Overview: Learning Programme for Adolescents From Ages Twelve to Eighteen

Adolescents are emerging from childhood and preparing themselves for their adult role. From the Montessori point of view, adolescence, like the previous developmental planes of infancy and childhood, is a period of physical, intellectual and social transformation, governed by the special tendencies and dispositions that characterise the age group and generate the developmental achievements of the period.

The manifestations of third plane characteristics can be intense. These characteristics represent a new set of needs that educators must address, first by removing obstacles to individual development and, second, by providing an environment that meets the developmental needs of students of this age. As with the Montessori environments prepared for the two previous planes of development, it is the physical, social, ethical, intellectual and spiritual needs of students in the third plane of development that are central to the educational environment prepared by Montessori educators for adolescents.

Adolescence, the third plane of development, is a period of transformation, a ‘creative’ plane of development, that echoes, in the Montessori view, the first plane of development. The adolescent is ‘a newborn participant in adult society’ (Grazzini and Krumins Grazzini 2010 [1996]: 96), no longer a child but not yet an adult, when, at puberty, the transformative developmental work of becoming an adult begins.

The rapid physical growth of adolescence also echoes the rapid physical growth of the first plane of development, but this time of physical growth is accompanied by the intense hormonal activity that ushers in sexual maturity. The energy adolescents need during periods of rapid physical growth can sometimes diminish the energy they have available to concentrate on their academic work. Similarly, during both the first and third planes of development, the human brain undergoes significant re-organisation, in the first plane as the baby becomes a child, and in the third plane, as the child transforms into an adult. At the onset of adolescence young people are ready to take further steps away from their families and towards adult independence in society. They also become idealistic and peer-oriented. They can find it difficult to concentrate on structured academic learning but love to interact conversationally and collaboratively with other adolescents in the context of projects and issues that are important to them; they feel supported and nurtured in a cooperative community of peers.

Where the work of the infant is to create a human being, the work of the adolescent is to create a human adult ready to take their place in society. Strong emotional responses, a feature of both infancy and adolescence, are a sign in adolescence of the young person’s huge capacity for creative expression. Like the child in the first plane of development, the adolescent is very egocentric, but this now manifests as introspection. For this reason, during adolescence young people grapple with questions such as:

• Who am I?

• Where do I fit into society?

• How can I be of use?

Emerging from the interest in justice and ethics that is a feature of the second plane of development, adolescents have high ideals and place a high value on social justice, but there is a shift in emphasis from justice as an abstract concept that interests the second plane child to a concern in adolescence with how to contribute practically and actively to justice in the immediate social environment and beyond. Similarly, there is a shift in emphasis from the abstract and intellectual learning style of the child in the second plane to a more practical and experiential learning style in adolescence. The adolescent needs to explore, in more depth, ideas and concepts introduced in Cosmic Education during the primary school years, but with an emphasis on the practical application, and the economic and social value, of these concepts. Adolescents are eager to use their ideals and knowledge to explore possible social roles and to seek economic independence (Montessori 1976 [1948] 97-121).

Introduction

Educational environments prepared for adolescents by Montessori educators are designed to build an adolescent community in which young people gain social experience that prepares them for adulthood. The right environment for adolescents, according to Dr Montessori (1992 [1949]: 109) is one in which they can have ‘effective, practical experience of every aspect of social life’. One of the central roles of the Montessori environment prepared for adolescents is to initiate these young people into the world of adult work. The environment prepared for a Montessori adolescent community incorporates two types of working environments:

• an environment that relates to nature and the earth

• an environment that relates to the work of humans

Physical Environment

The physical environment proposed by Dr Montessori as the place where a community of adolescents, ranging in age from 12 to 15, or 18, years, will ideally live and work together is a rural setting. This environment is set up as a ‘centre for study and work’ (Montessori 1976 [1948]: 105). In this environment adolescents are supported so they can become self-regulating and so they can engage in a micro-economy comprising a variety of farming enterprises. By this means, students experience adult productive work and develop practical skills as well as skills in organisation and economic management. The farm school is the prototypical Montessori prepared environment for adolescents. Montessori prepared environments for adolescents in urban settings are designed to provide equivalent opportunities for study, self-regulation and productive work. The common theme of both rural and urban environments prepared by Montessori educators for adolescents is that these environments become a setting for a pedagogy of place, that is, a place for work and study, a village-like environment, in which all members of the community experience belonging, engagement, shared responsibility, achievement, and awareness of the significance of their contribution and worth, and an investment in each other and in the occupations and projects generated by the community.

The Montessori Environment Prepared for Adolescents in a Rural Setting

In a rural setting, adolescents have the opportunity to study the agricultural origins of human civilisation, as well as the cycles of production and exchange which underpin the economic foundations of social life. The rural environment might include:

• a farmhouse, with shared living and study space

• a garden

• natural, wild spaces

• a greenhouse

• three farm buildings: one for animals, one for workshops, for example, woodwork and craft workshops, and one to house large equipment

• productive farming land

• a guesthouse, or bed and breakfast, where family members can stay when they visit

• a ‘museum of machinery’ (Montessori 1976 [1948]: 117) that allows students to engage closely with advances in technology

The rural setting provides a framework for study that puts adolescents into direct contact with real life, both the natural environment and the environment built by humans. In this rural setting specially prepared for adolescents:

… the exploration is even wider [than in the environment prepared for second plane children], encompassing the farm and the community of the rural area. It echoes what the children explored at the second plane: civilization and how it came about. But now the exploration takes place in reality because the adolescents are actually doing it. Cooperation with the land, cooperation in commerce, and cooperation in the cultural life of the rural society touch materially the things studied in the second plane and afford the adolescent the opportunity to see his or her place in society (First-generation Montessori teacher trainer Margaret Stephenson, cited in Pendleton 1997: 35).

In the rural setting, under the guidance of experts, adolescents gradually take over the management of the different enterprises that make up the environment. This might include a small shop, or market stall, perhaps in the nearby urban area, where they are able to sell produce from the farm and products, such as crafts, produced in the workshops. Each of these enterprises provides the motivation for constructive and productive activity, and the study of related knowledge and skills. As they learn to manage these enterprises, students apply their academic learning and gain practical skills, while also learning what it means to work collaboratively towards self-regulation and economic independence. The adolescent community is organised by the limits and rules needed to ensure that life in the community remains ordered, harmonious and productive. The organisation of the environment and community life is designed so students have the opportunity to learn that ‘self-discipline is an aspect of individual liberty and the chief factor of success in life’ (Montessori (1976 [1948]: 113). The higher ideal of such a community is for adolescents to become ‘adults who are builders of peace in a multicultural society which is in rapid evolution’ (Grazzini and Krumins Grazzini 2010: 103).

The adults who prepare the environment, and whose role it is to ignite the students’ interest in the opportunities for work and study in the prepared rural environment, include qualified teachers and instructors, some living on site. The teaching staff is made up of specialists, including specialists in Montessori education and in the secondary school subject areas, with the addition of technical expertise in relevant fields such as horticulture, animal husbandry and agriculture, business management, health and first aid, as well as trades and practical skills, such as carpentry, cooking, housekeeping, and general maintenance. The adults in the community show the students how to pay attention to their own physical and emotional health and well-being by drawing on specialist knowledge of what adolescents need for optimal health, for example, in terms of nutrition, sleep and physical exercise.

Dr Montessori coined the name Erdkinder, meaning land, or rural, children, to describe the adolescents who live in this prepared rural community. This name echoes the term Kindergarten so commonly used for educational environments designed for children in the first plane of development. The prepared rural environment is designed to take into account the following dimensions of development:

• physical, including health, fitness and nutrition

• emotional

• social

• intellectual

• moral, or ethical

• the prepared rural, or farm, community is the blueprint for integrating study and work in all Montessori adolescent programs.

The Montessori Environment Prepared for Adolescents in an Urban Setting

While the Montessori adolescent curriculum emerges from the Erdkinder blueprint, it is not possible for all Montessori adolescent communities to live and work in rural settings; Montessori adolescent communities are also established in urban settings. The environments prepared for urban centres adapt the principles established by the rural blueprint. The urban setting needs to provide students with connection to the land and nature, to the world of adult work and to the wider community. For this reason, urban settings for Montessori adolescent communities are designed to make possible projects, occupations and micro-enterprises in domains such as the following:

• market gardening, greenhouse or rooftop garden, horticulture, landscaping, hydroponics, worm-farming

• land and bush care

• recycling and managing water resources

• managing all aspects of providing school lunches, ideally based on produce from the garden

• maintenance of bicycles, computers, sports equipment etc

• managing a coffee shop, pizza business or produce market stall

• keeping bees or poultry

• making and marketing items such as clothing, jewellery, belts, soap, candles and baked goods.

• housekeeping services

The urban adolescent programme can also include extended trips, organised by the students, such as camping and outdoor adventure trips or work experience on farms and rural properties.

The Social Dimension of the Environment

The Montessori environment prepared for adolescents is designed as a ‘school of experience in the elements of social life’ (1976 [1948]: 102). The experience of social life in this environment has two aspects:

• an environment in which participation in community life and contact with the natural world are combined

• an environment in which work, or occupations, are organised as social activity

Participation in Community Life and Contact with the Natural World: A Pedagogy of Place

The emphasis in the Montessori adolescent programme on integrating study and work in an environment that combines participation in community life and contact with the natural world, echoes the concept of place, and its educational value, as described by Orr (1992) and Hutchinson (1998). In their description, place, comprising a human community in contact with the natural world, builds a context for social relations. The value of an education that emphasises both community and contact with nature, is described by Orr (1992: 127) in the following way:

The idea that place could be a significant educational tool was proposed by John Dewey in an 1897 essay. Dewey proposed that we ‘make each of our schools an embryonic community… with types of occupations that reflect the life of the larger society’. He intended to broaden the focus of education, which he regarded as too ‘highly specialized, one-sided, and narrow’. The school, its relations with the larger community and all of its internal functions, Dewey proposed to remake into curriculum.

This view resonates with the idea of the ‘spirit of place’, where community relations and values align with ecological sustainability, as described by Hutchinson (1998: 129) in the following way:

To know one’s place is to have an intimate knowledge of the local environment (both natural and built) and the various professional roles, shared histories, and interdependent relationships that sustain the community over the long term. To further strengthen children’s ties to the local community, their participation in community projects that help to nurture culturally significant relationships between young and old can be fostered by way of apprenticeship-style programs and community renewal efforts that arise within ecologically sustainable contexts.

The notion of place is also linked to the geographical and social containment of the environment. The ideal environment for an adolescent community is small scale at every level. This includes the building, designed on a scale that supports the sense of community, as well as the neighbourhood and the landholding, both of which can be easily traversed by the students on foot within the school day.

In summary, the Erdkinder pedagogy of place encompasses all aspects of a community’s environment, an environment which includes sources of food, water, energy, materials, friends, occupation and recreation, in other words, the larger economic, ecological, social, political and spiritual elements of the students’ immediate surroundings. Place is a community in which the adolescent feels he or she both belongs and contributes.

Work, or Occupations, Organised as Social Life

Through work, the students in the Montessori adolescent community engage with the natural environment and the wider society. The work undertaken with the community are called occupations. Occupations in the adolescent community have the following characteristics:

• The work is meaningful to the students.

• The work is both physically and intellectually challenging.

• The work is valued in the wider community, society and culture.

• The work has economic validity.

Occupations with these characteristics inspire students to engage in the work with integrity and passion, to develop their own interests and expertise, to gain recognition for their contribution and to experience a sense of ownership and accomplishment. In this way, through the occupations, adolescents have the opportunity to take on more mature roles within the community. These roles might include being the beekeeper, the bookkeeper or the photographer. The opportunity to take on different occupations and roles leads the adolescent towards maturity and a sense of their own value and usefulness. When the adolescent assumes a role in the community, the occupation has demonstrably engaged and transformed the student, provided the student with goals and validation, and adds impetus to the student’s learning.

A central component of the rural blueprint for the adolescent community is the opportunity for adolescents in the farm community to work towards economic self-sufficiency. This aspect of the Erdkinder program is also applied to Montessori adolescent communities in urban settings. Economic independence, according to Dr Montessori (1976 [1948]: 104) is ‘the general principle of social education in adolescents’, giving them a sense of the ‘wide social connotations of productiveness and earning power’. She continues: ‘If the produce [produced by the students] can be used commercially, this brings in the fundamental mechanism of society, that of production and exchange, on which economic life is based’ (1976 [1948]: 107).

Most importantly, from working within a small community, students gain an understanding of how work, and the roles people play in workplaces, are essential for the well-being of the whole community and how they function for the greater good of the community. By this means, the student begins to glimpse possibilities for their future role in the wider society and the contribution they can make to humanity in general.

Social outcomes for the adolescent stage of life include:

• learning to live in domestic relations with others, and to work through human problems

• learning what it means to make a contribution to a community

• understanding the significance of interdependency and, therefore, the need to cooperate with adults and peers in relation to the rest of the world

• assuming work roles and experiencing their social implications, as well as the benefits for all of taking an active role in society

• adapting to a variety of work demands for the sake of others, as beginning of social consciousness

• understanding work as a product of commerce necessary to community life,

• experiencing the significance of economic independence and interdependence

• balancing individual initiatives in relation to community goals

• learning the meaning of rules and their importance to harmonious living

The Moral, or Ethical, Dimension of the Environment

Dr Montessori (1976 [1948]: 101) recognised in adolescents a ‘sensitive period when there should develop the most noble characteristics that would prepare a [human] to be social, that is to say, a sense of justice and a sense of personal dignity.’ This sensitive period, which builds on the interest in morality that begins in the previous plane of development, is addressed through both work and study in the adolescent community.

The work, or occupations, in the adolescent community provide students with opportunities to take on a variety of roles in the community. All roles in the community provide an opportunity for communication and cooperation toward the greater good. These include ongoing companionship within the community and the building of relationships with neighbours and wider community. Through experience of different social roles, adolescents learn to understand the difference between right and wrong actions in relation to work, study, the environment and social responsibility. They also become aware that through their own effort, they can make a difference in the world. Because the occupations in the adolescent community are meaningful, the students feel valued and their contribution is tangible. When an individual student succeeds in a task through personal effort, the result is a sense of accomplishment, which can also be accompanied by an economic benefit.

The orientation of the study undertaken in the adolescent community also contributes to moral development. Through their study of history, for example, adolescents build their knowledge of the human past, and possible human futures in the context of sustainability and the well-being of planet Earth. Studying human history from an ethical point of view, especially the relationship of humans with the natural world, brings into focus current environmental questions. A study of how humans have, or have not, used water and land, plants and animals, air and energy sustainably in the past raises moral questions for humans in the present and into the future. In this way, adolescents learn that the study of history, how humans lived in the past, builds wisdom about how to live in the present and in the future. When the study of history intersects in this way with adolescents thinking about their future, and what it might hold, it can motivate and capture interest, build a sense of identity and vocation, as well as contribute to ethical and moral development.

Moral, or ethical, outcomes for the adolescent stage of life, following Kahn and Stewart (2001: 561), include:

• learning to respect others and their roles

• learning that work is noble and involves taking on adult-like responsibilities

• the ability to engage with social and moral problems, for example, the ethical use of the natural environment and the ethics of science

• displaying individual initiative, including the ability to commit to freely chosen work

• learning to take pleasure in one’s own progress, as well as the way one’s own progress can contribute to others and enhance the progress of the whole group

• developing the concept of ‘service’ orientation, including service to the needs of a wider humanity

• posing big moral questions, including ‘What makes for a virtuous life?’; ‘How can we build a better world?’

• developing an ethical conscience exercised by community values and responsible dialogue with others

The Cognitive, or Intellectual, Dimension of the Environment

The cognitive, intellectual dimension of the environment covers the study of the earth and human civilisation. It not only involves study of discipline knowledge, but also ways to apply this knowledge. In this way, students have the opportunity to expand understanding and skill, both through practical problem solving and intellectual reasoning, Cognitive, or intellectual, outcomes for the adolescent stage of life include:

• learning to express oneself using a variety of modalities, including artistic, verbal, musical and other media, in ways that relate directly to the occupations and roles in the community

• addressing philosophical questions related to nature and the cosmos

• analysing scientific causality in the natural world and the cosmos

• building understanding of the mathematics directly connected to the practical needs of the community

• building understanding of the mathematics needed to represent in symbolic form data observed scientifically

• building knowledge and skill in a variety of languages and how to use language to engage with different cultures and to improve human understanding

• connecting the history of life on earth and its civilisations with one’s own evolution as an individual and with the social evolution of a human community

• building a global view of the whole of history and the future destiny of humans while reflecting on the individual contribution one makes to the creative direction of the future

• understanding the nature of interdisciplinary studies, the relationship between the disciplines and the totality of the natural and human built worlds

• using available tools and technology to continue the inquiry into how knowledge can best be applied

The Emotional, or Nurturing, Dimension of the Environment

Drawing attention to the insecurity of children after the Second World War, Montessori (1976 [1948]: 98) wrote: ‘We have lost that security which we had in the past’. She was, of course, alluding to the shifting nature of modern conditions. In order to be prepared for a world that has an unsure future, Montessori writes that the adolescent’s task is to construct an adult who has a ‘strong character and quick wits as well as courage’. She continues:

[The adult] must be strengthened … by moral training and … must also have practical ability in order to face the difficulties of life. Adaptability—this is the most essential quality; for the progress of the world is continually opening new careers, and at the same time closing or revolutionizing the traditional types of employment … there is a need for a more dynamic training of character and the development of a clearer consciousness of social reality.

Adaptability, suggests Mario Montessori (1966 [1957]: 1) is measured by an optimal state of happiness, as he describes in the following way:

Dr Montessori explained what she meant by ‘adaptation’. To her the word meant happiness, ease and the sort of inner equilibrium which gives a sense of security … It is based on the permanency of the spiritual, ethical and economical equilibrium of the group environment [the child] may grow up in. For adaptation, thus considered, ‘stability’ plays a great role, because it represents the basis from which to start towards the realization of the individual’s aspirations. It is as the solid ground is under one’s feet when walking.

Adaptation, understood as emotional balance of this kind, is understood in the context of the Montessori adolescent community as the basis of educational success. Emotional outcomes for the adolescent stage of life include:

• understanding the connection between personal vocation, a person’s life work or mission in life, and the vocation of humanity

• feeling self sufficient and confident, based on an ability to care for oneself and others

• developing inner harmony and happiness through a love of work, study and achievement, and participation in and contribution to the work of society

• feeling hope for future world progress

• experiencing the joy of relating one’s own life to the history of human culture

• recognising the importance of being keepers of human culture

• experiencing freedom in the spontaneous collaboration with others in a harmonious connection with the natural world

• experiencing the value of human life and its role in the cosmos

• experiencing a sense of belonging to the world human community and to the Earth

• building a personal discipline, creativity, aesthetic and productivity through learning about hand crafted art and practical achievement

• gaining a sense of control over change, both internal and external, in one’s personal and social evolution

• building a feeling of usefulness, and an understanding of one’s ‘many sided powers of adaptation’

• building a belief in the human capacity to solve problems and in the spiritual source of life to overcome adversity

In 1948, when Dr Montessori first outlined her blueprint for an adolescent curriculum, it was common for adolescents to choose either manual training or an intellectual education, but not both, as they entered secondary school. The adolescent curriculum advocated by Dr Montessori, in contrast, integrates manual and intellectual work for all students of this age, each type of work complementing and enhancing the other. Both types of work are interwoven in the practical and engaging projects that are a feature of the Montessori adolescent curriculum, as advocated by Dr Montessori in the following way:

Education [for adolescents] should … include the two forms of work, manual and intellectual, for the same person, and thus make it understood by practical experience that these two kinds complete each other and are equally essential to a civilized existence (Montessori1976 [1948]; 103).

This schematic moves on from the Chart of Integrated Studies by Miller and Grazzini and provides the learning framework that is the vocation of the adolescent. It is important to see it as a whole and then to go further into detail in the following discussion of the curriculum.

The “Cosmic Task” at the top of the symbolic plan, encompasses the day- to -day actions of the adolescent, that contributes to the maintenance of balance and harmony for all.

The outside perimeter is the outward view calling the learner to explore or their “Becoming”. The centre is the Adolescent’s psyche or “Being” and the middle is the interconnected and interdependent learning system that relies on the cooperative social systems to contribute to their “Belonging”. They connect with the land, with commerce and cultural life and can see their place in society through production and exchange.