune—or at least to a better cash flow. Any nonprofit corporation that provides a service for payment at some point in the future by definition has accounts receivable, and the entrepreneurial nonprofit manager knows that accounts receivable can be a fiscal gold mine easily tapped.

To get some idea of how rapidly you are collecting the money owed to you right now, calculate two simple ratios. First, figure out how much revenue you need to receive every day of the year on average. Do this by dividing last year’s total revenue by the 365 days in a year. This ratio gives you one day’s worth of revenue.

Next, locate the line for total accounts receivable on last year’s audited balance sheet. This figure tells you how much money was yet to be received for services rendered as of the last day of the fiscal year, presumably a representative amount. Divide this number by one day’s worth of revenue and check the result. You have just calculated your agency’s collection period, or the average number of days it takes to collect on a bill.

By itself, the collection period will tell you little, although it helps to ask yourself whether the amount of time it takes you to collect seems right for your environment. Generally, the larger the bills or the more complicated the billing mechanism, the longer the collection period. You get the most value from knowing your collection period by comparing it to similar organizations’ ratios. Associations of nonprofits are a good source for this kind of information, and occasionally business-oriented publications contain it as well.

If there is a secret in the collection business, it’s knowing how old each of your uncollected bills is. Naturally, the longer a bill is outstanding, the less chance there is of it being paid. So each month you need a report showing which receivables are outstanding for thirty days or less, which for sixty, which for ninety, and which for more than ninety. A little attention to economics will help you focus on the younger bills that have a greater chance of getting paid than the dusty old ones that have been sitting around for a few months. Of course, the older bills need attention too, just the more concentrated and expensive kind. All the more reason to keep bills from growing old before their time.

What can you do? Entrepreneurial nonprofit executives understand that creative solutions to collection problems are available, often with low price tags and high paybacks. The simplest thing to do is the cheapest and frequently the most potent: state firmly and often that rapid bill collection is important. That ought to be good for, say, a 10 percent improvement in collection period. If that translated into a 10 percent improvement in cash balances, it would mean something like a one-half to one percent improvement in interest earned or an equivalent reduction in interest paid on a cash flow loan.

Timely telephone calls bringing gentle reminders can be effective also. Again, the improvement may only be to get the bill paid two days earlier than it would have been paid otherwise, but this is a game where the little pieces add up. Where payments from third parties are routine, some mental and other health agencies assign staff to make sure that prospective patients arc fully aware of all their legitimate claims on third-party payments, and that those claims are properly processed.

More expensive but potentially high payback methods of improving receivables collection performance include hiring additional staff, investing in computer upgrading, and expanding basic capacities such as telephone systems.

1. Balance Sheet

In addition to being the anchor report of a traditional group of financial statements, the balance sheet can also be a valuable tool for management control. Essentially just a compilation of the things of value that an organization owns set off against outsiders’ claims and “equities,” the balance sheet in many ways is the organization’s monthly report card. You can use it as an implicit check on your management control structure by holding one person ultimately accountable for each line item.

To see how this works, dig out your most recent tax return (IRS form 990) and follow along.

Assets

Cash and Cash Investments In a nonprofit corporation, cash is king. No shareholders are going to storm your annual meeting because you didn’t pay out dividends; suppliers are likely to hear “nonprofit” and automatically assume you’ll have trouble paying your bills; and the IRS may even be a trifle less inclined to play hardball with back taxes. But when you run out of cash, you’ve run out of gas. Cash is so important that it deserves its own special report, detailed below. Assign this one to your highest-ranking business type and check below for what to ask.

Accounts Receivable Second to cash in importance is the amount of money outsiders owe you that you have yet to collect. Accounts receivable also merit a separate report as detailed below, and a full-time business-type person assigned to them if the volume justifies it. To get an idea of how well you are performing right now, calculate this ratio:

Total Accounts Receivable divided by Total of All Assets

If this formula works out to, say, 33 percent or less, you may have a financially sound organization. On the other hand, anything over 50 percent should tell you that your flexibility is severely limited. And if you register over 75 percent, especially if the bulk of the funds receivable are with only one or two funding sources, you don’t own the receivables, they own you.

The next thing you need to find out is how your ratio compares to others’. The percentage of assets carried in the form of receivables will vary according to the type of service you provide, the complexity and sophistication of your agency and funding source, and even the time of year. This is true of every industry, because the economics are unique to specific types of corporations. Grocery stores, for example, will have almost no receivables since their business is largely cash or easily cashed checks. At the other extreme are professional service firms, which can carry receivables for as long as five months or more before they’re paid.

Think about this ratio as an index of how nice you are. A large amount of receivables means you are so nice that you let outside parties—your clients or funding sources—hang onto a large chunk of your agency. Your ability to get access to cash at a moment’s notice is diminished, you have less money available for investment, and you arc effectively at the mercy of the payment policies of whomever owes you the money. Do you really want to be that nice?

Pledges and Grants Receivable These are exactly like accounts receivable except for the obvious difference that they come from philanthropic sources. Whoever writes the grant proposals and oversees the fund-raising campaign gets to worry about this line. In small organizations this will usually be the executive director, in larger ones the director of development. The responsibility is a bit tricky, since zero pledges and grants receivable may mean that the agency’s fund-raising effort is lax, or it could mean that it is uncommonly efficient in collecting donations before allowing them to even become pledges. The time of the year will also affect this line—an end of the fiscal year fund-raising campaign will produce lots more volume here than at most other times of the year.

This is one area to which the entrepreneurial nonprofit manager will pay careful attention in the coming years because standards for handling pledges receivable looked like they were about to change as this book was being written. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) planned to announce a proposed new policy requiring nonprofit corporations to show pledges as receivable, something most organizations are reluctant to do in order to avoid the kind of experience Princeton University had a few years ago.

A wealthy and well-known businessman told the university that he would donate it $1.5 million. As was their policy, Princeton officials kept the pledge off their balance sheet as an asset, preferring to wait until the money was actually received. This turned out to be a wise decision, for the businessman was Ivan Boesky, and before he could make good on his pledge he was indicted on insider trading charges and suddenly had much more pressing demands on his personal fortune. Pay attention to the opportunities in this accounting change.

Inventories Under ordinary circumstances, inventories are a non issue for most nonprofits. If you have any substantial amount, however, this line is the report card for the person ultimately responsible for using them.

Investments and Securities Don’t try to play where you don’t belong. Any substantial amount of investments and securities calls for professional management. When you hire an adviser you’ll get more regular detailed reports than would appear on your balance sheet, so by the time you see this number it shouldn’t be a surprise.

Land, Buildings and, Equipment In truth, this line may be difficult to use for internal control purposes because it will incorporate such diverse assets as your office building and your shiny new computer system. Still, let it serve as a reminder that tangible assets need routine maintenance and repair prescribed and arranged by some responsible party.

Other Assets Your other assets will vary from zero to a substantial amount, depending on the nature of the organization. Art museums, for example, will ordinarily carry a large percentage of their assets here. In that case, it’s the curator’s scorecard.

Liabilities

Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses You can benefit from assigning two-level responsibility here. The operational level demands a clerical/bookkeeper-type who can do a repetitive job accurately (consider having identical recurring expenses paid automatically—lease payments, for example). Then be sure that the highest ranking financial type—or you—routinely reviews scheduled payments. In tough times you may be able to stretch some of the non personnel payments, and in good times you only need be sure to pay bills on time (earlier if you get a discount). Good bill paying is a balancing act and demands constant attention.

Mortgages and Other Notes Payable Now we get into top leadership territory. This line measures your agency’s degree of long-term indebtedness. If you would like to know how far into hock you’ve gone, take this number, add it to any other line showing debt that must be paid off for more than a twelve-month period, and divide it by your total unrestricted fund balance. This will give you an approximation of the relationship between your credit commitments and your agency’s ability to pay them off. As with most ratios, there is no absolute standard against which to judge individual performance, but any result approaching or exceeding 1.0 could mean lessened ability to handle additional debt. In turn, this implies that growth will have to be financed through yearly operations, not borrowing, and that your overall ability to maneuver through a fiscal crisis could be limited.

Fund Balances Deep in the heart of leadership country we find this euphemism for net worth. Simplistically, it’s what could be expected to be left over for the outside world to claim were all of the agency’s assets to be used at listed values to satisfy all liabilities (i.e., claims by outsiders). Ordinarily the place where for-profit corporations show owners’ and/or stockholders’ equity, a nonprofit’s fund balance is really “owned” by the public since it can have no shareholders in the legal sense of the term. If the entrepreneurial nonprofit executive has a report card, this line is it. Good program performance and a steadily growing fund balance are the twin peaks of agency achievement.

5. Utilization Report

An indispensable tool for the entrepreneurial nonprofit manager is some form of utilization reporting system. Ideally, it will be linked to the financial accounting system and will generate invoices, make tracking revenue sources easier, and help manage receivables. Designed properly, a utilization reporting system will also generate a respectable database for use in future marketing efforts.

Unlike the previous four reports, the utilization report must be tailored specifically to an individual agency and its array of services. No off-the-shelf products here, although a computerized spreadsheet could be very helpful. As with the profit and loss and cash flow projection, the idea is to compare actual results with projected outcomes, and, more important, to understand the reasons for every major deviance.

While service utilization reporting is especially important for nonprofits that depend on fees and service-based income, all should have some means of documenting levels of service utilization, if only to be able to prove the demand for their services should the occasion ever arise. The entrepreneurial nonprofit manager puts a system in place well before it’s ever needed.

Internal Financial Controls

Read enough audit reports and management letters to nonprofit organizations from public agencies or their own accounting firms and you’ll notice that the most frequently cited area of concern is weak internal controls. What this means is that inherent in the groups’ own processes are opportunities for fraud, duplication of activities, and inadequate control over fiscal resources. It does not mean that any of these things actually occurs, and in fact the fiduciary aspect of the nonprofit executive’s job may actually attract more than its share of people disinclined to perpetrate fraud in the workplace.

Considering the aspect of public trust embedded in the nonprofit manager’s job, it’s a fair question to ask why such a basic matter as adequate internal controls is nevertheless so frequently overlooked. It used to be that one could point to the lack of interest and/or sophistication in financial matters on the part of nonprofits to explain this kind of thing, but I think the real reason was and is much more mundane: lack of administrative staff.

Built into the idea of internal controls is a premise so fundamental that it’s easy to overlook. To establish a traditional system of internal financial controls requires spreading duties among several people. When a nonprofit organization gets along with a volunteer president, an executive director, a part-time bookkeeper who tries to double as a business manager, and a single clerk, there is not a lot of spreading that can happen. It’s not that the average nonprofit manager doesn’t want an adequate system of internal financial controls, it’s just that the resources don’t seem to be there.

Fortunately, there is something most organizations can do. With a little careful organizing and judicious use of staff time, even the smallest of nonprofits can mount a credible set of internal controls.

Sample Financial Aid Policy #1

by The Montessori Foundation Staff | Finances, Montessori Administrators, Recruitment & Admissions, School Resources, The International Montessori Council

I. Introduction

A. Rationale

Part of the mission of the _____ School is to demonstrate that intelligence is not rare in the universe, but rather can be cultivated if we begin to provide children with the right intellectual and emotional environments from an early age and continue to carry through into adolescence.

To fulfill this mission, it is vital that the school attracts families while their children are still very young, and convince them of the value of keeping them at our school up through graduation.

Realistically, a substantial percentage of our families may go through a period of financial stress or uncertainty, which in the past often led them to take the financial safer path of transferring their children to the public schools at the first sign of financial pressures on the horizon.

Most painful of all is the case where a family is devastated by divorce, illness, injury, or even death mid-way through the year. Only less so is the case of the family who has been loyal and enthusiastic, but finds themselves faced with financial problems that should reasonably last only a year or two. These families need a temporary bridge of assistance to give them not only the financial aid, but the emotional support, to renew their commitment to their children’s education at our school.

Many other independent schools, being much less integrated ethnically and socio-economically than we are, use financial aid to bring in a small number of less affluent new minority students every year.

The primary goal of our financial aid program is to support our present families through times of economic stress, rather than to make our school more affordable to new families. This does not mean that aid will not be awarded to prospective students, but rather that present families in a time of need will always have first priority.

B. This policy covers the awarding of three kinds of tuition assistance:
Financial aid, which is defined as a reduction in tuition granted to families who have demonstrated eligibility through an objective assessment of their financial position.
Temporary loans, in the form of extraordinary tuition payment plans, made at reasonable interest, to a family whose finances reasonably suggests that they will be able to afford the tuition over the course of the school year, but can neither pay within the school’s normal payment plans nor secure a bank loan.
Scholarships, granted as a reduction in tuition to a student on the basis of extraordinary talent that is greatly desired within the student body, without strict regard to the family’s financial position.

II. The Financial Aid Committee

A. Membership and function

The Board of Trustees shall appoint a Financial Aid Committee consisting of five members. Membership shall include one member of the Board, who will chair the committee; the Heads of the two campuses; the school’s Business Manager and Comptroller. The Headmaster will serve as an advisor the committee .

Financial aid decisions will be made by the committee working within the guidelines established by these policies, granting aid up to the amount approved by the Board of Trustees for that academic year.

The amount of financial aid available to be awarded by the committee for the upcoming academic year shall be set by the Board of Trustees no later than April 15th.

The Financial Aid Committee shall make full reports to the Board upon request. These reports shall include a summary and list of financial aid awards made in the last school year.

B. Conditions of Financial Aid

1. All financial aid or scholarships will be awarded on a one-year basis only. A student receiving financial aid or a scholarship will have no guarantee of continuation in the following school year, although the Financial Aid Committee shall strive to give said students first and careful consideration in this regard.

2. The greatest amount of financial aid or scholarship that the Financial Aid Committee can award to any student shall not exceed 50% of his or her tuition. In the event that the Committee believes that an individual case is exceptional, it may refer the question to the Board of Trustees for special consideration.

3. Financial aid awarded covers tuition only, and does not include any fees for books and materials, special activities, supervision, or transportation.

4. Any financial aid or scholarships awarded shall be credited to the student’s account. The family may elect to pay the balance according to any of the three optional payment plans which are currently available.

5. Once financial aid has been offered and accepted, the family shall be treated like any other family in the school, with no special expectations nor exemptions from policy. Families receiving financial aid are expected to pay the balance of their accounts on time according to the payment plan selected.

6. Financial aid will not be renewed in any case where a family receiving aid fails to keep the balance of their account up-to-date.

C. The Financial Aid Committee will prepare and distribute upon request a published explanation of the school’s financial aid policies and process.

1. All applications for financial aid submitted by returning students should be received by April 15th to be considered for the following school year. Late applications will be considered after all initial applications have been processed if funds are still available. It is the obligation of the family to ensure that all appropriate applications and documentation are submitted by April 15th.

2. Applications for financial aid shall include:

a. A personal financial disclosure made directly to the School Scholarship Service in Princeton, New Jersey, with instructions to send a copy of the report to the school’s Financial Aid Office

b. A letter submitted directly to the school’s Financial Aid Office stating the family’s need for financial aid, along with any information that they feel will assist the committee in considering their application.

c. A copy of the family’s tax returns for the last two years.

d. Letters of recommendation from the child’s teachers regarding his or her academic progress, social and emotional development, and contribution to the class, along with an informal assessment of the families support and cooperation with the school.

e. A report from the business office regarding the financial history of the family’s accounts with the school.

D. Priorities in considering applications for financial aid or scholarships

1. Faculty children

2. Families who already have two or more children enrolled in the school, who can demonstrate financial need.

3. Families of present students enrolled at the Middle and Upper School levels who can demonstrate financial need.

4. Families of present students enrolled at the Primary and Lower School levels who can demonstrate financial need.

5. New Middle or Upper School students who we want to bring into the school who have a special talent (such as exceptional academic or athletic skills) that we have identified as important to our future development, and who can demonstrate financial need.

6. Scholarships awarded to new Middle or Upper School students who we want to bring into the school because of some special talent (such as exceptional academic or athletic skills) that we have identified as important to our future development.

7. New Primary and Lower School students who we want to bring into the school, and who can demonstrate financial need.

In all cases, careful consideration will be given according to the number of years the family has been with the school and any special contributions the student or family has made to the life of the school.

Sample Financial Aid Policy Shared With Parents

by The Montessori Foundation Staff | Administrative Team, Finances, Montessori Administrators

Financial aid is defined as a reduction in tuition granted to families who have demonstrated eligibility through an objective assessment of their financial position.

The Financial Aid Committee

The Board of Trustees has established a Financial Aid Committee consisting of three members. The members of the 2011 Financial Aid Committee are:
• ____, Trustee and Chairman

•_____, Business Administrator

•____, Lower School Head

•____, Upper School Head

The Head of School serves as a non-voting advisor to the committee. The committee works within the guidelines established by the Board of Trustees, granting aid up to the total amount approved by the Board for that academic year.

Conditions of Financial Aid

1. All financial aid will be awarded on a one-year at a time basis. Students receiving financial aid are not guaranteed continuation in the following school year, although the Financial Aid Committee shall strive to give them first and careful consideration.

2. The maximum level of financial aid that the Committee may award to any one student may not exceed a maximum of 50% of his or her tuition.

3. Awards of financial aid cover tuition only and do not include any fees for books and materials, special activities, supervision, or transportation.

4. Any awards of financial aid shall be credited to the student’s account. The family may elect any of the school’s three optional payment plans to pay the balance.

5. Once financial aid has been offered and accepted, the student and family shall be treated like any other in the school, with no special expectations nor exemptions from policy. Families receiving financial aid are expected to pay the balance of their accounts on time, according to the payment plan selected.

6. Financial aid will not be renewed in any case where a family receiving aid fails to keep the balance of their account up-to-date.
Applying for Financial Aid.

All applications for financial aid submitted must be received by the Financial Aid Committee on or before April 15th to be considered for the following school year.

Late applications will be considered if funds are still available.
It is the family’s responsibility to ensure that all appropriate forms and supporting documents are submitted by April 15th.
The first step in applying for financial aid is to obtain from the school’s financial aid office the necessary forms to submit to the School Scholarship Service in Princeton, New Jersey, requesting an impartial evaluation of your family’s eligibility for financial aid in the upcoming school year. These forms should be submitted to the School Scholarship Service as soon as possible after January 1.

Applications for financial aid should be mailed to the school’s financial aid office by April 15th. Please be sure to include:
a. a copy of the School Scholarship Service report of your family’s eligibility for financial aid to the school’s financial aid office by April 15th.b. a letter explaining your family’s request for financial aid, along with any information that will assist the committee in considering your application.
c. copies of your family’s current and previous years’ tax returns.
d. letters of recommendation from your child’s teachers regarding his or her academic progress, social and emotional development, and contribution to the school.

Information submitted to the Financial Aid Committee will remain strictly confidential.
Priorities in considering applications for financial aid Special consideration is normally given to:
• Families who already have two or more children enrolled in the school
• Children of faculty and staff members
• Families who have been with the school for more than five years
In all cases, careful consideration will be given to any special contributions the student or family has made to the life of the school.

For further information, contact: ______, Business Administrator:

Refining your Marketing Message: Points to Ponder

by Jake Mortenson | Administrative Team, Educational Program Coordination, Effective Boards, Montessori Administrators, Parent Education, Re-enrollment, Recruitment & Admissions, School Identity, School Leadership, The International Montessori Council

Refining your Marketing Message: Points to Ponder was published in the June 2006 issue of Montessori Leadership

By Jake Mortensen

Marketing your school can seem like an immense undertaking, but it does not have to be. Even a little marketing can go a long way if you approach it correctly, with a good strategy being as simple as knowing what to say and how to say it.

But determining what makes your school special and what prospective parents want to hear may not be as easy as it seems. Try considering a few key aspects of planning for your marketing efforts before you get started; they can help you make the connections you need to make your school really stand out.

Know Your Competition, Know Your Audience

In terms of marketing, knowing what makes your school special and unique is determined by two groups: your competitors and your parents. Your competitors are the yardstick by which you can measure your school, while parents determine what points are critical to include in your marketing message.

Your competition likely comes in two forms: public schools and other private schools, including other Montessori schools. By familiarizing yourself with what they offer, their advantages and deficiencies, you can concentrate your message on areas where your school shines. Lower student-to-teacher ratios, broader or more in-depth curriculum, or lower tuition are all examples of subjects on which you can focus when marketing your school. Even very basic online searches of the schools in your area can result in important information on how they operate, what they lack, and where they excel. This information will help you begin to shape an efficient and effective marketing message; parent input will help you refine that message.

Parents who are considering a Montessori school have already determined that something is lacking in the public school system, they just may not be sure what it is. Your marketing efforts should help parents define that “X-factor” and show them how your school can provide it. Parents, like all consumers, are motivated by fear, desire, wants, and needs. They fear that their child cannot get a good education elsewhere, they desire lower student-to-teacher ratios, they want a safe school environment, or they need the flexibility of after-school programs; be sure to speak to these types of motivators in your marketing message.

To help focus your marketing messages on what is important to parents and what separates your school from others, survey your current parents about why they chose your school. Listen carefully to their answers, and incorporate their responses into your marketing message. Their input can help you determine exactly what topics your message should include.

Points of Parity vs. Points of Difference

Points of parity are the generally accepted set of standards for schools that are expected by parents. In other words, these are the characteristics of your school that make it a school: competent teachers, adequate books, inviting classrooms, appropriate learning materials. These are the things that every school must have to be a school.

Unfortunately, highlighting such points is rarely useful in marketing your school because every school can offer them. Too often, schools will include vague mentions of “quality teachers” or “state-of-the-art classrooms” in their marketing campaigns; these are points of parity that are generally ineffective in marketing. Parents, especially those paying to send their child to a Montessori school, at the very minimum expect quality teachers and up-to-date materials, and using these terms really does nothing to make one school distinguishable from another.

Points of difference, however, are the positive aspects of your school that set it above your competition and make it a unique alternative for parents. Foreign language programs for elementary students, after-school classes and daycare, monthly field trips, or even the Montessori Method of teaching itself are the points of difference that should be included in your marketing message.

A critical aspect of a point of difference is that it should be difficult for your competition to reproduce or institute. Points of difference would not include anything that competition does not provide, but could with very little effort such as access to the Internet, a classroom aquarium, or parent classroom participation. After all, if your competition institutes your point of difference, it just becomes a point of parity.

Be specific with your points of difference. When possible illustrate your points with factual numbers or data. It is not enough to say that you have “a lower student-to-teacher ratio” than your competition. Instead say, “Other area schools average a 15 to 1 student to teacher ratio; our ratio is 5 to 1.” Drive home these positive differences in minds of parents.

Your Marketing Team

Marketing takes place every time you or a representative of your school interacts with a parent or potential parent. Remember that your parents and potential parents will not separate the head of the school from a teaching assistant when assessing the message your school sends. Every interaction from every staff member matters and one negative interaction can undermine months of hard work. Be sure that your staff understands the importance of keeping marketing in mind at all times.

Resistance to being labeled a “marketer” is not unheard of among educators. There is the sense that education should be above such gauche acts as marketing and selling. But make no mistake; running a Montessori school is a business and securing paying customers does matter.

By creating a cohesive team of marketers from your staff, understanding what message is best to communicate given your competition and parents’ desires, and determining what your positive points of difference are, you can begin to distinguish your school from the alternatives and establish a well-defined and thought out marketing message!

Jake Mortensen is the head writer/editor of Go Montessori, a company specializing in developing marketing and public relations programs and materials for Montessori schools. For more information about the author or Go Montessori, please visit www.GoMontessori.com.

How to Use Attrition Charts to track your enrollment

by Tim Seldin | Administrative Team, Finances, Montessori Administrators, Re-enrollment, Recruitment & Admissions, School Leadership, The International Montessori Council

Independent schools normally depend on tuition to cover their operating expenses, which means that accurate up-to-date information is essential. Despite this fact, too often, administrators rely on their memory or sense of what feels right when considering whether the current enrollment trend is normal or something to celebrate or fret over.

One thing is certain: A Montessori child can never be replaced! Every time a family decides not to continue with your school, another child has to be recruited just to replace the lost tuition. But the impact on the stability of our classes (normalization) is tremendous.
We call the information on students who either do not reenroll or who withdraw during the school year attrition.

Compiling and analyzing enrollment information and attrition is an important activity that deserves greater attention in many Montessori schools.

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Common Sense Leadership

by Brenda Bernstorf | Montessori Administrators, Montessori Teachers, School Leadership, The International Montessori Council

by Brenda Bernstorf

Leadership is often a matter of common sense but as Voltaire is attributed for saying, “Common sense is not so common.” Montessori classrooms are gentle, peaceful environments where grace and courtesy are normal. Grace and courtesy are the foundation for common sense leadership and must extend from the administrative office to the classroom teachers to encourage employee engagement. Engaged employees contribute extraordinary gifts to the organization, are satisfied with their jobs, contribute extra effort, and build up the organization. Exchanges between leaders and followers that produce tensions, frustrations, and resentments diminish engagement. Common sense leadership principles help prevent dissatisfied and disengaged employees. This article will explore principles for common sense leadership.

What is leadership? Leadership is not management. Managers establish short-term goals, set budgets, manage details, and supervise employees. Leaders set the vision, mission, and purpose of the organization keeping them closely aligned with the values of the organization. Leaders motivate, inspire, intellectually stimulate, consider employee needs, innovate, create, empower, and engage followers. Merriam-Webster.com (2013) defines the word effective, as producing a desired effect. An effective leader produces a desired effect. Who judges if a leader is effective? Everyone. Followers expect leaders to have some fundamental skills, and when these skills are more absent than present, followers easily judge a leader as ineffective.

There are several methods to produce a desired effect. One method is called coercive power. Leaders who use coercive power influence followers to do something against their will. These leaders may manipulate, threaten, or use other negative inducements to achieve the desired effect. According to Northouse this is not considered leadership since leadership is reserved for those who influence followers toward a common goal. However, transactional leadership can easily fall into this coercive pattern by insisting on a particular action and implementing punishments or negative consequences for its absence. Positive leadership behaviors that show up in positive leadership styles have commonalities that lay a foundation for common sense leadership practices.

In his book, Unusually Excellent: The Necessary Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership, J. Hamm lists nine leadership skills in three different categories:

Credibility – compelling, trustworthy, authentic
Competence – people, strategy, execution
Consequence – decision making, communication, impact

Kouzes and Posner, in their book, The Leadership Challenge, and in their many books that followed, state that followers look for leaders who have:

Integrity – truthfulness, trustworthiness, character, and convictions
Competence – capabilities, productivity, efficiency
Leadership – inspiring, decisive, provides direction

Similarities between the two lists can be easily spotted and compared. Both lists contain the word trustworthy. Authentic behavior is full of character and convictions, strategy and execution can be related to productivity and efficiency, compelling is similar to inspiring, decision-making and decisive state the same principle, and communication and providing direction are synonymous. These are the leaders you want to work for. Doesn’t common sense indicate that this is the leader you want to be?

Leaders set the tone for the organization. Kouzes and Posner call this “modelling the way.” When leaders act from their convictions, are trustworthy, truthful, decisive, and people-oriented they set a positive tone for a healthy organization. The positive psychological impact of positive leadership focuses on human strengths, fosters vitality for the organization, and allows employees to flourish. This type of leadership encourages employees to engage and feel that their contribution is worthy and appreciated. Healthy positive leadership leads to a healthy, positive organization. A wonderful outcome of a healthy positive organization is the ability to retain highly qualified and experienced employees and to engage those employees.

The positive leadership characteristics listed by Hamm and Kouzes and Posner produce positive outcomes in the follower and for the organization. These are common sense – golden rule – type behaviors. When a leader extends trust to a follower the follower in turn trusts the leader. When a leader trusts that followers will provide good results, maximum effort, commitment, and loyalty; most likely, that is what will happen. This is not naïve…this is common sense in dealing with people. How do you want to be treated? How do you (or did you feel when you were the follower) feel when a leader shows his or her lack of trust by looking over your shoulder and micromanaging every detail of your work? The whole basis of the golden rule is to treat other people the way you want to be treated. Common sense supports that people desire the same treatment that you desire.

Positive leadership styles like transformational leadership, authentic leadership, servant leadership, strength-based leadership, and emotionally intelligent leadership have commonalities of behaviors that are universally acceptable. Leadership behaviors such as trust, visioning, inspiration, competency, direction, honesty, ethics, and sensitivity to the needs of followers provide a foundation for interactions and relationships between leaders and followers. Leaders in Montessori schools often must balance leadership and management roles. A long-term vision-focused strategic view can help with this balance. Systems that include team decision-making and assessment empowers employees and age-level directors support the head’s role of leadership. Outside assessments, such as meeting accreditation standards, keep the organization mission-focused and allow leaders to function at the higher level of leadership rather than management.

Leadership research shows that leader self-awareness is the first step in understanding your leadership style. The term, self-awareness, refers to personal insights into who the leader is. Self-awareness is deep reflection on your core values, identity, emotions, motives, goals, and a basic understanding of who you are. There are many tools that can help with this understanding, from personality assessments like Myers-Briggs Personality Type, Clifton Strength Finders, Emotional Intelligence assessment, leadership style assessments, and the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) based upon The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner. LPI is not for the faint of heart. It is a self-assessment plus assessments from four or five of your followers to assess your leadership skills. It is a research validated assessment of your leadership skills and is an excellent choice.

Here’s the good news…leadership skills can be developed! Knowing who you are, learning new skills, and keeping in mind that common sense leadership is based upon the golden rule will help you grow as a leader. Grace and courtesy are not just for the Montessori classroom; they are foundational for all interactions with teachers and parents too.

The Blueprint Process Condensed

by Tim Seldin | Montessori Administrators, School Identity, The International Montessori Council, Uncategorized

The Montessori Foundation encourages schools to clearly set down their core philosophy and beliefs into a very specific formal written document, The Blueprint, and thereafter to use it as a road map in making decisions, setting new policy, and evaluating the educational program. This document explains the process of initially developing the Blueprint for the first time.

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This document is based on a document from Tim Seldin titled “bluerint process.doc” and has been modified. The document was re-formatted to save pages for printing.

-DHP

Preparing a Blueprint of Core Values and Principles Of Practice for Your Montessori School

Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from several hundred different Montessori schools around the world. Experience has shown me that the most effective schools consistently show a strong commitment to an on-going process of self-study that involves not only the faculty and administration, but parents and older students as well.

The first step is to engage the general school community in the development of a detailed blueprint of the school’s fundamental values and beliefs.

Rather than begin with a blank page, we have found the process becomes much more manageable when a team of parents and teachers sits down with an example of another school’ s Blueprint. Each element is carefully considered, point-by-point, to determine how well it captures their own school’ s unique character. Does each statement work just as it is written? Can it be rewritten to capture the special flavor of this particular school? Or is a particular element inappropriate for describing this school’ s programs and atmosphere?

We began this work more than thirty years ago at the Barrie School in Silver Spring, Maryland. Our goal was to break away from the familiar jargon laden statements of philosophy so common in Montessori. After a great deal of self-study, we broke the school’s philosophy down into a comprehensive statement of our fundamental values and the core principles of our Montessori educational practice. They were intended to present a detailed picture of who we thought we were and what we stood for that could be used as a reference by the future school community over the years.

We’ve shared this document with hundreds of Montessori schools around the world, but the New Gate School was the first to completely rewrite Barrie’ s original work to create something fresh to reflect their own community’s vision. More than forty parents engaged in weekly meetings over a three month period; more than fifty hours. Having worked with many schools, we were deeply impressed by the enthusiasm, positive energy, and commitment that these people shared in their dreams for the school they were beginning to build

Once adopted by the school’s board of trustees, the blueprint can be used in planning for the future, setting policy, and evaluation of the school’ s facilities and evolving educational program.

In time every school drifts away from its original vision and core values, just as a sailboat will be eventually be blown off course by wind, current, and tides. Educational leadership can be compared to navigating at sea. It requires a clear sense of where you’re trying to go, close attention to where you really are, and periodic course corrections. A blueprint will give your school a tool that will allow you to remain true to your vision.

The secret of the Blueprint is that it’s useless unless there is a purpose behind it.

The blueprint is a document in which the Head of School’s and Board make a formal public commitment in writing to make no decision that is not consistent with the school’s Blueprint of Core Values. It is like the Republican Party’s Contract for America. We will live according to the following things, and agree to do these things.

The way it works is simple:

The school schedules and guarantees that monthly Community Meetings of parents, teachers, administrators, trustees and interested students will be held throughout the school year, regardless of levels of interest and attendance.
These meetings will be run along the lines of the Montessori Rules for Meetings and Decision Making.
They will be led by a rotating facilitator, who will never be an Administrator or Board Member.
There will be no elected board or officers. The meeting is a direct voice for the school community.

Any issue can be discussed, within a few guidelines:

- We cannot discuss issue concerning a school family or student in the school.
- We cannot discuss the private affairs of any employee of the school.
- We cannot harangue, threaten, or attack anyon
- No one can be allowed to dominate the meeting. Everyone must be allowed to express his or her thoughts

Classroom and Community Meetings, as well as the Montessori Rules For Meetings And Decision Making.

We use this format for meetings to build partnership, communication, and trust. We use this approach for all meetings, including school community meetings, class councils, faculty meetings, faculty committees, board committees, and meetings of the board of trustees itself. These procedures include these elements:

Those who have power and authority, such as administrators or board members, should never lead meetings. A volunteer ‘traffic cop’ who keeps communication flowing should facilitate meetings, but does not himself/herself participate in the discussion or debate.
Select a facilitator for meetings who is good at the job and is trusted by all sides to be fair and effective. This role could be appointed or rotating.
Agree to start on time and end promptly on time.
Never say something that is not absolutely true. Everyone must earn and enjoy the trust of the group, but this is especially important for the Head of School. He or she must never lie, attempt to pass off a white lie, misrepresent, or fail to be open and honest. That does not mean that he or she must answer every question. It is appropriate to honestly say something like, “I don’t know yet” or “I just can’t address that without breaching this person’s right to privacy.” Tell the truth, the whole truth, as best you can. The truth will set you free!
Never allow anyone to sabotage the process by disrupting, being sarcastic, or by attacking any one else. Never allow the faculty to discuss a parent, student or fellow faculty member disrespectfully or unprofessionally. As Head, you are a police officer. Use your power wisely and rarely, but when you must, do so.
Allow the group to establish its own agenda. A volunteer scribe should write the topics that the group wants to discuss on a flip chart sheet that the entire group can see.
Allow any member to add any topic to the agenda at any point during the meetini) Allow the group to decide which topics it wants to discuss and in what order. They may or may not wish to establish a time allowed for each discussionii) Any topics not finished as the meeting ends should be recorded in the minutes of the meeting and held over at the next meeting

iii) It is not inappropriate for you, as Head of School, to identify certain topics on the agenda as issues that must be addressed. That is your prerogative as the boss. Use it carefully.
Have the group appoint a scribe, or historian, who writes out the minutes of the meeting as the meeting progresses on a flip chart at the front of the room so that the entire group can see what has been discussed and agreed upon. As pages fill up, tape the filled pages up around the room. The scribe should preserve the original sheets until the next meeting (in case her minutes are challenged) and should prepare a written summary of the meeting that is duplicated and distributed the day after the meeting is held.

i) Have the entire staff maintain a copy of each set of minutes from faculty meetings and committee reports in a three-ring binder.

The community meeting would the place where the board would normally introduce issues that will need to come before the board in the near future. This allows the community to hear the issue, listen to information about why this issue needs to be handled, consider how this issue would fit into the core values of the school as set forth in the Blueprint document, and gives them the opportunity to sign off with their support or to request a month to do some research and come back with it to the next monthly community meeting.

The community meeting would the official voice of the community as a whole.

The Community Meeting can also address questions or make official recommendations to the faculty, Head of School, or to the Board, knowing that each has agreed to respond to them following its next meeting.

Their response may be to explain that they need more time, or that they respectfully disagree; however, their response would be official and timely.

In each case, all parties would be expected to copy and paste into their communication not only a description of the question or recommendation, or response, but the specific numbered elements of the Blueprint that affect this issue.

Likewise, when the Board meets to make policy decisions, first it will ask if it has brought this issue to the Community Meeting to allow the stakeholders the opportunity to understand and respond to the issue under consideration.

Before the Board considers an issue, it will first identify and copy and paste into the minutes of the Board the numbered statements of core values and beliefs that should be kept in mind before discussion begins. When the Board does vote on an issue, the minutes of the Board will include the text and item numbers of each element that they found which applies to this decision.

The formal agreement is that the Board and Administration agree that they will make no decision that is not consistent with the school’s values.

The community will be challenged by the Blueprint process to participate in an ongoing monthly meeting of parents, teachers, and administrators throughout the school year.

These issues can be mundane, or very serious. Work can be done outside of the meetings, but recommendations or formal questions can only come from the Community Meeting itself.

It is a place where all stakeholders can come to be part of a conversation, make recommendations, or ask questions of the board.

The blueprint will be used constantly in Community Meetings. It will also be used by the faculty, board, and administration in their meetings.

Here is an example of the process at work.

After the winter break, a child became ill when he reentered his classroom when school resumed. Knowing that her child was exceptionally sensitive to many toxic chemical compounds, the child’s mother suspected that a carpet cleaning company had used a cleaning compound that had left a residue in the carpet that was making her child sick.

She came in to the office and expressed her concern. The Head of School, recognizing that the Blueprint requires her to take all such concerns seriously and with respect and courtesy, contacts the cleaning company. It turns out that the carpet shampoo can leave a residue in the carpet fibers if the operator does not manage to get all of the compound out of the rug. The solution is simple. The cleaners came back in and cleaned the rug a second time, this time using no chemicals. The expense for the second cleaning was covered by the school, even though it was not in the budget, because each child’s health and well-being supercedes normal budget priorities. The immediate problem had been solved.

At the next monthly Community Meeting, the child’s mother and several of her friends proposed an amendment to the school’s blueprint under section 5, facilities.

“No toxic chemical can be brought on to the campus without an advisory committee made up of volunteer scientists.”

The community meeting discussed this proposal and quickly agreed that it was impractical, because no doctors or scientists would be comfortable committing the time or assuming the legal liability.

So the proposal failed at the Community Meeting level,, but a somewhat amended proposal was made and supported. This amendment to the Blueprint stated that the school will attempt to avoid using toxic substances for cleaning or pest control, and in selecting materials for the finishing of new facilities, will seek finishes and floor and wall coverings, etc. that are not known to be toxic.

This proposal reached the board, and was approved into school policy as part of the Blueprint.

A few other changes in Board practice are vital to the success of this process.

First, the board has to agree to hold open meetings.

Two, the board has to agree before considering a motion to first review the Blueprint to see which of the hundreds of Core Values would influence a decision on this issue. Those values are set out, one thought per paragraph, and numbered. The board agrees to copy and paste them into the minutes of the board beneath the motion,

Three, traditional Montessori techniques of decision making must be followed consistently by the board. These techniques include the use of a facilitator, scribe, and process monitor; a consistent reminder of the board’s mission to preserve and protect the school as a Montessori program down through the years,

So to summarize, through the use of the Blueprint, the Board and Administration agree to make no policy that would be inconsistent with the core values of the school, and to be held up to public scrutiny and to remain accountable to the school community, even though the Head of School is the Chief Executive Officer and the Board is the highest authority in the school

By making this commitment, and by making decisions openly under public scrutiny, parents are free to challenge the Board’s or Head of School’s decisions on a basis of the School’s Blueprint of Core Values in an appropriate public forum. The Board and Head of School do not need to agree, but if challenged on the basis of the School’s Core Values, it becomes very difficult for them to defy the reason of the challenge, with the ultimate balance of power resting in their decision to continue to give the school their support.

Communicate this concept to the stakeholders.

Grandparents, alumni, administration, teachers, students, teachers, faculty, parents

As you prepare for your Blueprint Retreat, use Intensive communication to let people know what you are up to, why this is important, and how the process will work. Give people at least a month lead-time to allow them to understand what this is all about and to fit this in to their calendar if they are interested.

Send them a copy of a sample Blueprint by email (or print them out if you wish), the one from which you are going to start.

Emphasize the importance of this meeting. This is a watershed event in the history of the school.

Tell parents and teachers that if they can only come for an hour or two, that they should still come for as long as they can. The process is enlightening in itself, and people who stay for a few hours will often gain a new insight into the school and Montessori. People should feel comfortable coming for whatever amount of time they can invest. ‘If you care, you want to be there.’

Send it home to all parents.
Post it in the school hallway
Post it on your website.
Send home notes and emails reminding people of what is happening, when, and why
Explain the process.

A Weekend Retreat

We recommend that that the process be done in a marathon weekend retreat, not spread out over many weeks. We find that there is a momentum that builds up over a weekend. When it is spread out, people tend to lose the thread of the discussions and how the Blueprint ties together.

Normally it is held in a comfortable setting that is convenient for the stakeholders.

A typical schedule will look like this:

Friday evening from 7:00 to 9:30 PM

Saturday from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM

Sunday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Print out additional copies of the sample Blueprint to have on hand during the retreat.

Before you share with community, the board and head of school may want to go through the Blueprint to shape it somewhat to best fit their school.

The success of the experience depends on how good the facilitator is, and how much he or she really knows about Montessori education. The facilitator should be more of a teacher than just a facilitator.

The Blueprint Retreat is actually like a college seminar leading people, teachers as well as parents, to understand Montessori on a much deeper level.

The process is that everyone has a print out of the initial draft of the Blueprint, which h was posted on the schools website.

A scribe with a laptop connected to a video projector makes changes to the original text file as the group moves along. The entire group can see changes as they are made. Post the day’s work on your website so parents and teachers can see what has been accomplished.

Go through the numbered items on the draft Blueprint one item at a time.

The Facilitator leads from the front of the room.

The first item is projected on a movie screen, large enough that everyone can see it.

Participants take turns reading the next numbered item, and leading the group through the discussion:

“Does this value statement define what we believe, even if we are not currently living up to this belief in our daily practice? Are we prepared to commit ourselves to making this for real?”

Does it need something reworded or added in?

Or is it completely wrong for your school, and needs to be dropped from your Blueprint completely?

Go through the Bleuprint point-by-point.

The community must understand the structure of the Blueprint:

The nine sections of the Blueprint document are tied to the nine functions that we examine in a school for evaluation and accreditation:

Educational program
Faculty and human resources
Facilities
Finances
Administration
Governance (the Board) or ownership
Recruitment and admissions
Building school community – reducing attrition
Fundraising – Sources of working capital

There is nothing magic in this way of looking at a school, Someone else could have more sections in their frame of reference, or less.

The first is the biggest: the Educational Program.

All great schools have a coherence of core principles and values that define their character.

The educational program should not be the arbitrary creation of the teachers who happen to be at the school this year. The program needs to be based on a central and clearly defined model, which is consistently followed from class to class, from one level to the next, and from year to year.

These fundamental defining elements of practice are non-negotiable. Teachers should be hired on the basis of the school’s conviction that they have the skills, experience, and personality to faithfully and effectively implement the school’s program by conscious design, not chance. Anything behind these core issues can be added in as well, so long as the addition is consistent with the school’s core values.

One of the unexpected benefits of the process is that is normally leads to substantially higher levels of reenrollment, especially at the ages where children typically tend to withdraw. It also tends to lead to a substantial increase in fund raising. It is not uncommon to see one or more major gifts come out of this process.

Obviously you have to provide a careful orientation at the beginning of the retreat, annd then review the mission from time to time as new people join in.

At first, people tend to struggle with the process. Generally, this is because the Blueprint is not a statement of what is true in the school today. It is a statement of what we believe, and to what we are prepared to commit the school. After the first hour, groups tend to move through the long document fairly quickly.

Don’t attempt to look at your mission statement first. Even though it comes first in the document, reviewing your current mission statement, or writing one from scratch, should come after the Blueprint has fleshed out the nature of the school. It comes last in the process because it captures the spirit of all the details in the governing document.

Section 1.1 is a summary of the headings that follow. Don’t get bogged down. Instead, move on to the following sections, and, as your refine them, be sure that Section 1.1 has the final wording that you approved.

By the way, The Blueprint is the first step in the International Montessori Council School Accreditation Process.

Once the Blueprint has been defined, we ask the participants to evaluate the school against this long, detailed set of standards..

Once the blueprint has been completed, the next step is to identify an initial list of your school’ s strengths and areas where you can begin to improve your programs and facilities.

This in turn should quickly lead to the next step, in which the school community begins to prioritize those tasks that your want to focus on over the coming year. These will be your short-term strategic priorities.

The last step involves the process of the formal Self- Study. It will be the most important and certainly the most difficult. It will require several committees and sub-committees which will each begin to focus in depth on one aspect of the school’s programs and facilities, asking itself these questions:

If this were a perfect world and if your school had the resources to be the very best that it could be in this area, how would this program or these facilities have to look to be consistent with your school’ s vision as set forth in our blueprint?
What does your school look like in this area today? How well are you doing?
What do you propose to do over the next three years to improve your program or facilities to make them more consistent with your institutional blueprint? This last portion of each committee’s report should be very detailed and specific: tasks, cost, timing, who will supervise, how will you evaluate your progress.

Toward Best Practice: The Exercises of Practical Life

by Tim Seldin | Early Adolescence (12-15), Educational Program Coordination, Empowerment, Kindergarten, Later Adolescence (15-18), Lower Elementary (6-9), Mixed Ages, Montessori Administrators, Montessori Curriculum, Montessori Education, Montessori Middle School, Montessori Secondary / High School, Montessori Teachers, Practical Life, Primary (3-6), The International Montessori Council, Upper Elementary (9-12)

By Tim Seldin and Jonathan Wolff

The exercises in Practical Life are the very heart of Montessori education. As young children wash tables, pour liquids, polish silver, sweep and dust, they are developing the inner aptitudes of calmness, order, concentration, coordination, and fine motor skills. At the same time, through the process of learning to meet their own needs, learning to take care of the classroom environment, and through the experience of helping others, children in Montessori programs begin to develop independence, self-confidence, and self-respect.

Observations and Reflections on Current Practice

As Montessori consultants and teacher educators, between us we have observed hundreds of Montessori programs all over the United States. Among countless examples of beautiful environments and excellent Montessori classes at work, we have tended to notice that the area of Practical Life in many Montessori classrooms deserves a fresh look.

For example, in many early childhood programs, there seems to be the assumption that five-year-olds are ready for “real work.” New Practical Life lessons are no longer presented and the older children are discouraged from wasting their time doing Practical Life activities. But while these children may have mastered the simple tasks that absorbed them when they were three, and while they may not particularly enjoy table scrubbing any longer, Practical Life is just as vital as it was before.

The key is to keep in mind once again the two distinct objectives of Practical Life at any age level:

1) to help children continue to develop concentration, coordination, self-reliance, and self-discipline; and
2) to help children master increasingly challenging and developmentally appropriate tasks and situations that lead them toward the care of self and of the social community within which they live and learn.

Observation in many Montessori classrooms we see children rarely spending much time on Practical Life after age four-and-a-half as if it is not developmentally or socially necessary.

Reflection The fine motor development that children are working toward in the basic Practical Life tasks needs to continue through the elementary years and into adolescence, as does the development of calmness, concentration, order, and independence. Often times in classrooms where teachers complain about children who are restless, disruptive, and unfocused, you see an absence or weak presence of Practical Life work.

Observation Many Montessori teachers rapidly rotate their Practical Life materials; every month we see new variations on the basic exercises.

Reflection Montessori pedagogy is based on allowing children to move toward self-mastery. If we rotate exercises out of the environment too quickly, we prevent them from mastering each task in turn. For example, when we begin to teach young children how too pour liquids, we show them how to hold the front of the pitcher with their non-dominant hand. The extension of this exercise comes when the child is ready to pour using just one hand.

Observation In many classes, we find a great many short sequence activities, such as cloth folding, water pouring, rice spooning, as opposed to the more complex sequence exercises, like table washing, dishwashing, food preparation, and polishing.

Reflection If there is one developmental competency lacking in American children of all ages it is the ability to focus on one task through to completion. In providing children with Practical Life activities that are completed very quickly with just a few steps, we are not adequately addressing the need for children to interactively practice skills of concentration and perseverance. In following the many steps involved in washing a table, children learn to attend to an entire sequence of visual-motor tasks.

Observation In many classrooms, Practical Life exercises tend to be discrete developmental tasks on a shelf. There is no transfer of the skills learned abstractly to the real-life application of caring for the environment or oneself. For example, in some classes, children learn to sweep by pouring dried beans on the floor and sweeping them onto a square laid down with tape, but then fail to progress to taking charge of sweeping the room on a daily basis.

Reflection The Montessori classroom for three, four, and five-year-olds is designed to be a “Children’s House.” The children are guided to participate fully in the actual life of their community. They help to prepare snacks and meals, clean the environment, and maintain the order of the classroom. In this way, they develop not only muscular control and competency over daily tasks, but a deep sense of self-respect, independence, and interdependence.

Observation In many classrooms, we observe teachers presenting most of the lessons to younger children themselves instead of encouraging older children to take the lead.

Reflection Who ultimately do we want to own and operate the classroom community: the children or the adults? Who ultimately needs to learn to lead, mentor, and be mentored by their peers? Who ultimately ties the shoes in your classrooms? Who prepares the snacks? Who sets the tables, washes the dishes, and cleans up the spills? What is the role of the older children? Do they mentor and teach the younger ones?

Toward best practice: Suggestions for enhancing the Exercises in Practical Life

• When new materials arrive from the manufacturer, consider showing the children how to carefully unwrap and unpack them; just one more exercise in Practical Life and a first step toward appreciating the beauty of the materials and the importance of using them carefully.

• Place a photo on each shelf showing how the entire shelf looks when it is set up with all the materials that belong there placed in proper order. This allows the children to use the photo as a Control of Error whenever they take the materials off the shelves to work, dust, polish, or inspect them for damage.

• When a piece of Montessori material needs repair, rather than taking it home or working on it after school, consider working on it right in the classroom when the children are present. Where appropriate and practical, teach the children how to help you repair or do simple repairs themselves.

• Likewise, when you have new card materials that have been laminated, consider sitting back to quietly observe the children at work while you cut them out from the laminate. Older children can be taught how to help you with this process.

• Demonstrate how you personally take responsibility for the care of the environment and encourage the children to do likewise on a daily basis. Draw their attention to the small details, such as picking up stray paper, beads, or other debris from the floor.

• In selecting trays, pitchers, and other utensils for Practical Life exercises, look for the most attractive materials that you can find and afford. Design activities that will draw the child’s interest and create a prepared environment that is harmonious and beautiful.

• If possible, avoid using plastic pitchers, bowls, trays, and other materials in preparing Practical Life activities. Children respond to the beauty of wood, glass, silver, brass, and similar natural materials.

• Whenever possible, Montessori exercises are designed with a control of error. By the same principle, Practical Life exercises should be created with materials that will break if they are dropped or misused. This becomes a superb teaching tool for the child in the prepared environment, and an opportunity for a re-presentation by the teacher or further exploration by the child. It may also lead to a new lesson in problem-solving (“How do I gather up all those beads?” or safely clean up the broken pieces. )

• Practical Life exercises should not be confined to a small tiled area of the room, with the exception of exercises that may lead to damaged carpet or similar concerns. Practical Life should be integrated into every area of the classroom throughout the day and should be a natural outgrowth and progression from the introductory shelf exercises designed to help the children gain initial mastery and control. For example, every shelf and piece of material in the prepared environment can be regularly dusted, washed or polished, and inspected for damage; books returned to order on the shelf; plants watered, and class pets feed.

• In providing opportunities for young children to negotiate across the classroom carrying materials balanced on a tray, children are challenged to become courtesy and self aware of others’ needs. Being careful not to step on other children’s work or bump into them, walking slowly and carefully, and remaining aware of the tray’s position in space are all integrated.

• Two critical areas of Practical Life that are often underdeveloped are grace and courtesy (the language of respect) and lessons in control and coordination of movement.

A few grace and courtesy lessons
• Saying please and thank you
• Using an appropriate indoor voice
• Begging pardon/apologizing
• Asking for permission to observe
• Asking for assistance
• Asking for permission to join in an activity
• Declining a request graciously
• Greetings
• Shaking hands
• Greeting visitors/offering coffee or tea/serving as a tour guide
• Expressing complements and appreciation
• Expressing one’s feelings appropriately
• Setting personal boundaries and being appropriately assertive

Experiences in the control and coordination of movement:

• Montessori saw a direct correlation between the child’s ability to move through the environment gracefully with control. In orienting and reorienting children into your class, take care to emphasize the importance of careful and purposeful movement.

• Remember the importance of modeling the process of walking on the line every day. Teach the children to walk along the line that you have made on your classroom floor, walking heel to toe, carefully balancing their bodies while carrying small flags. They can do the same exercise while carrying things on trays or cups on saucers.

The under-utilized and unappreciated Silence Game:

• The Silence Game helps children to develop a higher level of self-discipline, along with a greater awareness of the beauty of silence and subtlety of sound.

• In this group activity, the teacher will get the children’s attention either by ringing a small bell or by hanging up a sign with the command “Silence.” The children stop where they are or gather on the line, close their eyes, and try to remain perfectly still. The children sit still with their eyes shut and wait to hear the teacher whisper their name. When they hear it ever so softly spoken, they silently rise and join the teacher. Sometimes the teachers will vary the Silence Game by challenging the children to carry bells across the room with allow them to ring, or they may use the calm atmosphere to introduce the children to guided visualization. At first, the younger children may not be able to hold the silence for more than 20 or 30 seconds, but gradually their ability to relax, listen and appreciate the perfectly calm environment increases. In many classes, the Silence Game is an important daily ritual.

A few examples of elementary and middle school exercises in Practical Life

• Animal training
• Assertiveness skills
• Self-defense
• Affirmation skills
• Project and time management
• Stress management
Setting personal goals
• Knowledge and respect for common laws
• Calligraphy
• Care of one’s clothing: ironing, using the washing machine, spot removal
• Child care & baby-sitting
• Computer skills
• Cooking
• Public speaking
• Dancing
• Peer mediation
• Community service
• Mentoring younger children
• Craft skills: how to make gifts
• Earning your own spending money
• First aid and CPR
• Group communication skills
• Growing flowers in the garden
• Growing food in the garden
• Growing plants in a greenhouse
• Hobby skills: model building
• How to resolve conflicts peacefully
• How to use a public library
• How to use public transportation
• How to win and keep friends
• How to write formal letters
• Map reading – finding your way about town
• Nutrition: menu planning
• Operating audio-visual equipment
• Outdoor camping and hiking skills
• Photography
• Physical fitness: keeping in shape
• Planning a luncheon for guests
• Planning your own field trip
• Practical politics: How to speak out effectively on public issues
• Practical rules of social etiquette
• Preparing food for a large group
• Preserving food: canning, drying
• Public speaking
• Raising classroom pets
• Raising small farm animals: chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, or sheep
• Safety at home and school
• Sewing and knitting: making clothes
• Shorthand
• Simple acts of charity and kindness
• Study skills
• Swimming and canoeing skills
• Test-taking skills: playing the game well
• The young citizen and the law
• Typing: speed and accuracy
• Using hand tools for simple carpentry
• Writing and putting together a play

In summary, we recommend that Montessori teachers keep 5 points about Practical Life in mind:

Practical Life exercises have individual developmental objectives like calmness, concentration, cooperation, self-discipline, and self-reliance.

Practical Life exercises have social objectives, such as self-awareness, sensitivity to others, and service to the community.

To have meaning, Practical Life exercises must be applied to real life.

Lessons in Practical Life skills and their application to daily living are as important at age 18 as they are at age 3 and at every age in between.

As Montessori teachers, we bear the responsibility of setting the tone and serving as daily role models for Practical Life skills. We need to be poised, purposeful, precise, caring and giving.

Quotes

“In the special environment prepared for him in our schools, the children themselves found a sentence that expressed their inner need: “Help me to do it by myself!” His work will no longer weigh him down.” Montessori

“No one can be free unless he is independent. Little children, from the moment they are weaned, are making their way toward independence.” Montessori

“The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self.” Montessori

“Such experience is not just play. It is work he must do in order to grow up.” Montessori

“Just as the little child cries out “help me to do it by myself” through his actions, so does the older child demonstrate the same need at successive levels of sophistication as he grows.” Montessori

Enrich Your Curriculum With A Montessori Studio Program

by Tim Seldin | Administrative Team, Lower Elementary (6-9), MFA, Montessori Curriculum, Montessori Teachers, School Leadership, Upper Elementary (9-12)

Most Montessori Schools offer art, music, dance, movement, foreign language and other extra-curricular program to enrich and extend their classroom curriculum Such programs are considered essential by many schools. They are highly attractive to parents, who expect their children to have a wide array of interesting opportunities to stretch their limits and enjoy a well-rounded education. Any school that offers at least one foreign language and what appear to be well-organized programs in the arts and physical education tends to be taken much more seriously by parents.

On the other hand, these “specialist” programs often leave Montessori educators concerned and frustrated. Why?

First, salaries for art, music, movement and foreign language teachers are an additional burden on limited school operating budgets.

Secondly, scheduling different specialists among several classrooms often becomes a logistical challenge. Special classes typically end up interrupting the children’s morning work cycle, at the cost of their focus and concentration on extended projects. Due to parental expectations, many schools feel compelled to shuffle the children off to their next specialist, whether or not it would be their individual preference at that time.

Finally, both parents and teachers tend to become frustrated with uneven program quality and at times lack of real skill development over the years. I’ve heard many a Montessori parent express the opinion that their children are doing the same things in foreign language that they I’ve done for several years previously.

The Studio Program model is one approach that may allow you to enhance your school’s co-curricular activities program, while reducing or eliminating interruptions in the children’s prime work cycles by concentrating special classes in the late morning and afternoon. Finally, by moving specialist activities out of the mornings into the afternoons, it is possible to extend them beyond the present school day, thereby making high quality programs available to all students in place of the typically mediocre after-school child care program.

Studio programs are typically offered at different times for the early childhood and elementary levels.

For the preprimary classes, classes may be offered in to blocks: one in the late morning and another just after lunch

For the elementary students, classes will meet either once or twice a week as shown on the tentative schedule that follows.

An optional Studio Session will be held after school, offering additional courses and activities to students who are interested and able to stay. With perhaps a few exceptions involving some extraordinary activity, such as riding lessons, there will not be an additional fee for the after school studio activities.

At the elementary level, classes will be scheduled in four-week blocks. Students and parents will sign up for two-month’s of classes at a time by registering on sheets prepared for each studio. Space in each class will naturally be limited, and while there will hopefully always be several choices available in each period, we will not always be able to guarantee that every student will be able to enroll in his or her first choice.

Some classes will be organized just for students, some will be designed for students and parents together, and some may be scheduled for just adult members of the Countryside community.

Our intention is to offer over the year a wide-range of electives, some four-week classes basically fitting together to create a course that will run for the entire year, but organized into independent month-long units. Classes will be organized in the areas of art, music, dance, drama, foreign languages, computer education, physical education, academic enrichment programs, and clubs. The scouts could, as one example, fit into the studio program.

Classes can be taught by any specialist teachers on your school’s faculty (such as art, music, drama, Spanish, and movement/physical education), by the elementary teachers who can be expected to offer various clubs and programs during at least two or three of the blocks during the afternoon, by guest instructors can either be hired on an hourly basis or enticed into donating their time for a few hours a week over one or two months, and by interested parents.

The Studio Program Coordinating Committee

Interested parents and faculty members can invited to join a standing committee which will assist the administration in planning and operating the studio program. This committee will normally be a working committee (rather than one which recommends policy), reporting directly to the Head of School.

A sample weekly schedule

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday

11:15	Primary A	Primary A	Primary A	Primary A	Primary A
12:00

12:00	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
12:30

12:30	Primary B	Primary B	Primary B	Primary B	Primary B
1:15

1:15	Break	Break	Break	Break	Break
1:45

1:45	Elementary	Elementary	Elementary	Elementary	Special
3:00	A	B	A	B	Events

3:00	Class meetings/ Dismissal/ Free play ——————–>
3:30

3:30	Elementary	Elementary	Elementary	Elementary	Elementary
5:00	C	D	C	D	E

A few examples of studio programs

Student Clubs and activities
A student newspaper
Student government (Grades 1-7)
Yearbook
Kids’ Court/Future Lawyers Club and Moot court
Future doctors/holistic healers of America
Career club
Stamp collecting club
Outdoor model railroad club
Future architects club
Cooking club
Chess club
Veterinarian’s clinic
Young peacemakers
Community service club

Academic enrichment
French club
Russian cub
Marine biology
Young naturalists
Gardening
Future farmers club
First aid
Open computer lab
Astronomy club
Math club
History club

Sports and Physical Ed
Track and field
Tennis
Golf
Tee-ball
Soccer
Swimming
Basketball
Horseback riding
Ice skating
Yoga
Tai Chi
Massage
Bicycling club/ bike repair
Skin diving
Volleyball

The Arts
Creative drama
Countryside Players
Chorus
Folk dance
Computer keyboarding class
Computer art
Desktop publishing
Photography
Video production
Needle point
Suzuki violin group lessons
Wood working
Open art studio
Sculpture
Drawing and painting
Pottery
Print making
Folk crafts
Jewelry making

Why Montessori Education Needs Health Education

by The Montessori Foundation Staff | Adolescence, Early Adolescence (12-15), Educational Program Coordination, Later Adolescence (15-18), Montessori Education, Montessori Teachers

By Dr. Bonny Olney

If you attended public school growing up, you all remember “the film” we watched in fourth grade, boys in one room and girls in another. For us girls it was all about female anatomy and this complicated graph of the menstrual cycle. (I also remember being pulled out and disciplined for giggling through the movie.)

After “the film” I don’t recall any further discussion going on with the teachers regarding these topics, and that was about it for sex education until high school.

As a mother of two children I opted for Montessori education starting at age 2, to give my children a more comprehensive and enriching education than I was afforded in public school.

As a family physician I have been surprised by the absence of sexual education in private schools, both Montessori and traditional. These kids didn’t even get “the film!”

We have had many meetings at our school, debating how to cram all the enriching subjects into what feels like a very short period of time, and I think “sex-ed” is just not on the radar screen for most parents and educators.

I have a sister who teaches eighth grade in a public school. In her career, she has had to deal with pregnant students, drug use, sexual abuse, and suicide. These things just aren’t issues in our Montessori school, even though our school goes through eighth grade.

The Montessori curriculum itself creates an environment where pubertal issues are more protected. At our school, I notice that the teachers know each child so well, that when issues about menstruation, boy-girl tensions, and mood swings come up, they are on top of it. They have even kept “cliques” from forming in our group of pre-teen girls, which is no small feat! So, why do we even need “sex-ed?”

I believe that teaching adolescents how their bodies function is as integral to the Montessori philosophy as spooning and pouring are to toddlers.

Many of us grew up with parents who were not exactly comfortable talking about intimate issues. Today when I talk with parents who are well educated and very involved in their children’s education, I still find them to have a high degree of discomfort when discussing health and sexuality with their children. They often avoid even basic issues such as menstruation and nocturnal erections, which are part of normal human development. Why we find it important to teach children fine motor skills, but not the care of their bodies, is perplexing.

I think the answer lies in the realm of moral and social behavioral boundaries. When you say the phrase “sex education,” many parents and educators start squirming in their seats. They have very appropriate concerns about their school teaching moral values that might not coincide with their family or their culture.

I feel that we need to look more at teaching “health education” to include education about human sexuality. I often counsel teenage patients that my job is to teach them what is healthy and what is harmful, both for their physical and emotional well-being. I further tell them that what they decide to do with that information will be based not only on their own desires, but on the framework of their cultural and personal morality. I have found several different models for health education which all promote positive self-image, and in the case of sexual activity, abstinence, for physical and emotional health. They help teach kids the facts about the risks of sexual activity, as well as coping strategies to keep others from influencing their decisions, who may not have their best interests in mind. It’s important to teach kids that with puberty comes a new set of feelings and desires that are normal for all of us. How we choose to act on those feelings defines who we are.

I realize that all schools struggle with trying to give the highest quality of education to their students and that adding yet another class to the curriculum is not always possible. I would suggest that we all consider using some sort of program, even if it is short, to include health education at our schools. You may even want to provide it as an after school elective or weekend conference. If you ask your parents how interested they are, you might be surprised at how many would welcome the idea. There are several programs I would recommend to consider, and I have included the names and web sites here.

1. “Worth the Wait” – This is an abstinence based program started by Dr. Patricia Sulak. I have met her and attended a program presented to physicians. This outstanding program comes prepackaged for each age group and can be used for a comprehensive curriculum or a limited seminar. They provide the program in paper format, slides and power-point presentations. There are programs for kids and also for parents.
www.worththewait.org

2. Discovery School – this is an individual curriculum plan that the Discovery School has produced. Go to the website and select “lesson plans”, then “health”.
www.discoveryschool.com

3. You can also search the website of your state Teachers Education Association for more links and information.

Dr. Bonny Olney practices medicine in Dallas Texas. Her children attend the Westwood Montessori School in Dallas.

Montessori, Darwin and Telling The New Story Of Evolution

by David Loye | Administrative Team, Discipline, Educational Program Coordination, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Emotionally Healthy Children, Empowerment, Executive Functioning, Family Resources, MFA, Montessori Curriculum, Montessori Education, Montessori Family Life, Montessori Grandparenting, Montessori Middle School, Montessori Parenting, Montessori Secondary / High School, Montessori Teachers, Parent Education, Peace Education, Psychology, School Leadership, The International Montessori Council, Upper Elementary (9-12)

by David Loye In the beginning there was the Domination System and the Organism. Then the Love System entered life and meaningful Evolution began… This is the disarming and I hope engaging way my telling of the new story of the new story of evolution begins. Behind it lies a long unknown connection between the theories of Charles Darwin and Maria Montessori that a startling new reconstruction of Darwin’s theory reveals. As has long been evident to anyone familiar with standard Darwinism and Montessori their theories as taught throughout the 20th century have been poles apart. Surely nothing could be farther from Montessori’s approach in her original rescuing of Italian slum children than the stereotypical keystone ideas for standard Darwinism of “survival of the fittest” and the supremacy of selfishness, or the idea of “selfish genes” popularized by ostensibly Darwinian sociobiologist Richard Dawkins. Yet what happens if, at last, we are confronted with the startling but incontestable fact that in The Descent of Man Darwin actually wrote only twice of “survival of the fittest” – once to apologize for actually ever using the term. So what does he write of? 95 times of love! 92 times of moral sensitivity! And 200 times of brain and mind! Morever, in designating what in contrast to the origin of species advances human evolution, he specifically says natural selection (i.e., survival of the fittest) drops off in importance at our level of emergence and “other agencies” become more important. And what are these other agencies? Above all, Darwin wrote in hundreds of editions of his book in a majority of the languages of this earth for scientists, educators, and all the rest of us to read – but ignore – for over a century, are “the moral qualities.” These, Darwin said, are “advanced, either directly or indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, by our reasoning powers, by instruction, by religion, etc., than through natural selection.” As an educator via classroom but much more so by the books I have written over many years, I personally find this Darwin to be clearly in the tradition articulated by Montessori as well as by Pestalozzi earlier, and by Dewey, Piaget, on up to morally oriented, progressive and holistic educators such as Nel Noddings and Ron Miller in our time. But while this discovery of the “new” Darwin is startling and encouraging, what we now do with it is a far more important matter. Indeed, it is, I am convinced, a matter bearing on whether our species is to live up to and fulfill its incredible potential, or —as thousands of species have before us and currently — eventually fall by the wayside in evolution. A vital scientific challenge is to wed the two halves of Darwin’s theory. For that is what now confronts us. On one hand is the vital first half described in Origin of Species for laying a good part of the foundation for evolution. But on the other is the completing half for his theory, this thrilling superstructure in tune with progressive spirituality, progressive philosophy, progressive science, and progressive education over by now thousands of years. As I develop at length elsewhere, underlying both Darwin and the work and theories of a long stream of great thinkers including cultural evolution theorist Riane Eisler in our time there lies, in basic systems terms, the maturational sequence and interaction of a Domination System and a Love System. And what is the challenge for education? Most of us have been forced to teach only the destructive Darwinian first half for over a century. But having been unwitting collaborators, what can we do now to make up for this now? One way is to get behind the effort of the newly formed Darwin Project. With a Council of over 50 American, European, and Asian scientists and educators, our goal is to shift teaching at all levels of education, as well as globally throughout the power of the media, from a disastrous focus solely on Darwin’s first half to the prohuman, prosocial, and clearly progressive emphasis for Darwin’s completion of theory. Here one of the most effective things the Montessori movement, with its international scope, can help pioneer is the telling of the new story of evolution which weds both halves. The Great Adventure The new website for The Darwin Project (www.thedarwinproject.com) outlines the challenge and, in many ways, the prospects for pioneering educators. Specific to the opportunity for the Montessori movement is the “Great Adventure” segment of the website and component “Telling the New Story.” Going by how Darwin’s perception of the Love System was suppressed for a century, we can begin to see how long it takes to change anything in science if it bumps up against an established paradigm. It is evident then that normally wedding the two halves could take science another century. Going then by how long it takes for what is written in scientific language about anything really new to be translated into and widely published in the everyday language we all use, we may add another fifty years or so. Then of course beyond all that are the schools. Once such a project got this far one must add another forty years or so of committees and school boards to decide whether this odd and controversial new hybrid thing of a theory of human evolution involving so subversive a matter as love, as well as the more serviceable matter of domination, is suitable for the instruction of the young. Then one must add another thirty years for consultants to assess and parcel it out by grade levels for the curricula. As it is evident we no longer have a century to waste in this way— indeed quite possibly less than a decade—I have gone ahead and wedded the two halves into what, out of now many years involvement in evolution theory and education, into what I believe is as close as presently possible to the full and true story of human evolution. The aim is to provide teachers with a story line that can be adapted for use anywhere along the line for K-12 into college and graduate studies. The idea is not to set this forth as some inviolable and forever enduring integration of theory and story, but just to get the full story down in one place and for a teacher to read, and think about, and then rework to present at one’s particular grade level. One would start with the easiest part for the earliest level, then work up by stages, so that by the time students reach college they would possess the whole story and theory from which to launch out on their own. What follows here is a sampler for the opening of what in its entirety will be available for free downloading from the Darwin Project website by the time this article is published. As you read, please keep in mind this is not the actual telling of the story, which is up to you, but merely the meta-story, or story line for individual shaping. Telling the New Story In the beginning there was the Domination System and the Organism. Then the Love System entered life and meaningful Evolution began… A good place to start is to think of what was mostly taught and thought for a whole century to be the whole picture for the Darwinian theory and story of evolution, then ask ourselves what is the story that now emerges from a melding of the old with the new. If we look at both Origin and Descent carefully in relation to one another, and also at precisely when they emerged within the pattern of Darwin’s creative life, it is evident we are looking at a perspective on human evolution based on his perception of three primary entities, forces, or—in the most useful term we use in science today— systems at work in the lives of our species over thousands of years. Out of the creativity of the middle years of his great fame and immense impact on the lives of all of us, there is the Domination System he wrote of in The Origin of Species. Out of the creativity of his early and final years— as will be detailed in Darwin’s Unfolding Revolution, the key book for this website section also to be available for download— there is the Love System he writes of in The Descent of Man. And then there is the third, most vital part of all, the major player in this drama on which he actually focused from beginning to end, but which again was very close to also being ignored: the Organism. There is this life form for every living thing, plant or animal, from the earliest point in the emergence of life on this earth, to all creatures living today from the smallest to the largest. There is this life form that includes ourselves, as the species with the most advanced brains and greatest capacity to change things around on this earth— therefore the species not only with a clear evolutionary responsibility for the well being of all other life forms as well as for the earth itself, but also the only species capable of recognizing and acting on this responsibility. This puts the weight on us to approach the question of how we are to tell the new story as more than a matter of entertainment, or of only trying to get the science right. It says squarely—to repeat what certainly bears repeating, as it is all too easy to flinch and turn away—that it is up to us to get clear on this story as a bedrock matter of species survival. And then as parents, teachers, writers, activists, as well as scientists and other scholars concerned about gaining the better life for us all, to as widely and as quickly as possible start telling this story to try to save us from ourselves by speeding up the process of our evolution. Here we see a basic sketch for the three primary systems I touched on in the two stage-setting lines which head and open our story, to which I will refer to as we move along. IMAGE 1 Here is the fiercely self-protective “closed mind” of the Domination System in contrast with the still formative and venturing “open mind” of the Love System—and the wiggly lines of their differing impact on us, as well as the wiggly lines of our impact (or lack of impact) back on them. I have purposely left this and all successor sketches in their squiggly homespun “natural state,” just as I drew them, in order to give the flavor of something drawn quickly on a blackboard. My goal is to encourage the teller of the new story to, as much as possible, use the quick, hand drawn pictures many of us naturally resort to. There is something about how the fact of a hand moving in tandem with a mind can engage others better than the best of professional drawings or slides, which risk the sterile “uptown” polish that signals to some readers “this is dead, finished and 7 intimidating, so skip on.” The Domination System, the Love System, and the Organism But one must be careful here. The true story of human evolution—that is, of the evolution of all species up to, reflected within, and including ourselves—does not begin with abstractions such as these or any others at this level of thinking. Nor does it begin, as in the old theory and the old story, with the grim, foreboding weight of Natural Selection as this large mysterious force external to ourselves. Why was this the ominous emphasis for the old story? Within this new approach to telling the new story an important reason could be what comes to mind if we look at ourselves in relation to all other life on this planet, over the 100,000 years of our rise as the species homo sapiens sapiens. It would seem that because of our situation on this earth as the chief thinking representative for all other organisms, in the way the mind works, inevitably we were driven to seek large, mysterious ideas to account for the haunting mystery of where we came from, who we really are, and where we may be going. This certainly seems to be why for centuries before Darwin this space in mind was filled with either the fearful or the comforting idea of God. But with the success of Darwin’s Origin of Species— as scores of ministers discerned and decried at the time—the idea of Natural Selection began to shove God out of that place for the Big Answer. In further looking at our situation over the past century from the perspective of systems psychology, I am convinced that within the unconscious of the Western educated man and woman the hole in mind this displacement left behind came to be filled with two kinds of patterns for thought that have worked against us. One is what I identify in the article “Montessori, Darwin, and Human Evolution” in Montessori Leadership as the “bog holes” of PseudoDarwinian Mind—i.e., the powerfully compelling but distorted partial reading of reality rising from Origin of Species or “first-half” Darwinism, such as the governing idea that as all life involves “the war of all against all” or “survival of the fittest.” This is a complicated matter that many teachers will not want to fool with, nor will most students short of college and graduate school be equipped to deal with it. So I leave it to others to figure out where and how to best fit in this vital aspect of underlying systems dynamics and what can become the stranglehold of paradigm on our minds. This leaves us with the question of what to do with first half Darwinian science’s nightmare creation of Natural Selection as the main or even sole over-riding explanation for evolution. The history of many centuries and the psychology of the last few has repeatedly shown us that whatever we may find or teach is in the end a small chink of knowledge tossed into the vast boiling pot of much else working within and shaping the minds of our time. So it was I believe that during the 20 th century within the unconscious of the nonscientist as first child, then adult, there also came to exist within the hole for the Big Answer an unsettling picture linked to the powerfully enduring image of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’s monster from earlier. IMAGE 2 Here we see Natural Selection as this giant invisible force that strides among us, occasionally reaching down to pick and choose and gobble us up as though we are no more than the food that it may arbitrarily eat now, or let us go for later, as though saving us for desert. This, I suggest, is a sketch for the psychic bugaboo of Natural Selection in pursuit of Variation that operates today in unconscious mind of millions of us. It is obviously the connection with no place in the education of the child, which for many vital reasons must be sheltered and protected as long as possible. But by the time the late teen-ager is beginning to contemplate the responsibilities of adulthood, it can become meaningful to that cohort of the particularly bright, caring and courageous upon whom the better future for our species depends. For then it can become crucial they understand how this gift of misguided modern science came to reinforce the dark earlier gift of regressive religion in the abysmal figure of a vicious deity who must be placated with blood sacrifice—which drives the terrorists and more generally still exists in the unconscious of other millions of us on this planet. Important this fledgling leadership cohort understand, yes. But most important they are encouraged by the great teacher to go on beyond understand to decide what they personally are going to do about it. . . L’Envoi And so the new story goes on our website: on and on through first half and second half with my sketches and guesses as to what parts could be best to bring in early in a child’s education, and where it’s best to wait until later, on into graduate school. As one can see from this sample, this is an idea in much need of thinking through for presentation from the Montessori perspective. I hope this is enough to encourage creative Montessorians to pursue this new telling of the story of human evolution by going to our Darwin Project website (www.thedarwinproject.com) and downloading the rest of the story, or rather, the story line, and going to work on it. I hope, too, I have begun to convey how extremely important this pioneering contribution by Montessorians could be to the advance toward the better world that the first woman in Italy to gain her medical degree set in motion, really not so long ago as evolution goes.

Imaginary Island Studies

by Tim Seldin | Early Adolescence (12-15), Educational Program Coordination, Lower Elementary (6-9), MFA, Montessori Curriculum, Montessori Education, Montessori Middle School, The International Montessori Council, The Montessori Way, Upper Elementary (9-12)

By Tim Seldin

This is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The World In The Palm Of Her Hand.

The Imaginary Island Project was developed by my friend, Harvey Hallenberg, and introduced to the Montessori community in the 1980s through the Institute for Advanced Montessori Studies in Silver Spring, Maryland, which we co-founded.

In the Montessori curriculum, children in the early childhood and elementary classes are of course introduced to an extensive set of land and water forms. They first see them as three-dimensional models and three-part cards, learning the vocabulary and definitions of not only the introductory land and water forms taught in most Montessori classrooms.

In the elementary classes, older children go beyond the basic land and water forms to learn many more land features in Physical geography, such as foothills, summit, river delta, marshlands, tributary, archipelago, lagoon, and many more. Children construct models of these landforms out of clay and in combinations on sand and water tables.

As the extension of all this work, we invite interested children to create an entire island from their imagination.

The Areas of the Curriculum: Physical and Cultural Geography

Materials That You Will Need:

The children will be creating both two-dimensional drawing and three-dimensional dioramas of their imaginary islands and will need a wide range of art supplies: large sheets of paper, drawing pencils or charcoal, pastels or paints to create pictures of their islands, and clay or some other modeling media for constructing their dioramas (which will then be painted). They will also need various materials like sawdust dyed green to simulate grass, lichen, and small twigs to simulate trees and materials from which they can construct small model houses, such as small rectangular blocks of balsa wood.

Our Aims: To help the children to integrate their present level of understanding about physical geography, biomes, how human beings meet their needs in different settings, and cultural geography through the creative development of imaginary islands placed somewhere on the globe.

Preparation: Children can participate in this activity at many different levels of understanding, depending on their interest and grasp of the many concepts involved in physical geography, earth science, biomes, and how human societies may be organized. A good basic level of preparation would include work with the land and water forms, land features, an introduction to biomes, the needs of human beings, and experiences in cultural geography.

Age: This activity has been used with children from as young as age five through early adolescence. In some schools, it will be reintroduced in the upper elementary of junior high school levels. We might recall that books like Frank Herbert’s Dune are based on an entire planet—its climate, ecology, and human civilization—created from the author’s imagination.

Presentation:

The First Activity:

Invite the children to imagine an island somewhere in the oceans of the world, where they can decide everything from its size and shape, rivers and lakes, cities and villages, as well and the plants, animals, and people who live there.

To get the children started, you might want to make a first crude drawing of an island yourself with charcoal. Now invite the children to prepare a drawing of their own imaginary island, coloring it in with paints or pastels, and showing anything on it that they wish. Challenge them to place their lakes, rivers, mountains and cities carefully, because once there, they would be very hard to move, no?

You might want to give the children a paper like this to remind them of points to consider:

The name of my island is _____________

Are there any mountains?
Are there any lakes?
Are there any rivers?
Are there any roads?
What is the name of the capital city?
How many people live in the capital city?
Are there any other cities and villages?
Are there any beaches?
Are there are forests on your island?
Is there an isthmus on your island?
Is there a peninsula on your island?
Is there a cape on your island?
Is there a bay on your island?
Is your island part of an archipelago?
Is your island an atoll?
Are there any valleys on your island?

Does your picture of your imaginary island show them? Have you given them names and labeled them on your picture?

When the children are done, invite them to share with you and their friends anything they wish to tell about their island. Some will say little; others will most likely come up with involved explanations and stories. Ask them if they have thought of a name for their island. Some will have named their island, others may prefer to wait until the right name comes to mind.

The Second Activity:

Ask the children if any would be interested in making a new drawing/painting of their islands. This time invite them to label their drawing with a name for their island and to think about what sort of animals and plants live there. As the children complete their work and share with their friends, continue to ask them new questions, like the ones below, and invite them to either prepare still another drawing of their island showing these things or add them to the drawing that they’ve made.

Are there any people on the island? Show what their houses look like. Do they live alone, in villages, or in cities? Invite the children to begin to name these cities and villages, as well as any major

What is the weather like on the island? What sort of clothes do they wear?

How do they get from place to place? Do they walk everywhere, ride horses, or drive cars?

What food do they eat on the island? Where does it come from? Is it grown there or brought in by ship or airplane? Where do ships dock and where do airplanes land, if they do stop at the island?

How many people are on the island? How did they come to be there?

Are there any children on the island? Where do they go to school? What is their school like? Is it shown on the map yet? What do the children do for fun on the island?

What natural resources are there on the island? How have people used them to make things for their own use or to export to other places?

Continue to gather informally with individual children or small groups who finish, to discuss what they found in their imagination. This process normally goes on over many days or weeks, and sometimes, over many years.

The Third Activity:

Prepare a three-dimensional model showing the island to scale, with land features, cities, roads, etc. depicted as realistically as the child can using art and craft materials.

Hold a geography fair in which all of the children’s imaginary islands are displayed in the school’s halls or All-Purpose room.

An Optional Introductory Activity: The Imaginary Island Puzzle

This material was developed by Judy Martell and is available from Mandala Classroom Resources. As an elementary teacher, Judy found that while many students loved the imaginary island project, others found the project “too huge, too open-ended, too full of possibilities; they needed the door cracked open a little rather than flung wide.” * To meet their needs, Judy designed a new classroom material to bridge this gap.

Judy wanted to create something that could act as a springboard to the Imaginary Island Project without limiting it; a way for students to be invited naturally to use the vocabulary of the land and water forms as they moved toward the Imaginary Island Project, gaining confidence in their own imagination and exploring without inhibition.

The Imaginary Island Puzzle is a set of 84 square cards showing various individual land and land and water features that can be combined in many different ways to depict an imaginary island. Students use them to create an infinite variety of islands, modifying them at will and using the vocabulary words easily in conversation in the process.

Judy found that the puzzle acted as a springboard for the Imaginary Island Project. “Children who had been overwhelmed at first could more easily visualize their personal island after shaping it with the pieces of the Imaginary Island Puzzle. They could then elaborate on their islands and move into greater and greater detail as Harvey Hallenberg’s project invited them to, eventually putting their creations on paper, writing their reports, and presenting them to others.”

* Please Pass the Penisula: A Recipe for a New Montessori Material, Judy Martell, Tomorrow’s Child Magazine, May, 1997/Vol 5/Number 3

Mandala Classroom Resources
1001 Green Bay Rd. #190
Winnetka, IL 60093-1721
Phone: 847-446-2812

Points of Interest: The combination of various land and water features. The creative and intellectual activities blended together to construct the island in one’s imagination.

Points of Consciousness: The idea that an island is a complete and independent system of land, plants, animals, climate, natural resources, and people’s impact on the environment.

Control of Error: There really is none in this activity, except that ideas proposed by the children can be challenged or confirmed by research into various areas of geography, climate, ecology, and cultural patterns found in islands located in that general area of the Earth.

Extensions:

Locate the imaginary islands precisely on the globe in terms of degrees of longitude and latitude.

Determine the distance from given points of the Earth to this location in terms of miles and kilometers.

Determine the course one would have to follow by boat or airplane, in terms of degrees on the compass rose, to travel from given points of the Earth to this location.

Identify the nearest points of land within 500 miles of this location, if applicable. Research one or more of these nearby islands to see what can be learned by comparing the climate, rainfall, biomes, and lifestyle of the people who inhabit those islands.

Study wind patterns and ocean currents to see how they might influence the climate and weather patterns on the imaginary island.

Prepare a more precise scale map of the island, and calculate the distances between given points by both direct point-to-point measurement and by following the routes made practical because of the island’s geography.

Prepare a topographical map of the island.

Prepare an illustrated history of the people who inhabit your imaginary island.

Online Record Keeping and Communicating With Parents in 2015

by Tim Seldin | Communication, Montessori Administrators, Montessori Teachers, Parent-Teacher Communication, School Leadership

On January 22nd, 2015, Tim Seldin was joined by Rob Amos of Montessori Compass. The Montessori Foundation and Montessori Compass have been collaborating on developing a strong and user friendly system for tracking student progress and communicating with parents. We will explore how the software was developed, and what lessons have we learned as hundreds of schools learn to track student progress online.

Preparing for the Admissions Season Ahead

by Tim Seldin | Communication, Montessori Administrators, Montessori Teachers, Re-enrollment, The International Montessori Council, Webcasts / IMC

On December 18th, 2015, Tim Seldin led a conversation about preparing for the admissions and reenrollment season ahead. Among other topics, Tim spoke about the importance of gathering and charting data on attrition, new enrollment, inquiries that come in, and school tours from one year to the next.

Starting a New Montessori School

by The Montessori Foundation Staff | Free Reads, MFA, Montessori Administrators, School Leadership, The International Montessori Council

Starting a World Class Montessori School from the Ground Up

The Montessori Foundation and The International Montessori Council receive regular inquiries from people around the world who want to start Montessori schools. While there are some aspects on which we can provide direct support, there are many more aspects that are specific to location. This course gives general guidance, but you will need to do local research yourself.

Why do you want to start a Montessori School (as opposed to any other type of school)?

From the outset it is important that you know that the name ‘Montessori’ refers to a method of education and a philosophy of life. It is not a copyright-protected name or a franchising program. In many parts of the world, anyone can open a school and call it ‘Montessori’ with no knowledge of how an authentic program is organized or run. While this makes things easy for everyone, it is sometimes embarrassing for educators and parents, who understand the difference between a Montessori school and a daycare center, which may use some Montessori materials and techniques.

For this reason we urge you, at the outset, to think carefully and to act ethically and responsibly. Do you want to open an authentic Montessori school, or do you plan to offer high-quality daycare with some Montessori aspects? If your answer is the latter, that is fine. You have a legal right to make that choice, but you have a moral responsibility, both to the Montessori community and to the public who will become your customers, to be honest in not calling what you do a ‘Montessori School’ if it does not follow Montessori guidelines. Either way, you are welcome to make use of the advice and information contained in these documents, as much of it applies to all schools. Just please, be honest, if you are calling your school Montessori, ensure that it is, indeed, a Montessori School.

If you are uncertain about various aspects of Montessori, The Montessori Foundation and the IMC have a wealth of resources that can help you. This course includes an outline of the basic principles of Montessori practice we believe to be essential in a Montessori school. There are also a wealth of other documents on both The Montessori Foundation and the IMC websites that discuss important factors and principles.

Training and support

While it is not essential to have Montessori training in order to operate a Montessori school, it is critical that you employ properly trained staff with adequate expertise and experience to be able to advise you on matters directly pertaining to the educational program and to teach in your classes. If you do not have a Montessori credential yourself, you should ensure that you have the support and input from a consultant or advisor during the planning phases, until you can hire your academic staff. The Montessori Foundation offers a range of programs that can help in the early stages of setting up a school.

Our Overview of Montessori Principles and Curriculum from Toddler to High School is a twelve week program designed to introduce the fundamental features of authentic Montessori to people who have no prior Montessori training or to those who have training at only one level and need to know more about the other levels.

Building a World Class Montessori School will guide you through all the areas of school management, helping you to plan an excellent school from the start. Participants in this course have access to Montessori Foundation consultants, who are able to answer many questions within the course forums. IMC Membership also gives access to a wealth of resources and support including Montessori Leadership a magazine, which focusses on the needs of school leaders, providing access to a password-protected area containing a wealth of resources.

Consulting Services

The Montessori Foundation can provide consulting services to new schools at a reasonable cost. Contact timeseldin@montessori.org for more information.

We are unable to help with:

Local Legislation and Registration: We are unable to supply any information about local regulations and requirements as these vary, not only from country to country, but often even from city to city. You are advised to contact your local urban planning department, other schools in your area, or a local or regional association, for such information.

Similarly, we are simply not equipped to provide information or advice about the legal options or structuring your business in different countries, although we can supply some generic guidelines.

Financial assistance: The Montessori Foundation and the IMC do not offer any form of financial assistance for school start-up programs.

Some aspects to consider

Starting and managing a new Montessori school takes determination, commitment, and talent. It also takes research and planning. Like a game of chess, starting a new school successfully begins with making the right opening moves. And, although initial mistakes may not be fatal, it is painful to undo early mistakes later on.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

To increase your chances for success, take the time up front to explore and evaluate your business goals and your personal objectives. Then, use this information to build a comprehensive and well thought-out business plan that will help you reach these goals. The process of developing a business plan will help you think through some important issues that you may not have considered yet. Your plan will become a valuable tool as you set out to raise money for your business. It should also provide milestones to gauge your success.

Before starting out, list your reasons for wanting to go into business, some of the most common reasons for starting a business are:

You want to be your own boss.
You want financial independence.
You want creative freedom.
You want to fully use your skills and knowledge.

Next, you need to determine what kind of Montessori school would be “right for you.” Ask yourself these questions:

Why do I want to run a Montessori school?
How well do I deal with a wide range of children?
How well do I deal with concerned and sometimes difficult parents?
How do I like to spend my time?
What technical skills have I learned or developed?
What do others say I am good at?
Do I really have the time and energy needed to run a school?
Do I have any hobbies or interests that would be useful?

Now you should try to identify the niche in the market your school will fill. Conduct the necessary research to answer these questions:

Is my idea for the school practical and will it fill a need?
What is my competition?
What would my school offer that is not available from existing schools?
Can I deliver a better quality service?
Can I create a demand for my school?

The final step before developing your plan is the pre-business checklist. Working through the previous questions should enable you to answer the following:

What kind of Montessori school am I interested in starting?
What services will my school offer?
Where will the school be located?
What skills and experience do I bring to the school?
What will be my school’s legal structure?
What will I name my school?
What equipment or supplies will I need?
What insurance coverage will be needed?
What financing will I need?
What are my resources?
How will I compensate myself?

Your answers will help you create a focused, well-researched business plan, which will detail how your business will be operated, managed, and capitalized.

© The Montessori Foundation (2014)

Semble Social Investor Financing A Good Alternative Way for Nonprofit Montessori Schools to Finance

by Tim Seldin | Administrative Team, Finances, Fundraising, Montessori Administrators, The International Montessori Council, Webcasts / IMC

On October 29th, 2014, Eric Robbins from Semble discussed their approach to helping schools to gather the fund to finance new facilities. More info at Semble.com

Planned Giving in Montessori Schools

by Tim Seldin | Administrative Team, Finances, Fundraising, Montessori Administrators, The International Montessori Council, Webcasts / IMC

On October 16th, 2014, Tim Seldin was joined by Ginger Young and Greg Kite of Young Insurance and Peggy Williams of Dream Insurance to discuss Planned Giving in Montessori Schools. Planned giving is the time proven strategy for developing the resources and endowment that every Montessori schools needs. Planned gifts are donations of life insurance, property, stock, etc. set aside in one’s will to be given to a favorite school or other charity. Once thought to be an uncomfortable topic, every college and most schools work with planned gifts to develop their long term institutional advancement. We looked at planned giving in general, and a new national planned giving program put together specifically for the Montessori community.

Sample Blueprint of a Montessori School’s Core Values

by Tim Seldin | Administrative Team, Boards, Educational Program Coordination, Effective Boards, Faculty, MFA, Montessori Administrators, Montessori Education, Parent Education, School Identity, School Leadership, School Resources, The International Montessori Council

The Sample Montessori School

A Blueprint of Our Fundamental Values and Beliefs

Our Vision

Our broadest vision is of a world that lives in peace, a world community based on interdependence and respect for all life and all people. Our vision for our school is a Montessori school community of supportive parents, dedicated teachers and staff, and joyful learners.

Our Mission

The Mission of the Sample Montessori School is

To inspire a passion for excellence

To nurture the curiosity, creativity, and imagination born within us all

To give our children a vision of the universe

And to awaken the human spirit of every child

Our program rests on four pillars

1 The cultivation within our students of a passion for excellence in everything they do, both in and outside of school

2 The development a strongly held set of universal values, which include self-respect, respect for others, honesty, integrity, responsibility, empathy, compassion, kindness, peacefulness, a sense of concern for others, warmth, and a love of community

3 The development of a global perspective and sense of international understanding

4 And a lifelong commitment to give something back through service to others who are in need

1. Educational Program

1.1. The Fundamental Nature of our School

1.1.1. The Montessori approach to learning is the educational framework of our educational program.

1.1.2. Sample Montessori School is committed to being an international and multicultural school.

1.1.3. Sample Montessori School is designed to prepare students both for the university and for life.

1.1.4. Our school teaches children to be at home in the world of nature.

1.1.5. Sample Montessori School is a family-friendly school.

1.1.6. We are committed to character and values.

1.1.7. We are committed to diversity.

1.1.8. Sample Montessori School is a close-knit community of students, educators, parents, and friends of the school.

1.2. The Montessori approach to learning is the educational framework of our educational program.

1.2.1. The Montessori approach to learning in its most authentic understanding is the framework of our educational program. We understand that Maria Montessori’s methods and materials are a logical system based on fundamental principles, not a closed/rigid system, and we commit to apply the words, wisdom, and practical advice of Maria Montessori as the lens through which we select, design, and evaluate our program and our curriculum.

1.2.1.1 We will reference the International Montessori Council criteria for the definition of authentic Montessori programs as approved by the IMC Board in March of 2009.

1.2.2. The nature of the child and the learning process

1.2.2.1. We affirm that education begins at birth and continues throughout life. While our emphasis is on our children, we are a center of support for people of all ages to continue learning and developing toward becoming whole, balanced, and healthy individuals.

1.2.2.2. We believe that intelligence is not rare among human beings, nor is it fixed at birth.

1.2.2.3. We believe that the vast majority of people have the intelligence and natural ability required to learn everything they need to lead full, happy, and productive lives.

1.2.2.4. We believe that wisdom can be cultivated.

1.2.2.5. We believe that true wisdom is the ability to listen to your heart and know how best to put your intelligence to work for you. In order to achieve this goal, self-esteem, human dignity, and emotional well-being, as well as the ability to communicate and cooperate effectively with others, must be valued at least as highly as academic and material success.

1.2.3. We approach learning by seeking to understand and respect each student’s uniqueness and by guiding them individually at their own pace through the range of learning skills so that they fully realize their potential.

1.2.4. We celebrate the natural diversity of human beings, be it in learning style, interests, or definition of what makes a happy and successful life.

1.2.5. We affirm the ideal of the Renaissance person. Our ultimate goal is to produce renaissance men and women who have not only learned how to learn but also have an innate love of learning, a wide range of interests, and an openness to new ideas and possibilities.

1.2.6. We nurture self-esteem and affirm that it is a crucial ingredient for the full expression of a person’s potential. This is the very fabric of our community and our educational methods.

1.2.7. We teach students not to be afraid of failure. We support them in stepping outside of their comfort zone and to not fear taking risks. We encourage them to learn from their experiences—both successes and failures—and to accept the outcome as non-threatening feedback on their progress and personal growth.

1.2.8. We nurture intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical growth in developing a whole, healthful being.

1.2.8.1. Intellectual. The intellect is an important tool in shaping our world. Through developing our thinking abilities, we refine our emotional responses, clarify our picture of the universe, and develop the discipline to maintain vibrant health and well-being.

1.2.8.2. Emotional. Our emotions are complex and powerful, and it is very important that we learn to feel them fully and without fear, to identify them correctly (in ourselves and others), to respect them, and accept them. It is equally important, however, that we learn to harness their power and not let them control our lives unchecked.

1.2.8.3. Spiritual. We recognize that it is each individual‘s task to develop their own understanding of the nature of the universe and the individual’s place in it. We encourage children to celebrate life, focus on the positive, develop the spiritual side of their lives according to their individual beliefs, and [enjoy/find/experience/strive for] inner peace [or the peace within].

1.2.8.4. Physical. We seek to help our students discover, understand and adopt the most appropriate and beneficial lifestyle habits for our bodies and minds. Among these are fresh air, pure water, exercise, sunlight, and a proper diet.

1.2.9. Developmental Approach to Education. Our educational approach is centered around the stages of human development.

1.2.9.1. Developmental stages. Our faculty is actively involved in the continuous study of human development. This study includes keeping abreast of current theories on development, regular student observation, and a constant evaluation of the curriculum to ensure that it is appropriate for the developmental stages of our students.

1.2.9.2. Individualization. We strive for individualized pacing and adaptation of the classroom program (when possible) to meet varied styles of learning.

1.2.9.3. Flexibility. Our educational program is designed for flexibility in its methodology and use of resources.

1.2.9.4. Academic expectations in an individualized approach. We establish and follow an individualized educational curricular framework of basic academic achievement leading each child toward graduation or progress to the next level or phase of their education.

1.2.10. Active learning. We promote active rather than passive learning.

1.2.10.1. We promote spontaneous, self-initiated learning by encouraging students to explore their personal interests.

1.2.10.2. We use hands-on, “experiential” learning whenever possible rather than lecture and drill. This includes such things as concrete manipulative learning materials, experimental discovery, seminar discussions, independent library research, field investigation, or computer simulations.

1.2.10.3. We reinforce the continuing sense of student accomplishment, closure, and recognition through identifying, pursuing, and reaching pre-established learning goals.

1.2.11. The Passage to Abstraction. We help students to move from the concrete stage of learning through seeing, touching, and manipulating learning materials to stages of increasingly abstract understanding and the ability to apply concepts and skills.

1.2.11.1 To facilitate this process, we consistently work from a very concrete level of experience to the abstract.

1.2.11.2 To aid students in learning, we begin by giving them the “big picture” (a sense of gestalt), and work from this toward increasing detail.

1.2.11.3 This concept has created a spiraling curriculum in which skills and concepts are presented and reintroduced at increasing levels of complexity and abstraction over the years.

1.2.12. External structure. Our goal is to help children develop an inner sense of order and self-motivation. As necessary, we provide them with “just enough” of a foundation of external structure and support that helps them continue developing during the time when they have not yet developed that structure for themselves.

1.2.12.1. We want to “follow the child”; however, we acknowledge that within our society, there are cultural expectations where children are expected to conform to certain benchmarks. If a child’s best efforts are not developing those skills within a certain amount of time, we will try to provide additional structure as necessary to help the child progress within those guidelines.

1.2.13. Freedom within order. We strive for a balance between freedom, order, and responsibility.

1.2.14. Diverse Learning Styles. We acknowledge that children learn in different ways and at different paces.

1.2.14.1 Our goal is to view each child as a unique human being and to be as flexible as possible in addressing his or her learning style and needs as an individual learner.

1. 1. 1. We seek to provide an environment open to students with diverse learning styles, while our primary focus will always be the well-being and best interests of those students who will thrive in our Montessori environment. In every case, we assess whether our school is able to meet a student’s needs while keeping the integrity of the classroom.

1.2.15. We nurture curiosity, creativity, and imagination.

1.2.15.1. We consciously work to encourage creativity in writing, problem-solving, and research.

1.2.15.2. We value artistic growth and expression.

1.2.15.3. As is appropriate for each age group, we encourage students to become aware of our day’s major social, political, economic, environmental, and ethical issues. After carefully considering different perspectives, we encourage students to formulate and support a personal position. If they wish, we challenge them to take a stand for themselves and/or explore ways of making a positive personal contribution to society.

.2.16. Interpersonal Communication Skills. We encourage our children to become self-confident, articulate, and assertive in their interpersonal communication skills. To that effect, we model and encourage effective communication among students and adults. We would like all community members to be versed in skills of active listening, negotiation, fair fighting (verbally), conflict resolution and debate, empathy for another person’s position, and the ability to stand up for oneself and say no without guilt if someone is encroaching on their rights.

1.3. We are committed to being a multi-cultural international school.

1.3.1. We embrace and teach a global perspective as a philosophy for building a diverse community grounded in knowledge that encourages understanding, respect, and acceptance of all peoples.

1.3.2. We value and celebrate a diverse multicultural and international community of students, faculty, and staff and acknowledge the unique contributions of all individuals who enrich and inspire our personal growth.

1.3.3 We model and teach respect at every age level while discouraging stereotypes in an age-appropriate way.

1.3.3.5. We seek to develop a global perspective and international understanding, weaving international education through our curriculum at every age level:

1.3.3.5.1. through the study of modern foreign languages;

1.3.3.5.2. through the study of physical, cultural, and economic geography;

1.3.3.5.3. through correspondence, international travel, and student exchange programs with our sister Montessori schools (as is age appropriate);

1.3.3.5.4. through encouraging families to share their cultural traditions, travel experiences, and traditional festivals;

1.3.3.5.5. by utilizing our international families as a tremendous teaching resource;

1.3.3.5.6. through an ongoing experiential program of international cultural education.

1.4. Sample Montessori School prepares students for university.

1.4.1. We want our students to be well-educated in the basic academic disciplines, to fulfill their creative potential, and to gain satisfaction in their physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and intellectual development.

1.4.2. We offer a rigorous college preparatory curriculum:

1.4.2.1. Science. Students will study science every year. Our curriculum will be consciously integrated, incorporating topics from botany, zoology, physical science, machines and technology, astronomy, geology, ecology, earth science, weather, and the medical sciences. We teach students not only scientific facts but the process, history, and true nature of science. We want them to understand that science is not the subjects that scientists study, like the nature of atoms, but the process of studying the world, with the goal of arriving at conclusions about what is probably true and what is probably not. Its end product is simply reliable information.

1.4.2.2. Foreign Language. As an international school, our students will study a modern foreign language every year. The goal is for each student to work towards fluency in at least one modern language in addition to their native language.

1.4.2.3. Mathematics. Our approach will be Unified Math: integrating topics in arithmetic, geometry, pre-algebra, statistics, logic, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. Whenever possible, we will help students grasp the underlying concepts of math through the use of concrete apparatus and through the application of mathematics to real-world tasks.

1.4.2.4. Economics. We want to be known as a “School for Entrepreneurs.” Our children will live in a world in which economics is a constant basic element of their lives. While money is not the most important thing in our lives, the stress that follows a lack of sufficient money to pay one’s bills can have a negative impact on everything that is important. Our goal is for our students to both understand the principles of economic freedom and to feel comfortable with financial and business matters. Whether or not they choose to run their own businesses, we want them to develop an entrepreneurial spirit.

1.4.2.5. Geography. As an international school, we seek to develop a global perspective and international understanding, teaching world geography (physical, cultural, political, and economic) at every level of the school.

1.4.2.6. History. We develop a strong historical perspective through the study of prehistory and history, following an anthropological orientation into fundamental needs of humankind and the cultures, lifestyles and technology of the past. We cultivate an appreciation of family and community heritage. History sets the stage for integrated learning at every age level.

1.4.2.7. Anthropology and Mythology. Again, as part of our nature as an international school, we teach students the basic elements of anthropology, addressing the question of what makes us human, the nature of culture, and how cultures have attempted to explain or illuminate the great questions of life through story, myth, and cultural archetypes.

1.4.2.8. Major World Religions. We believe that our students should be familiar with the traditions and basic beliefs of the world’s major religions. While we do not teach religion, nor advocate any particular belief system, we encourage students to explore questions raised by religious teachers and develop the spiritual side of their lives (the ability to find peace within and hear the small voice within us all).

1.4.2.9. Architecture. We all live surrounded by buildings. We believe that our students should understand the patterns of architecture found around us, how houses are constructed and designed, and develop an appreciation for the timeless beauty of well-designed spaces.

1.4.2.10. Civics and Law. We strongly believe that our students should understand how government works at the local, state, and federal levels, and the role that citizens can and should play in shaping consensus, advocating their point of view, and making informed decisions before they vote. They should also understand how the legal system works and have an informed working knowledge of and respect for the law. Our goal is to lead young men and women to keep informed about current issues and to play an active and responsible role as citizens of our nation.

1.4.2.11. Language Arts and Literature. Naturally, we are looking to develop students who read and write with facility, and both read voraciously and write with enjoyment. We explore all forms of human communication. We recognize that we live in a time when the various languages of art, (visual, written, spoken and musical) particularly through mass media, have a profound impact on our lives. We develop in each person the ability to understand and filter this influence. We also believe that by developing our ability to use these languages we strengthen our self-esteem and enhance our ability to express more effectively our thoughts and feelings.

1.4.2.12. Research Skills. Rather than having students memorize facts mindlessly, we would rather teach them to learn mindfully and develop great skill in the process of doing investigations and research using the library, internet, public records, and primary and secondary source materials. Interviewing skills are also very important skills that we emphasize. We seek to have our students learn how to organize the information that they compile into increasingly sophisticated reports and presentations. As a result, textbooks will play an insignificant role within our educational program.

1.4.2.13. The Visual and Performing Arts. Our program places great emphasis on the Fine Arts, both through the contributions of our Music and Art specialists and through classroom programs and experiences initiated by the teachers to foster art and music appreciation and creative drama.

1.4.2.14. Physical Education, Health, and Athletics. We want our students to understand, appreciate, and adopt a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise, proper diet, intelligent choices regarding personal health, and stress reduction. We believe that individual and competitive team sports make up an important element in reaching these goals.

1.4.2.15. Peace Education. Human relations and conflict resolution skills, nonviolence, leadership training and cooperative teamwork skills, and communication skills are all important elements in nurturing our students. Peace Education will be as vital an element of our curriculum as mathematics and science.

1.4.2.16. Creative thinking and problem solving skills.

1.4.3. Academic standards. In all cases we set our expectations high, not asking individuals to do more than that of which they are capable, but consistently stressing at all levels the importance of careful work and pride in accomplishment. The reward is not in the quantity of work achieved but the satisfaction of work done well for its own sake. We carefully build a supportive environment for the unhurried mind to move steadily toward the pursuit of excellence.

1.4.3.1 Students’ practical life experiences will include opportunities to research and apply for additional learning experiences beyond their Sample experience.

1.4.3.2. Assisting students with applications process. Students will have an understanding of what needs to be done to complete the admissions process for university and other professional schools.

1.4.3.3. Competition. We believe that it is neither necessary nor appropriate to inspire unrestrained academic pressure and scholastic competition among students. We cultivate the ability to accept success with grace, and failure or loss with dignity, and resolve to build on the experience. We ensure the right to choose whether or not to participate in competitive activities, and we stress the principles of good sportsmanship.

1.4.4. Success. We design our educational program to maximize each person’s academic and personal success. We strive to encourage people to build on their strengths and personal learning styles and learn from their mistakes.

1.4.4.1. Academic success. We encourage skills that support independent and successful learning, critical thinking, cooperative projects, reflective reading, problem solving, library research, use of technology, techniques for effective study, test-taking strategies, and techniques for focusing attention.

1.4.4.2. Personal success. We consider it equally important that our community members be successful human beings who can establish healthy relationships and achieve happiness in their personal lives. We teach our students to pay attention to and respect feelings, both their own and those of others. We help them to learn to solve conflicts effectively and fairly, and to express their feelings in a healthy manner. Group dynamics and communication skills are also stressed.

1.5. Sample Montessori School prepares students for life (Our goal is to inspire a passion for excellence and a lifelong love of learning) Sample Montessori School provides a broad preparation for life, balancing academic excellence with the development of personal and practical life skills.

1.5.1. We teach universal values

1.5.1.1. Empowerment: We make a concerted effort to empower people at our school, helping them to learn how to make responsible choices for themselves, to recognize that they are assuming increasing control over their lives as they mature, and to discover how to make a difference in the world around them by positive efforts and contributions to others.

1.5.1.2. Our goals for students are for them to be open-minded and compassionate, to gain a sense of themselves and others, and to understand and appreciate the diversity of the human spirit.

1.5.1.3. To facilitate the development of independence and a sense of engagement with the community we strongly encourage participation in day-to-day classroom management, care of the environment and decision making. We seek to help each student to feel a commitment both to the local and the global community of humankind. We want each student to understand that the good of the individual and that of the community are interdependent.

1.5.1.4. We want students to love learning and to value knowledge, creativity, and humor. Finally, we hope they will be responsible, critical, and caring members of a pluralistic society and recognize that they have the power and resources to effect change as well as the self-esteem and confidence to pursue their goals.

1.5.1.5. We respect the fundamental human needs, rights, and dignity of each person, no matter how young, as a full and independent person who is engaged in the ongoing process of development. During this process, while honoring the right to self-determination, we model and encourage certain values: kindness, honesty, warmth and openness, respect for each person’s uniqueness, tolerance, cooperation, good sportsmanship, and nonviolence.

1.5.1.6. Celebration of Diversity As educators, parents and citizens of the world with the mutual goal of world peace, we consider it our responsibility to model and encourage acceptance and celebration of cultural, racial, religious beliefs, appearance, socio-economic position, and other differences among people , both to our children and to each other.

1.5.2. Discipline

1.5.2.1. Ultimately we wish for every community member to be willing to accept full responsibility for their behavior, their attitudes, their experiences, and in short for their lives. The enormous reward that comes with accepting this responsibility is the freedom to choose and create the type of person they wish to be, and the life they wish to lead.

1.5.2.2. In keeping with the true meaning of the word discipline, which is to teach, we prefer to model and encourage appropriate, kind, and considerate ways to behave in various situations.

1.5.2.3. School should be safe. We endeavor to provide a school environment that will promote and protect the physical and emotional well being of our students and staff.

1.5.2.4. Rather than focus on rules and the consequences for students of breaking them, we prefer to teach students beforehand appropriate, kind, and considerate ways to behave in given situations. We use positive reinforcement whenever possible to praise their progress, acknowledge their contributions, and strengthen character. As necessary, we cue and remind students of appropriate behaviors before they forget, and, when behavior is inappropriate and a gentle reminder isn’t enough, we intervene and respectfully, but firmly, stop the behavior.

1.5.2.5. We will never permit the use of corporal punishment.

1.5.2.6. We encourage and model ways to negotiate in conflict situations so that whenever possible everyone can win and at the very least everyone feels heard and that her feelings and needs are respected.

1.5.2.7. As necessary we cue and remind people of appropriate behaviors before they forget.

1.5.2.8. When behavior is inappropriate and a gentle reminder isn’t enough, we intervene and respectfully but firmly stop the behavior.

1.5.2.10 Our ultimate goal is to encourage self- discipline and self-motivation as the reasons for behavior rather than fear or motivation from without.

1.5.2.11 We do not label a child as “bad,” but instead try to recognize the mistaken goals of the misbehavior that usually involve an attempt at searching for a place in the family or community, even if it is an undesirable place. We then look to find appropriate ways to encourage the individual.

1.5.2.12 While we are normally successful with a very wide range of students, we can never be right for every child. One of our greatest challenges is to be objective, compassionate, yet realistic in considering the needs of each child as a unique individual. When we fail despite our best efforts to work with the child to help him/her meet appropriate behavioral expectations within the school’s fundamental ground rules, we sadly and reluctantly counsel the family to seek out another school setting in which the child can experience success.

1.6 Community Service

1.6.2 We seek to show and teach our students that the freedom and education they receive here come with the responsibility to help others both in the community, and those less fortunate but no less deserving. To show them that the responsibility to change our world for the better lies with all of us, and that service needs to be an accepted part of everyone’s life if we are to achieve this goal. Opportunities to perform community service in the community at large include, the adoption of needy families by the classes at holiday time, sharing of clothes and toys with underprivileged children, and opportunities to volunteer at nursing homes, soup kitchens and hospital nurseries.

1.7 Practical Life skills: To facilitate and encourage a sense of independence, we deliberately teach a wide range of practical life skills appropriate to each child’s level of development. We regard this as a vital element affecting the design of our entire curriculum. These practical life skills include the following:

1.7.1. Eye-hand coordination and the use of simple tools.

1.7.2. Grace and courtesy: appropriate ways to handle situations kindly.

1.7.3. Practical economics: the value and use of money, including how to earn and manage spending money.

1.7.4. Technology: the safe use of technology, such as more complex tools, telephones, computers, classroom audio-visual equipment, and household appliances.

1.7.4.1. Computers: We use the computer as a fundamental tool for learning, not only as an element of contemporary practical life, but also as an aid in the development of logical planning and problem solving.

1.7.5. Transportation: As appropriate at each age level in our school, the safe use of alternate means of transportation other than a parent’s car, such as hiking and bicycling, public transportation, and (if we ever extend to the secondary level) driver’s education.

1.7.6. Communication: the appropriate use of the technology of personal and mass communication, from writing letters to using the telephone, using the word processor, preparing the newsletter, speaking before an audience and designing audiovisual presentations.

1.7.7. Care of ones Environment: how to clean and set tables, do dishes, cook, sew, iron, infant and childcare and laundry.

1.7.8. Health and Safety: the development of sound habits of safety, nutrition and hygiene, along with the acquisition of first-aid skills and as developmentally appropriate, CPR.

1.8. The world of nature

1.8.1 Strengthening our connection with nature and the environment is an integral part of Woodland Hill.

1.8.2. We seek to instill in our students, parents, and staff not only a reverence for the earth, its waters, and all living things, but also a sense of stewardship for the environment based on a conviction of our individual responsibility for the beauty of the land and the health of our ecosystems.

1.8.3. We seek to instill in our students, parents, and staff not only a reverence for the earth, its waters, and all living things, but also a sense of stewardship for the environment based on a conviction of our individual responsibility for the beauty of the land and the health of our ecosystems.

1.8.4. We believe that being at home in the world of nature is basic to being a whole and healthy human being.

1.8.5. We consciously work to foster in each person a strong sense of belonging to the web of life. We accomplish this goal through:

1.8.5.1 Programs in outdoor education, and field biology at every age level in the school, using the natural setting of our campus and the wide variety of natural resources around us as a classroom out of doors.

1.8.5.2 Programs in gardening and small animal care

1.8.5.3 Programs in camping, canoeing and field ecological studies in natural wilderness settings.

1.8.5.4 We stress recycling and environmentally friendly packaging for lunches and all foods and products used in our community.

1.9. We are committed to being a family-friendly school

1.9.1. In establishing policies and procedures, we attempt to remain sensitive to the needs, desires, and factors that might add unnecessary stress and pressures onto our families.

1.9.2. Also, in establishing policies and procedures, along with setting the calendar of school events, we will attempt to avoid conflicting with the religious traditions and holy days of our families. We recognize that this at times may be virtually impossible considering our diversity, but at the very least every effort will be made to create a balanced and respectful approach to this issue.

1.9.3. From time to time, we will survey our families or hold special community meetings to explore how the school could be more family friendly.

2. Faculty

2.1 We carefully identify the duties and responsibilities of each position in the school.

2.2 We carefully identify the skills and knowledge, experience, educational philosophy, core values, and interpersonal skills needed to be successful in each position at our school.

2.3 We take great care in our hiring process to find new members of our faculty and staff who bring the right mix of skills, knowledge, experience, values, and personality to succeed at our school.

2.4 We will clearly communicate to all members of the faculty and staff our expectations, personnel policies, and benefits and professional development opportunities that may be applicable to their positions.

2.5 In evaluating the school’s programs and performance of each member of the faculty we will be as objective and positive as possible, encouraging individual initiative, self-evaluation, and continuous professional growth.

2.6 We consciously follow fair and equal employment practices in hiring, assigning, promoting, and compensating both teaching and non-teaching staff members. We endeavor to employ persons solely on the basis of the factors necessary in the performance of the job and the operation of our school without discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation, race, national origin, gender, and any other factor on which discrimination is prohibited by the laws of the jurisdiction within which our school is located.

2.7 No official of our school will seek to induce a teacher who is under contract at another school to break that contract. [There is nothing deemed improper if a member of the teaching or administrative staff of one school independently approaches another school about possible employment.]

2.8 Our school will not offer employment to a member of the faculty or staff of another school without communicating with the Head of the school at which he or she is presently employed or committed for the upcoming school year to request a frank evaluation of a candidate’s qualifications. This information will be considered absolutely confidential.

2.9 Our school will take all reasonable and lawful precautions to maintain the confidentiality of records and information concerning teachers and other staff members who are applying for employment at another school, in accordance with the rights of the individual.

2.10 Any materials brought to School by a member of our faculty and staff, purchased with his or her own funds, shall remain his or her property.

2.11 It is mutually understood that any teacher-made educational materials produced by a member of the faculty and staff during the term of this Agreement using school materials and supplies shall be considered the property of the school. However, faculty and staff members may use school materials to make a duplicate set of these materials for his or her own professional library.

2.12 Should a faculty member develop any new curricula, teaching techniques, teaching aids, or any other educational materials during the course of his or her employment with the School, he or she grants to the School a perpetual license to utilize said materials or ideas in its educational programs with both children and teacher training.

2.13 Any teaching aids, materials, or curricula developed by the School, as well as any mailing lists of the School’s students and families, represent the proprietary property of the School. No member of the faculty will be authorized to sell, transfer, assign, or disseminate said materials to a third person or a competitor of the School without first obtaining the Head of School’s written approval.

3. Facilities

3.1 We will deliberately seek to create a campus of timeless beauty that communicates to our students that the buildings and grounds are expressions of our love and commitment to their education and success.

3.2 Whatever the size of our enrollment, or the age levels encompassed in our programs, our buildings and grounds will support the implementation of our educational program and institutional mission as ideally as possible.

3.3 Buildings will not be constructed for the sake of having space. Consistent with this blueprint, each will be carefully considered in terms of need, ideal space and configuration, and integration into the pattern language developed for our master plan.

3.4 As a Montessori school, we a very high priority for us will be to have a campus large enough to include areas set aside for natural habitat, as well as areas set aside for extensive programs in horticultural education, outdoor education, animal husbandry, and if possible, an equestrian program.

3.5 Whenever possible, the school will do everything in its power to keep the buildings and grounds free from toxic substances and environmental irritants. Whenever possible, pesticides and cleaning products will be found that are non-toxic and which do not induce allergic reactions in students or staff members.

3.6 The school will consciously follow safety procedures designed to protect students and staff. :

3.6.1 all power tools, fuels, paint removers, and other hazardous substances will be kept under lock and key

3.6.2 no lawnmowers or other potentially hazardous machinery will be used anywhere in the vicinity where children are present.

4 Finances

4.1 Our school honors its financial commitments to parents, staff, vendors, and others.

4.2 The board will not pass a deficit operating budget. We will operate on a balanced budget.

We are committed to building a contingency/reserve fund.

The budget will include a contingency/reserve line item.

We will endeavor to maintain a balanced operating budget without depending on income from fund raising projects.

4.3 Tuition will be set on the basis of what it costs to do the job right and meet the fundamental beliefs and values embodied in this blueprint.

4.4 We are committed to making this experience truly inclusive by pursuing funding sources and endowments to offer scholarships financial assistance for families who are unable to fund their child’s education themselves. We will set aside a portion of our tuition income every year to help support the school’s financial aid assistance program.

4.5. We will communicate accurate information about the financial state of the school in an annual report to the community and, from time to time, on a more frequent basis.

4.6 We will endeavor to operate without depending on income from fund raising projects

4.7 6. We expect all of our families, as members of our community, to honor their financial obligations to the school in a timely and responsible manner.

5 Recruitment and admissions

5.1 Admissions: Our primary goal in the recruitment and admissions process is to help each family determine whether our school is the perfect match with their values and goals, and the school setting that will work best for their individual child.

5.1.1 When we admit a new student, we are not simply bringing him or her into the school community. We are bringing the child, his or her parents, siblings, and extended family into the mix.

5.1.2 In making admissions decisions, we will weigh many factors, placing the greatest emphasis on whether the parents are deeply committed to sending their children to our school, hopefully for the long run and hopefully for the right reasons, and whether their values and goals for their children’s education are a close match with those of our school.

5.1.3 In making admissions decisions, we will normally give strong preference to families who we believe are committed to keeping their children in the school at least through the elementary years.

5.1.4 A Montessori student can never be replaced. Our secondary goal in the process of admissions and recruitment is to find families for whom the school will be a perfect match. We are seeking families who share common values and goals with the school, and who, after careful consideration and exploration, have concluded that our school is something that they want very much for their children, for the right reasons.

5.1.5 Hopefully the children whom we admit in the early years will graduate from our school. Ideally it will be so much a part of each family’s life that eventually the children of our graduates will attend our school as well. We want to be a family tradition.

5.1.6 In the admissions process, we consciously treat parents with respect as partners in exploring whether or not we would be the perfect match for their child. We do not use gimmicks, such as the hint that spaces are filling up fast.

5.1.7 We will not try to convince prospective parents that our school is right for them and for their child. Instead we will tell the truth, help them to grasp the true nature of the school and what it has to offer, and allow them to weigh all the factors out as they consider whether our school is indeed the right match for them and their child.

5.1.8 We will welcome prospective parents with open arms and make it as easy as we can for them to learn what our school is really all about:

5.1.8.1 We will hold open houses at least once a week and gladly schedule individual tours during school hours if for some reason the normal open house time is inconvenient.

5.1.8.2 We will normally make a list of the names and home phone numbers of Ambassador parents available to prospective parents who would like to speak with another family.

5.1.8.3 We will arrange frequent and convenient times when prospective parents can observe in our classrooms.

5.1.8.4 We will spend as much time with prospective parents as possible in order to answer their questions, address their concerns, and assist them in determining whether it feels to them as if our school would be a good match for their child.

5.1.8.5 We will consider applications for admission on a case by case open admission basis. We will do our best once an application has been received to arrange for the student’s visits and evaluations, gather all of the information needed to evaluate the application, and schedule all meetings and interviews in the most timely manner possible. We will endeavor to make and communicate all admissions decisions to the families as quickly as possible.

5.2 Non-discrimination Our school does not discriminate in matters of admission on the basis of race, creed, religion, national or ethnic background. We consciously teach children to celebrate the rich cultural diversity of the global community. We regard a mix of backgrounds and abilities as a positive and important element in our community.

5.3 Truth in Advertising As a member of the International Montessori Council, w We pledge to represent our school truthfully and accurately to the general public and internally to our parent community.

5.4 Negative Public Relations: We further pledge ourselves to respect the diversity of the community of Montessori schools. We will not engage in negative public relations nor make any negative statements about another Montessori school or any other school.

5.5 We will promptly consult with parents should it ever become clear that a student is not benefiting from the school’s program, or if the school is not the best program to meet his/ or her needs.

5.6 Our school recognizes each family’s right to visit and consider other schools and to hold preliminary discussions regarding admission without feeling compelled to notify the school, which that their children presently attend.

5.7 While we welcome inquiries and interest in our school, we will never knowingly attempt to recruit and enroll an individual student away from his or her current Montessori program who is presently enrolled in or committed to attend another Montessori program.

5.8. Before filing an application for admission, we ask that families advise their children’s present schools and authorize in writing the release to us of their children’s academic records and student recommendations upon our request.

6 Building Community

6.1 We are a close-knit community of students, educators, parents, and friends of the school.

6.2 Community is the invisible web that structures our pluralist beliefs. Culturally, historically and individually, our communities represent the best of our shared experiences. Our School presents an opportunity to expand the web of inclusion in our local community.

6.3 2. We recognize that a Montessori school is more than a place of learning; it is a community of children and adults that has a significant impact on our students’ capacity to learn, grow, create, develop, assimilate values, and relate peacefully and respectfully to other people and to the natural world.

6.4 3 We treat all students, families, teachers, and staff members, and all people with kindness, warmth, and respect.

6.5 4 We consciously work to build a constructive partnership between the family and school in support of each child’s educational development.

6.6 5. Within reasonable guidelines established to ensure the integrity of our educational program and the privacy of other students’ records, parents are welcome to visit the school to observe their child in class or to review his or /her academic progress.

6.7 6 We believe that every member of our community has a fundamental right to be treated with respect, regardless of age.

6.8 7 We place a primary emphasis on building relationships partnerships with families as early as possible in order to help parents recognize the uniqueness of their child. We also work together to enhance the help parents ‘ ability to parent incorporate Montessori philosophy into their family life.

6.9 8 We are an extended family community whose participants are supported at all levels by all others in the community.

6.10 9 We believe in the principle that those matters which affect individual community members directly impact all others in our community, We consider input from all of our community members in our decision making processes in order to take into account the needs of our total community.

We are committed to the creation of programs that stress personal development for all members of the community.

6.11 Parenting Center: We encourage parents to participate in programs that can help them to refine their parenting strategies, to facilitate the development of independence, responsibility, self-confidence and self- respect in their sons and daughters and in themselves. We recognize parenting as an extremely difficult, rewarding and valuable job for which we have had little preparation and for which in the modern world we get little support. We are committed to find ways to provide that support for families from birth through adulthood by the creation of a parenting center to include parenting classes, and ongoing support groups, and a parenting library, and car pooling.

6.12 The Ambassador Parent Program: We understand the special needs of new participants in the community and the necessity of a program to match new families with ones experienced in the community to provide support and information.

6.13 Support for Community Businesses: We will encourage and facilitate methods for members of our community to access the services of other community members.

6.14 Adult Development Programs: We encourage the establishment a program of adult classes and seminars on a variety of topics guided by community interest, in keeping with our commitment to a lifelong process of learning and personal growth.

6.135 Commitment to the values of the school: We expect all adult members of the school community to treat one another and the children in accordance with the core values of the school as embodied in this document. Members of our community, students, parents, teachers and support staff to be committed, contributing members of the community, and to show support for the ground rules, values, and principles established by the community, and we are prepared to support them in this effort as in some cases it may involve a paradigm shift.

6.146 Class and Community Meetings: We believe in holding monthly class and community meetings to allow and encourage a free and open exchange of ideas and information. Children are welcome to participate in these meetings.

7 Administration

7.1 The goal of our administration is to provide educational leadership, more than business administration.

7.2 The primary role of the Head of our school is to articulate the core values and vision, provide academic leadership, take leadership in the admissions and recruitment process, build community and reduce attrition among students and families, recruit and coach faculty members and staff, oversee the financial health of the school and support fundraising, serve as the school’s primary spokesman spokesperson to the larger community, and lead the process of internal self-evaluation and long-term planning.

7.3 The Head of School will ensure that excellence and consistency with our values and vision permeate the school seamlessly from class to class, from level to level, and from one year to the next.

7.4 Naturally the Head of School will support his or her faculty and attempt to provide similar support and counsel to the school’s families. However, the ultimate factor on which difficult decisions must be balanced is what is best for each individual child and what is consistent with the core values of the school.

7.5 When conflicts arise within the school, whether they involve parents, staff members, students, or administrators or board, every attempt will be made to find the best and highest resolution of the issues under dispute that is most consistent with the school’s fundamental values and is most oriented to a win-win model.

7.6 The administration of the school will ensure a smooth and timely flow of communication about important dates and information to parents, students, and staff, and board.

7.7 The administration will follow a collegial model in working with faculty members and staff, inviting their input and participation whenever appropriate in important questions facing the school.

8 Governance

8.1 The Board of Trustees shall be comprised of people who share a deep sense of commitment to the Sample Montessori School and Montessori philosophy. In all matters, they consider the overall best interests of the school over their own interests or over the interests of any constituent group within the school community.

8.1.1 The primary responsibility of the Board of Trustees is to ensure that the institutional identity, mission, and core values and beliefs about education that define the nature of the school are established and re-examined and refined and from time to time, reexamine, and if necessary refine, the institutional identity, mission, and core values and beliefs about education that define the nature of the school with the involvement of the community.

8.1.28.1.2 That The school’s mission, institutional identity, and core values and beliefs will be set down in writing in a working community document called the “Blueprint.”

8.1.3 Before beginning to consider voting on any motion made before the Board, the Board of Trustees will first consult the Blueprint to identify the underlying values and beliefs that would support whatever decision is made on the issue before the Board.

8.1.3.1 The Board will only approve motions that are supported by the core values and beliefs that are consistent with the blueprint.

8.1.4 If the Blueprint does not address the issue, or if the Board concludes that the Blueprint needs to be amended to more completely address the school’s underlying values and beliefs, it will go through the process of amending the Blueprint, with the input of the community as set forth below, before voting on the motion.

8.1.4.1 Before amending the blueprint, the board will formally request the school community review the proposed amendment and provide feedback.

8.1.5 The minutes of the meetings of the Board will reflect not only the motions passed, but also the text of the underlying elements of the Blueprint and will cite the section of the blueprint that supports the action.

8.1.6 Except when confidential matters are being considered, board meetings are normally open.

8.1.7 6 Except for confidential issues, the major actions of the board will be communicated to the school community in a timely fashion. These communications will include the motions passed, including the text of the underlying elements of the Blueprint.

8.1.7 Except when confidential matters are being considered, board meetings are open.

8.1.8 Concerned parents or staff members may request the opportunity to address their opinion to the board.

9 Fundraising

9.1 Every gift given to our school will be a gift of love, generously offered in support of our work

9.2 We will not nickel and dime our families to death with petty fundraisers. We will limit fundraising activities to major programs, such as the Annual Fund and Spring Benefit.

9.3 While donations of funds, tangible goods, services, or real property are deeply appreciated, the school can never accept any gift that would require it to violate any of its core beliefs outlined in this document.

9.3.1 While individuals wishing to donate funds to the school are welcome to designate the use to which they may be used, it is up the Board of Trustees to establish policy about who will decide on behalf of the school if they can be accepted in light of the conditions established.

9.3.2 Only the Board of Trustees can accept a gift of real property or tangible goods on behalf of the school that would potentially require the expenditure of funds to repair or maintain.

9.4 The Board of Trustees should be a key element in leading and promoting the school’s fundraising efforts.

10 Supporting Activities

10.1 (food service, transportation, after school programs)

11 Supporting Programs (summer programs, teacher training centers, parenting centers, etc.)

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Enrich Your Curriculum With A Montessori Studio Program

Why Montessori Education Needs Health Education

Montessori, Darwin and Telling The New Story Of Evolution

Imaginary Island Studies

Online Record Keeping and Communicating With Parents in 2015

Preparing for the Admissions Season Ahead

Starting a New Montessori School

Starting a World Class Montessori School from the Ground Up

Why do you want to start a Montessori School (as opposed to any other type of school)?

Training and support

Consulting Services

We are unable to help with:

Some aspects to consider

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Semble Social Investor Financing A Good Alternative Way for Nonprofit Montessori Schools to Finance

Planned Giving in Montessori Schools

Sample Blueprint of a Montessori School’s Core Values

The Sample Montessori School

A Blueprint of Our Fundamental Values and Beliefs

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