Golden JeffCo Farm School Students Learn Through Growing

From Compass Montessori Farm School In Golden: We have a Farm occupation that is responsible for the planting of, care for, and harvesting of food from the land and caring for the animals. In lieu of a residential program, we have a Community and Kitchen occupation. Its charge is to transform, prepare and process food from the farm, host school lunch, host guests to the school, and prepare for special events. We also have a Store occupation that At Compass Montessori School, our Farm School program incorporates the core elements of Dr. Montessori’s suggested Erdkinder model: one of growing, producing, and exchanging. sets-up, designs, and runs the store and sells items grown and produced by both the Farm and Community and Kitchen. Taken together, the three occupations and the Makerspace form an interdependent Micro-Economy - each occupation dependent on the other.

Dr. Montessori speaks to the importance of adolescents spending time away from their family during this critical period in their lives. While we do not have the capacity to develop a boarding component at this time, we endeavor to provide our students with multiple opportunities to experience elements critical to residential life throughout the school year. We have a long history of spending extended periods of time out, off-campus, and overnight.

Plans of Study & Work

At Compass, the Plan of Study and Work focuses on instruction in history, science, math, geometry, the language arts, civics, and “self expressions.” The Plan of Study and Work is structured around the Farm School’s micro-economy. Our 145 students each spend a year in one of three communities: the Farm, the Community and Kitchen, and the Store. Within these communities, psychic work stems from the work of the occupations. The real work and projects students design for their communities requires academic skills relevant to their goals. Each community has a guide focusing, respectively, on Language Arts, Math, and Social Studies/Science. The guides provide students with the structure of the occupation with which they can explore these disciplines, and also ensure a daily work time when students can work on projects not directly tied to the occupation, such as core math concepts, creative writing, and humanities projects. The Makerspace, with an embedded guide, serves as a prepared environment for students to imagine, design, and create projects in support of their academic or occupation work. Students also have four hour-blocks set aside four times a week for self-expressions.

Image via Bea Karnes/Patch