Montessori Adolescent Program
Templestowe College
2016
SELF-EXPRESSION
PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT
Music
Moral Education
Language
Mathematics
Art
Language
PREPARATION FOR ADULT LIFE
a.
THE STUDY OF THE EARTH AND LIVING THINGS
b.
THE STUDY OF HUMAN PROGRESS AND THE BUILDING UP OF CIVILIZATION
(geology, geography including prehistoric periods, biology, cosmology, botany, zoology,
physiology, astronomy and comparative anatomy)
(physics, chemistry, mechanics, engineering, and genetics integrated into the history of science
and technology)
c.
THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY
(scientific discoveries, geographical explorations, relation of humans to the environment,
contact between different peoples, war, religion, patriotism, a detailed study of one period, the
life of one person, the present day and nation, law and government, literature)
CREATIVE LANGUAGE
DRAMA
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
PHYSICAL EXPRESSION
MUSIC
“They exhaust themselves in the
process of expression and
communication. They need selfexpression to fortify their own selfconfidence. They need to discover
who they are and what their role in
the world can be. They will amaze us
in rising to the occasion, especially
for outsiders – in these situations
they are surprisingly adult-like. They
are articulate and expressive. Then
the moment passes and they will be
a child again,”
Laurie Ewert-Krocker, MIC, 2016
THE MONTAIGNAN ESSAY
DESCRIPTIVE IMAGERY
Writing with pure passion to both convince and entertain, while
learning the simplicity of the essay structure
Working from the beautiful writing of Sandra Cisneros in “The
House on Mango Street”, students will explore simile, metaphor,
hyperbole, alliteration and the like to hone their communication
ART CONSTRUCTION FROM TEXTS
Creating a montage construction from one passage of text,
reducing the words to bare meaning and interpreting these to
communicate the passage
DRAMA WORKSHOPPING
DEBATING
Working from a synopsis students will explore the scenes and
structures of both “Jumping Mouse” and “Goldilocks and the 33
Bears” to develop a script outline for upcoming performances
Selecting topics distilled from the text and practicing public
speaking in the safe environment of class
From the script outline students will write scenes for the plays
SCRIPTWRITING
SONGWRITING & MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCT’N
STUDENT DRIVEN
To complement their study in music video communication students
will explore the possibilities of writing songs and making videos
Having been exposed to many writing forms students now have
the opportunity to select forms they would like to develop
DRAMA PRODUCTION
STUDENT NEED
Two groups will present theatrical performances, one as a touring
company and one in the TC theatre.
Staff continually monitor individual progress and will often
determine areas in which students need to develop
RADIO CURRENT AFFAIRS
POETRY
Based on Triple J’s HACK program for adolescents, students will
pursue their own podcasts as groups or individuals
No formal study in 2016, but poetry is supported as creative
writing and performance, with advice on rhythm and meter
Interdisciplinary connections: Literature, Drama, Humanities, Music, Creative Expression
“The chief symptom of adolescence is a state of expectation, a tendency towards creative work
and a need for the strengthening of self-confidence.
From the psychological viewpoint this is also a critical age. There are doubts and hesitations,
violent emotions, discouragement and an unexpected decrease of intellectual capacity. The
difficulty of studying with concentration is not due to a lack of willingness, but is really a
psychological characteristic of the age,” Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence.
ROLE PLAY
WORKSHOPPING PERFORMANCE
Continual exposure to creating characters and verbal
interactions during Humanities, Occupations and Language
Working from a synopsis students will explore the scenes and
structures of both “Jumping Mouse” and “Goldilocks and the 33
Bears” to develop a script outline for upcoming performances
THEATRE SPORTS
A regular camp event to develop skills of invention, quick
thinking, response and provocation
COURTROOM DRAMA
Also a regular camp event where social issues are examined as
drama, non-judgmental on the real perpetrator, but fulfilling the
judgemental needs of the adolescent in other respects
PERFORMANCE SCRIPTWRITING
From the script outline students will write scenes for the plays
which will then be edited into performance scripts
STRUCTURED READINGS
Students will participate in readings of all scenes to fine-tune
and finalise the scripts before the holiday break
PERFORMANCE REHEARSALS
ROLE PLAY
An intensive period of rehearsal, directed both by Steve and by
students, to prepare for performing to a live audience.
Continual exposure to creating characters and verbal
interactions during Humanities, Occupations and Language
PERFORMANCE and TOUR
THEATRE SPORTS
Many students are keen to tour Victoria again, but another large
group wish to explore a more formal production in the TC
Performing Arts Centre, with full sound, lighting and stage
facilities. Audiences, publicity, bookings, travel arrangements
and revenue will all be handled by students.
A regular camp event to develop skills of invention, quick
thinking, response and provocation
Interdisciplinary connections: Literature, Creative Exp, Humanities, Music, Physical Exp
“There are so many problems that humanity has to consider. We must not only look at them,
but also solve them in such a manner that we support the realization of the greatest powers
that exist in the mysterious and magnificent soul of the adolescent,” Maria Montessori, The
Adolescent – a Social Newborn
CULTURE GARDEN
BROCKSPUR QUILT
Finding individual and group responses to the need of the bare
concrete vista facing TC’s theatre, using a cultural garden theme
and exploring art from Native Americans, Greece and Mexico
Initial pieces will have been created during Brockspur camp,
but the size of this undertaking means that both creative and
productive finishing work will continue.
BROCKSPUR QUILT
CERAMIC PIZZA OVEN
Having one parent expert on quilting has given me the desire to
explore a creative quilt with the class, using the bush
surroundings of Brockspur Farm as inspiration, bolstered by my
art training and experience with fabric painting
We have been requested as a group to create a design and then
apply it as mosaic to the roof of the pizza oven built within the
permaculture garden. We will explore some very tactile ways of
experimenting with design imagery
MURALS
VIDEO PRODUCTION
One external mural has been created to date, but the option
exists for many more. There are a wealth of spaces at TC and in
our neighbourhood for brightening up locales with informative
and entertaining wall art. Students will first investigate spaces,
before then investigating creative solutions.
Unfortunately almost everyone believes they can make a video.
Well, they can… but is it any good?
We investigate the use of moving images as media
communication, then proceed to make videos based on key
lessons of production planning, lighting, camera techniques,
acting, editing and sound.
The choice of topic is up to groups and individuals, but will be
rooted in technical as well as creative skills.
Interdisciplinary connections: Humanities, Creative Language, Micro-economy
“Success depends on self-confidence, on the awareness of one’s own talents and of the many
possibilities of their adaptation. The awareness of one’s own usefulness, the feeling that one
can help humanity in various ways, fills the heart with a noble confidence, with an almost
religious dignity.”
“To open up the way to the possibilities of the adolescent for personal expression, that is, to
facilitate, by exercises and exterior means, the development of the personality,” Maria
Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence
ELECTIVE SUBJECTS
CHEERLEADING
Time restraints limit the possibility of exploring
Physical Expression within class time. On sleepover we
will experience Calvinball, and on farm camp there will
be orienteering in the name of art exploration
A student led activity, where two experienced
cheerleaders from the class will develop and deliver
cheerleading exercises for other class members
HIP-HOP DANCE
A student led activity, where three experienced
dancers from the class will develop and deliver hiphop dance exercises for other class members
PERFORMANCE
The plays cover many studies, and there is always music
and dance included, plus a lot of physical theatre. In
rehearsal we add physical theatre games, dance
rehearsals for all cast members and a host of physical
role-plays.
BROCKSPUR FARM CAMP
Brockspur is a wealth of physical activity across both
work and recreation activities. Swimming in the mud
dam is one of the student highlights of the year.
YEAR 9 GRADUATION
Coming into its third year, the graduation ceremony is
growing in terms of physical activity. To date we have
had surfing, go-kart racing and tree/aerial adventuring.
This is a choice made by those about to graduate.
Interdisciplinary connections: Drama, Occupations: Earth & Science, Music
“If secondary education, however, is set up along the very same lines as the first level, it goes
against nature, for once the child has passed the age appropriate to his formation as an
individual, he needs to devote himself to the formation of his personality… …the level of
education must be changed at this point. The adolescent’s social formation must now begin,
and the individual must be given social experience,” Maria Montessori, Education and Peace.
TC electives
PERFORMANCE
A combined lack of time and lack of musical expertise
among MAP staff has led us to encourage students to
continue their musical development within the elective
subjects in the wider school. Here they can play any
instrument of their choice and join bands to broaden
their experience and expertise.
Individual lessons are also available with professionals
on any instrument (including voice)
It is student responsibility to support their community
by creating and delivering the music to accompany both
drama performances.
Students have the option of using recorded music – in
the past these have included original performances;
using specially arranged existing pieces, or creating
original compositions and/or impromptu sessions
PERFORMANCE
CASUAL PERFORMANCE
Students will develop, rehearse and perform the music
they have selected and composed for both the touring
performance and for the TC theatre performance
Students may take roles as composers, arrangers,
conductors, performers, sound technicians, et cetera…
No formal lessons are run outside of TC electives and
private tuition.
However camp provides an opportunity for bringing
instruments and participating in jam sessions and
entertainment.
Interdisciplinary connections: Physical Expression, Drama, Humanities, Creative Expression
“There is no need for subjects to be marshalled collaterally. Each learner should be free to go
ahead in each subject when he is ripe for it, exceptions being made for those subjects which are
linked together by their very nature,” Maria Montessori, Lecture on the Prepared
Environment, Kodaikanal
HEALTH & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
MATHEMATICS
LITERATURE
“Developing psychic formation helps to
shape the human organism. While we
are born with formative forces of
mathematics, communication and
morality, the psyche needs to be shaped,
especially so in adolescence. They need
language, new ways of social interaction,
new words to express their inner turmoil,
lessons in grace & courtesy … they love
philosophy & debate, scientific
discovery, human cultural and judicial
interaction. They are always looking for
both knowledge and experience. Their
education must be very wide and very
thorough to cover these needs - it must
be a school of experience in the social
development of human life.”
Laurie Ewert-Krocker, MIC, 2016
PUBERTY
MENTAL HEALTH
Explorations and explanations about the physical and emotional
changes likely to be experienced by adolescents during puberty.
Guidance towards safe and reputable information
Adolescence is an extremely heightened time for anxiety issues
that can extend into serious mental health problems.
Adolescents need to know they are not alone, and need to fully
understand the distinctions between ‘depressed’ and
‘depression’, between ‘anxious’ and ‘anxiety’. They need careful
and deliberate support, discussion and information to assist
them in caring for themselves and those around them.
MORALS & ETHICS
There are regular lessons and discussions on the big questions of
life, on philosophies and on informed decision making
DIET & EXERCISE
Lessons and reliable information on the dietary and exercise
needs of adolescents, both for the present and for adulthood
CHILD & SEXUAL ABUSE
SEXUALITY & GENDER
Awareness is our best weapon in preventing abuse anywhere
within our community. Factual and carefully researched lessons,
delivered in an emotionally supportive environment can help
educate and protect those at risk and spread reliable
information.
Often the biggest question on the mind of the adolescent,
guidance is offered on gender ‘choice’, on relationships and
romance, and on respect and humility. This is a time for sourcing
experts and sourcing adolescents who have passed through
these experiences and “come out the other side”.
DISCERNING CHOICES
Presenting adolescents with tools in which to examine claims on
food packaging, in advertising, in media and on social media –
thus allowing them to make informed and perceptive choices.
Interdisciplinary connections: Physical Expression, Creative Expression, Literature
“The second level leads to society, to the social organisation of the adult. Secondary school
should be the gateway to a development of personality and social organisation… …Education
must take advantage of the hidden instincts that guide man as he builds his own life. Powerful
among these instincts is the social drive. It has been our experience that if the child and the
adolescent do not have a chance to engage in social life, they do not develop a sense of
discipline and morality… …the human personality is shaped by continuous experiences; it is up
to us to create for children, for adolescents, for young people, an environment, a world that
will readily permit such formative experiences,“Maria Montessori, Education & Peace
STORIES OF THE GREAT
MATHEMATICIANS
Hypatia – stripped naked, beaten to death and burned by monks
Euler – on average published 800 pages a year on maths in 1700s
Fermat – in 1637 posed a problem that was solved in 1993
Napier – invented the world’s first practical calculator in 1595
Chuquet – discovered exponents in the 15th century (what are they?)
Pascal – invented the roulette wheel to solve a gambling problem
Playfair – from 1786-1801 invented the line graph, bar & pie charts
SOLVING PUZZLES
Why mathematics is a philosophy
Amicable numbers
Debunking assumptions
Maths as a universal language
Given that mathematical objects don’t have causes or effects,
how do we have any knowledge of them?
Answer, solution or technique?
GODEL, ESCHER, BACH
EUCLID’S POSTULATES
A dialogue between Achilles and the Tortoise, who investigate:
• what it means to communicate
• how knowledge can be represented and stored
• the methods and limitations of symbolic representation
• the fundamental notion of "meaning“
• The impossibility of logical contradictions
• And how cognition and thinking emerge from well-hidden
neurological mechanisms
Are these self-evident truths as indisputable as Euclid claimed?
Why are all right angles congruent (and are they)?
Will parallel lines never meet?
What did Janos Bolyai find that his father had warned him off
trying at the expense of his sanity?
Investigate the beginnings of spherical and hyperbolic
geometry.
Interdisciplinary connections: Humanities, Human Progress, Literature
“Therefore we must create an environment for the child wherein the child can carry out his
experiments, an environment in which he finds the possibilities of carrying on his activities
without being all the time chased away by adults… …the aim is to present the child with
opportunities for his activity. These are not schools, but houses of children,” Maria Montessori,
Lecture on the Prepared Environment, Kodaikanal
FRACTIONS & PERCENTAGE
GEOMETRY
So you struggle with fractions but you can follow and cook from a
complex recipe? You can take money and give correct change
without blinking. You can cut timber and build objects at correct
sizes. Guess what you’re using?
Our percentage study will include a small business enterprise
model for micro-economy: research, data analysis, stock market
simulation, costing, projections, scheduling, production time, time
management, sales analysis, profit and loss, margins, loans and
interest, capital.
An interdisciplinary component in problem solving, an
understanding of inventions, innovations, and the development
of the mathematical mind. Every day we are surrounded by
space, and the shape of things. The planet we live on is situated
in a universe full of stars, surrounded by other planets. All of
them have different shapes and sizes. The rooms and spaces we
inhabit are all designed by people using geometry. Students will
undertake a complex design project in three dimensions.
ALGEBRA
STATISTICS & PROBABILITY
Algebra is the beginning of a journey that gives you the skills to
solve more complex problems. Taking students to a nearby
playground we can investigate the see-saw, the merry-go-round,
and the slide. The physics of all of these playground toys can be
completely understood using only Algebra. Eg: you have the
weight of a person and the height of the slide you can calculate
how fast that person exits at the bottom. From these beginnings
we can extrapolate algebra to bigger and more complex issues –
from creating equations to calculate exercise and fitness levels,
to traffic flow at stop signs, traffic lights and roundabouts.
Take a video game where the player, in order to survive and
advance, has to find certain items somewhere in the games
universe. This is a tricky - there are choices and uncertainty.
Either try and die again and again, or do a thorough statistical
analysis and see which locations have the greatest potential. A
very crude analysis would take just the number of locations.
However, some locations have a richer environment than others.
Some are bigger. Some have more inhabitants. Some have more
death-wielding opponents. The more data you can analyse, the
better your probability of finding your items will be.
Interdisciplinary connections: Creative Exp, Physical Exp, Music, Health, Human Progress
“Here is an essential principle of education: to teach detail is to bring confusion; to establish
the relationship between things is to bring knowledge.
The school which only gives academics, which separates intelligence from practical society, is
no longer valid… …the school itself is not the goal (Learning for learning’s sake is torture!) but
rather that learning has a practical application that it can unite and nourish life. It then
suddenly becomes a brilliant and living thing,”, Maria Montessori, XXIII International
Montessori Course
Book study:
THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET
By Sandra Cisneros
Book study:
ANGUS, THONGS and FULL-FRONTAL
SNOGGING by Louise Rennison
This startling collection of vignettes is a 1984 coming-of-age
novel by Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros. It deals with
Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl, and her life growing up
in Chicago with Chicanos and Puerto Ricans. Esperanza is
determined to "say goodbye" to her impoverished Latino
neighbourhood.
This book is a hilarious and an uncompromisingly accurate
diary of a 14-year-old girl. This book is as entertaining, realistic,
and comical as a book can get. It captures all the superficial,
melodramatic, and boy-crazy thoughts that could ever possibly
pass through a young teenager girl's mind.
Music video study:
Book study:
FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON
70’s BOWIE/80’S THRILLER/90’s ZOMBIE/
00’S COLDPLAY/10’S GOTYE
One of the most pervasive media forms in front of adolescents is
the music video. They are also a controversial form of media due
to the representations of sex, women and violence.
This study will give students a chance to view and analyse this
communication format with critical understanding.
By Daniel Keyes
Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to
increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by
a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first
human test subject for the surgery, and it touches upon many
different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the
mentally disabled.
Interdisciplinary connections: Creative Writing, Humanities, Human Progress, Health
“The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds
may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim therefore is not merely
to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorise, but so to touch his
imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core. We do not want complacent pupils, but
eager ones; we seek to sow life in the child rather than theories, to help him in his growth,
mental and emotional as well as physical, and for that we must offer grand and lofty ideas to
the human mind, which we find ever more ready to receive them, demanding more and more,”
Maria Montessori, To Educate the Human Potential
OCCUPATIONS: EARTH & LIFE
OCCUPATIONS: HUMAN PROGRESS
MICRO-ECONOMY
HUMANITIES
“Adolescents are on a journey of
preparation for adult life – they wish to
enter the society of adult life. A proper
preparation will benefit not only the
individual, but also society – these
adolescents will emerge as fully and
freely developed well-formed citizens.
Concrete experiences in the real world
will assist them with organising of
decision making processes; with
practical life needs such as planning,
scheduling, division of labour, rotation
and delegation of responsibilities; with
care for self, each other and
environment; with an understanding of
contribution and/or obligation to the
community; with the ability to take
multiple viewpoints and creative
insights; all helping to build a social
organisation that is trying to better
itself.”
Laurie Ewert-Krocker, MIC, 2016
CLASSIFICATION
WATER
Students will begin by learning about classification charts and
using them to identify items in their environment. Many pathways
can lead into conducting a classification survey, using place to
collect micro-beast and plant samples, then creating a key plus a
set of classification cards for use by the Science staff in the wider
school. This would provide an opportunity for an authentic task to
introduce KPCOFGS classification.
We can visit Victoria Market and classify the seafood section;
visit Melbourne Zoo and classify the butterflies – while
simultaneously doing a creative expression study.
To experience and understand the movement of water upon the
earth and upon the immediate land, and gain a sense of
stewardship over the water for our community.
Investigating seas and oceans, dams, rivers, waterfalls, reefs,
fluoride, water cycle, chlorine, pool water, salt and fresh water.
Investigating watersheds and site topography.
Experiment with water quality and testing of onsite water, Ruffey
Creek and the Yarra River. Tour the Yarra River from source to
mouth. Investigate many of the qualities of water by creating a
cardboard boat design and racing in it.
BIG BANG THEORY
TECTONIC PLATES
Let’s investigate both the beginning and the end of the Universe.
Does this give us clues to big questions such as how and when
time was created? We can explore the lifecycle of different stars,
or try and examine what it would be like to move at the speed of
light. Investigate the invention, development and use of
telescopes: can we build our own?
We can use our site to model the scale of the Universe, and our
relative size within that. We can camp out under the stars, and
visit the Planetarium and Scienceworks.
What is it that made early scientists believe in plate tectonics?
Who posed these questions and developed these ideas? Are
they right? Let’s examine the evidence for plate tectonics, for
continental drift, for the occurrence of earthquakes due to plate
movement.
What other questions now arise? What is the make-up of the
earth’s surface and its core? What can we tell about land masses
from the shapes of their mountains? What other concepts
fascinated these particular scientists?
Interdisciplinary connections: Literature, Drama, Humanities, Mathematics, Creative Exp
“The theory should alternate with the practical work in order to give it wider application and
make it more interesting… …work on the land is an introduction both to nature and to
civilization and gives a limitless field for scientific and historic studies. If the produce can be
used commercially this brings in the fundamental mechanism of society, that of production
and exchange, on which economic life is based. This means there is an opportunity to learn
both academically and through actual experience what are the elements of social life,” Maria
Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence
HOMEOSTASIS
NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION
There are increasing problems for the human immune system
and response. Can we discover how this may be affected by our
place and time, and can we discover ways in which to improve,
both in human habits and in medicinal terms? We can create and
conduct experiments on the human body, on reaction time, body
temperature, blood pressure and heart rate. We can create a
fitness plan and see how bodies change. Onsite we can measure
animals systems to compare to humans. We can investigate
herbal medicines and natural treatments, which may lead to us
planting specific remedies in our garden. We can visit a hospital
to understand safety systems such as x-ray.
Now how much fun does it sound to be smashing objects together
and measuring how they react? Hitting objects of different masses
with different velocities? This is Science!
Sir Isaac Newton proposed various laws of motion. Was he really
sitting under an apple tree and had one fall on his head? What did
that suggest to him about gravitational forces between differently
sized bodies of mass? Let’s look at the power of engines – can
aerodynamics of different car shapes have a dramatic impact? Do
we need to build an air tunnel to find out? How do planes and
helicopters stay in the air? Can you build a jet engine to find out?
What are G-forces and what are their effects?
ECOLOGY
ELEMENTS & COMPOUNDS
The study of interactions between organisms and their
environment – it is so worth looking at man’s effect on the planet
– and our effect on our immediate environment. Within Victoria
we have a wide array of habitats and of species affected by
interactions with humans. We also have a large range of
introduced species, most of whom are damaging to the Australian
environment. How can we study all of this – and what precisely
can we do about it?
Let’s learn the Periodic Table – doesn’t that sound exciting? How
about we learn many of the elements (what is an element?) on the
table, who discovered it and how, what it has been used for (good
or evil?) If one element is good, are two elements better? How do
they get together and make compounds? How do we rip them
apart, back into their original elements? Apply heat, force, ask
them nicely? What are chemicals? What chemicals are present in
our everyday life? How about in fish tank water? In toothpaste?
Interdisciplinary connections: Humanities, Earth & Life, Drama, Micro-economy
“The special province of morality is the relation between individuals, and it is the very basis
of social life. Morality must be regarded as the science of organising a society of men whose
highest value is their selfhood and not the efficiency of their machines. Men must learn how
to participate consciously in the social discipline that orders all their functions within
society and how to help keep those functions in balance,” Maria Montessori, Education and
Peace
TC CLIMATE FESTIVAL
GARDEN CLUB MEMBERSHIP
MAP will be providing support to the TC Environmental Action
Group and following up on the Climate Angels “Letters to Paris”.
Students will investigate creative ways to improve the profile of
the festival, to provide information about climate change,
sustainability and permaculture, while also producing allied
goods and services for sale.
The lack of a street frontage or public exposure has limited our
potential audience to parents, who are not a feasibly real
audience. The advanced state of the permaculture garden puts us
in a position to create a fresh food club, where members pay a
fee to have regular baskets of food provided to them. Fresh food
items can be supplemented by student processed and preserved
food and by student manufactured items.
EXPRESS-O
MAP will apply to run one of the two Coffee Club days at TC,
where students prepare coffee, drinks and food for staff and
students to buy from the restaurant at lunch-time. To combine this
with cultural themes for first term will be a bonus.
CRAFT PRODUCTION & STALL
Students have already begun investigating craft items for
production and sale. We are basing ideas on the model
demonstrated by Wa-ora school, and many of our students can
produce items in their creative electives
CHRISTMAS CRAFT & PRODUCE STALL
A dedicated market, even at school. Production and sale of
handmade goods – Xmas trees, candles, candies, cards,
decorations, reindeer, lanterns, wreaths, bon-bons and crackers,
placemats, snowmen…
This will involve planning, scheduling, production, publicity,
quality control, deadlines – all meaningful and authentic
outcomes
Interdisciplinary connections: Human Progress, Creative Expression, Mathematics
“The essential reform is this: to put the adolescent on the road to economic independence.
We might call it “a school of experience in the elements of social life… …for this would
result in a ‘valorisation’ of his personality, in making himself feel capable of succeeding in
life by his own efforts and on his own merits, and at the same time it would put him in
contact with the supreme reality of social life,” Maria Montessori, From Childhood to
Adolescence
THE BIRTH OF CULTURE
THE RENAISSANCE
To experience the varied elements of culture students will
examine the very elements that create culture – the basic human
needs of food, shelter and defence, the secondary needs of
clothing and transport, the tertiary needs of arts and religion, and
the formative factors of climate and geography.
Students will engage in studies of the changes of culture over
time, and changes because of movements and interaction of
people. Students will be exposed to a wide variety of cultures
through history, art, dance, mythology and food, before launching
their own investigation.
Possibly the greatest philosophical period in the history of
mankind, the Renaissance saw developments in medicine,
astrology, astronomy, physics, art, architecture, mathematics,
perspective, chemistry, and sculpture among other fields.
Students will engage with some of the creative problem-solving
that drove the great minds of the Renaissance, and postulate
ideas, ideals, philosophies, art, music, writing, and inventions of
their own. We will investigate the idea of the ‘polymath’ to see if
this is a possible venture within our own adolescent community.
AUSTRALIAN HISTORY
THE CRUSADES: from BOTH SIDES
INDIGENOUS HISTORY
In support of moral and ethical education, we will investigate the
reasons behind the Crusades, the people and politics on both
sides, the immensity of the events and the human casualties,
atrocities and cannibalism all in the name of religion.
We will question religion to see whether doctrine is at fault, or
whether it may be man’s interpretations and applications of
theology.
Students are bound to reflect on the links between the ChristianMuslim conflict of the Crusades and the continuing East-West
conflict of the last two centuries.
With the support of local koori elders we look at the long culture
of indigenous peoples across Australia and Torres Strait
WHITE INVASION & SETTLEMENT
Starting with the story of Pemulwuy, indigenous hero and
progressing to the stolen generation, plus agricultural expansion
GOVERNMENT & CIVIL DEVELOPMENT
From Federation to current electoral processes, to Gallipoli,
through waves of immigration and urban development, to an
understanding of what it may mean to be an Australian in 2016
Interdisciplinary connections: Literature, Drama, Music, Creative Expression, Health
“We should open out and explain to the child what is waiting for him in life. This is the clarity
which is most useful to man, and in order to get this degree of clearness, it is necessary to give
extensive culture. All the different subjects of life’s curriculum have to be understood as
forming part of one whole, so that not only in economics must we so explain the meaning of
the subject, but we must have centres from which all other subjects radiate. I believe youth is
interested in synthesis and in getting a general grasp of things and afterwards goes into
detail,” Maria Montessori, Third Lecture at Oxford.