why montessori
responding to students’ needs
Serving the Kansas City metro area, Farm School KC is a Montessori program for middle and high school students. Integrating rigorous academic studies with purposeful agricultural work, FSKC prepares teenagers to become contributing adult citizens who are self-confident and possess skills needed to thrive in a modern society.
The new developmental stage of adolescence involves different educational needs than those of the Elementary stage. FSKC’s programs work with the developmental essence of adolescents to help them live full, vital lives.
Our program responds to the unique development of teenagers in these ways:
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Adolescents experience a period of tremendous physical and neurological growth.
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They experience self-awareness and self-criticism, emotional ups and downs, and egocentrism. They feel an increased desire for autonomy, along with a susceptibility to peer pressure. It is a time characterized by a tendency toward courage and creativity.
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Adolescents seek solidarity with peers and crave greater independence from adults as they establish their own identity. They are concerned with human welfare and dignity, and may exhibit novelty-seeking and risk-taking behaviors as a response to a tendency to express courage and creativity.
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Adolescents are critical thinkers who persistently ask “why.” They are creative, and have the ability to reason and debate.
supporting Well-Being
FSKC educators respects the need for adolescents to have school/life balance, get adequate sleep, and maintain their love of learning. For these reasons, we typically do not engage in “high stakes” testing and keep homework to a manageable amount.
Dr. Maria Montessori, believed in giving adolescents the opportunity to experience self-worth through real and important work—a process she called valorization. The FSKC curriculum provides the opportunity for adolescents to realize they are strong, worthy, and capable of effort.
Our programs respond to the adolescent’s need to exhibit creativity, to problem solve, to take responsibility, and to claim independence. Isn’t this exactly what you want for your child’s teenage years?
“My vision of the future is no longer of people taking exams and proceeding on to the university…
“… But of individuals passing from one stage of independence to a higher, by means of their own activity, through their own effort of will, which constitutes the inner evolution of the individual.”
— Dr. Maria Montessori
