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About Clark Montessori
Clark Montessori, the nation’s first public Montessori high school, has been nationally recognized for academic excellence, and Clark’s students consistently earn high scores on state tests. Focusing on the triangle of Montessori education — students, teachers, parents — Clark works to form a strong community of adults and teenagers who respect each other.
The experiential teaching style practiced within CPS Montessori elementary schools and based on the teachings of Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and educator, continues at Clark. Dr. Montessori's experience with adolescents (as detailed in her book From Childhood to Adulthood), inspires Clark teachers as they guide students to develop their intellectual skills and become full contributors to society. The Montessori teaching method encourages students to learn by piquing their natural curiosity about the world and by providing an environment that kindles their natural drive to learn. The Montessori Triangle of education — students, teachers, and parents working together — makes Clark a strong community of adults and teenagers who respect each other.
Our school is best known for its field studies and intersessions, community service as a method for learning about the world, thematic work emphasis, seminars, and relationship building. Also, most of our students participate in our Music and Visual Arts programs.
Other important features of Clark Montessori:
- Classrooms are organized into multilevel learning communities.
- Students sign contracts requiring a commitment to learning, community involvement, and respect for others.
- Community service is required of all Clark students (36 hours per year in grades 7-8; 50 hours per year in grades 9-12).
- Intersessions occur twice a year when the regular curriculum in grades 9-12 comes to a halt. Each student selects a two-week, in-depth immersion course to take during the intersession. Examples include studying art in New York City, making a trip to Morocco, sailing and studying marine biology on a coral reef, and exploring the Appalachian Trail.
- Each senior completes a yearlong project, an in-depth study of a topic of the student’s choice. Parts of the project are due throughout the year, and long-range planning is necessary. Students present the finished projects to their classmates and community members.
Requirements for Entry
There are no academic requirements to enter Clark. Montessori experience is preferred — but not required — for entry. Students and their families are interviewed and are required to sign an agreement as part of their acceptance to the school. The Clark student body is rich with diversity in race, gender, represented neighborhoods, socio-economic status, and academic and personal qualities.
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Vision
Montessori’s essential priorities involve creating an environment that enhances the adolescent’s ability to:
- Find one’s place in society
- Understand the connection between finding one’s place in society and the nobility of all types of work
- Experience and learn the lessons of living in a community
- Believe in the dignity of humans and that the world is a place of hope and progression of the human spirit.
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Mission
To fulfill this vision, our school seeks the highest and most complete academic environment for each student and to form a human community that nurtures an atmosphere of caring and sets a thoughtful social climate. We strive to be a community of adults and teenagers who respect each other’s deepest personal and human qualities.
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Goals
Through the Montessori Philosophy, we have come to have several goals:
- Learning — We ask and expect commitment to learning in the broadest sense of the word.
- Community — We ask and expect commitment to the fostering and nurturing of relationships that build community.
- Hard Work — We ask and expect commitment to the effort and willingness to meet difficult challenges, both personal and academic.
- Respect — We ask and expect commitment to manners that show our respect and caring for others.
- Peace — We ask and expect commitment to building a community that values the complex global and personal aspects of peace.
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This We Believe
Clark Montessori teachers are the co-creators of a world that will become more compassionate and that will hold a greater likelihood of sustaining itself if they adhere to the basic belief that “Everybody does better when everybody does better.” They make every attempt to pass this idea to parents and students. It is much to hold, and it depends first and foremost on the integrity of the adults in the school to model the same actions expected of students and parents.
Ultimately, as a community of learners, Clark Montessori is a place in which all members feel safe and valued, and through challenging, fun, exciting opportunities, can develop skills so that every adolescent will find his or her place in society. Clark Montessori is a beacon for students, guiding them through this work in the passage to adulthood, as it shines a light on the dignity of every person, the progression of the human spirit, and on this world as a place of rising hope.
