What is Montessori????

Clark Montessori Junior High and High School, part of the Cincinnati Public Schools, is of course, a Montessori school.

One of the most important and often asked questions people have about Montessori schools is - what exactly IS Montessori?

There are a number of good ways of explaining what is both a simple and complex philosophy of child development. Most simply put, the Dr. Maria Montessori method of teaching is explained as allowing and facilitating a child's learning by making use of their own natural curiosity about the world and by providing an environment that will encourage and guide their natural drive to learn.

One way this manifests itself at Clark is guided but largely independent learning, where students are given a parameter for a lesson and they are responsible for learning the lesson on their own as much as possible.

Another way is having multi-age learning environments. When older and younger students mix, opportunities to provide leadership are created for older students and opportunities for guidance and direction from their peers are provided younger students.

For further exploration into the Montessori method of teaching, we have assembled links to a number of websites that go into depth about the nature of Montessori.
Clark does not necessarily endorse any of the websites or organizations offering this information, but suggests that the information at those sites will help provide a good understanding of the Montessori method.

American Montessori Society. This link goes to the AMS Homepage, a great overall Montessori resource. In the navigation bar on the left, the link "What is Montessori" opens a new link menu that gives many varied and comprehensive resources on defining the Montessoti method.

North American Montessori Teachers Association - Introduction to Montessori Education

"What is Montessori?" - from the International Montessori Society

Montessori essay by Louise Livingston

About the Clark Montessori Curriculum

The academic curriculum at Clark Montessori adheres to five standards of learning as outlined by the Ohio Department of Education. These standards are reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies. Additionally Clark offers and requires study in foreign language, music, art, physical education and health.
Technology and a very wide range of extra-curricular activities are electives at Clark.

Students are also taught to be citizens of their community and the world. To this end, Clark students perform a required minumum of Community Service and participate in Intersession, a twice-yearly full-immersion study chosen by the student from the many offered subjects.

The links above provide the entire curriculums of the Junior High and High School, more info on Community Service and Intersession and some of the results of the teaching at Clark Montessori.

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For the 07-08 school year, Clark Montessori earned the Ohio Department of Education's rating of "Effective".

For full information about the Report Card and the factors that go into a particular rating, click "About the Report Card" above.

Clark requirements and expectations for its students exceed the ODE's requirements for an Excellent rating.

We will do all that we can, enriched by the parameters of Montessori instruction, to obtains the ODE's Excellent rating!