Gardening & Ecology

"The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth."
Maria Montessori

Mission Statement

The Gardening Program at The Montessori School nurtures each child's appreciation and understanding of the natural world by involving them in the processes of planning and maintaining a sustainable, ecologically-friendly garden.

Goals

1. To use the garden as an outdoor, experiential classroom for the child's engagement with the natural world.
2. To provide awareness of the seasons through the cycles of planting, growing, and harvesting of plants.
3. To help children become ecologically responsible citizens by exposing them to ecologically-friendly and sustainable gardening techniques.
4. To lay the foundation to becoming skillful and knowledgeable gardeners by introducing children to gardening techniques, composting, and plant varieties.
5. To teach children about the connection between farming and food, and provide an awareness of where food comes from.
6. To teach children to honor their bodies with wholesome food, tastefully prepared, slowly eaten.
7. To allow children to teach others what they have learned.

Our gardening program is just one of many ways we connect to nature.

Our Vision
In an increasingly urban, technological world, children can often feel isolated from the natural world; this, in turn, can lead to feelings of deep alienation and loss. Maria Montessori believed that a child's connection to his or her environment is critical to that child's well-being. On our eight-acre campus, we try to find myriad ways to foster that connection, with 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 an outside classroom. We encourage students to develop a respect for, an understanding of, and a sense of responsibility for the environment. We seek to instill in our community a reverence for the earth and a sense of individual stewardship for the environment.

Our Ecological Footprint
We at the Montessori School are proud that our community is committed to leaving a positive ecological footprint, and that our students are empowered to do so themselves. Our elementary students have spearheaded a school-wide recycling campaign in conjunction with the Village of Clemmons. Each classroom and commons area recycles its paper and plastic, and the students are responsible for taking the recycling bins to the pick-up point each week. We also have a school-wide composting program, and most recently we have added a Vermiculture program (the students enjoy watching the worms reduce the waste!). Our ecological curriculum is particularly apparent in our Elementary programs where students can be found making "lasagna-style" sustainable raised beds; planting, caring for, and harvesting vegetables; and studying insects. When we decided to sell a school T-shirt as a fundraiser last year, we used a product that was made from local, sustainably-grown cotton. In addition, we are pending certification as a Schoolyard Habitat from the National Wildlife Federation, and our elementary children are members of Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots program.

Plans for the Future & Current Endeavors
As we look ahead, we are studying ways to implement water-efficient and sustainable landscaping, and we are investigating how to transition to a pesticide-free campus. We are reviewing our water use and ways to reduce it. We are trying to reduce waste by encouraging the use of containers rather than plastic packaging for lunches and other foods at school. We are continuously improving our environmental curriculum and keeping our teachers abreast of new opportunities for learning.

In early 2008 The Montessori School engaged in a contract with the Natural Learning Initiative (NLI), a research and design assistance program through NC State. The mission of the Natural Learning Initiative is to help communities create stimulating places for play, learning, and environmental education; environments that recognize human dependence on the natural world. They collaborate with school educators, environmental educators, planners, politicians, and any professionals working for and with children. NLI provides design models that are researched based for ecologically viable sites and settings. This partnership is in alliance with our Blueprint and the direction our community has chosen for our school. Due to the success of our Auction 2008, the design effort of this phase began and May 2008 and will continue to be phased in over a period of years. To learn more about NLI visit www.naturalearning.org.