By Judy Kline-Venaleck, Associate Head of School and Huntsburg Campus Director

“The child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future. If what we really want is a new world, then education must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities.” ~ Dr. Maria Montessori

Dr. Montessori regarded the period of adolescence as a time of great vulnerability. She compared the years of early adolescence (ages 12-15) to the first three years of life. Just as the infant requires careful attention and diligence, so too does the young adolescent. For both stages of development, and as author Paula Polk-Lilliard writes…”a new being is in creation…”.

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic and navigating our societal (and political) climate seems to be metaphorically mirroring the development of the adolescent. Just as the adolescent is seeking to join society, many adults in our current social landscape are also feeling the push and pull of how to navigate a transition. Dr. Montessori stated that adolescence is a period of self-construction and they are seeking to “understand people’s behavior in the world as a whole…”

As adolescents are on their journey of seeking this understanding, it is the job of the guide, the teacher, the mentor and the parent to appropriately respond to the questions. HOW we respond matters. And within the response lies the opportunity to provide space, present possibilities and create safety for these young adults to continue to seek the answers in making sense of the world. And ultimately, this allows them to find the courage and confidence to share their own viewpoints and voice.

By Judy Kline-Venaleck, Associate Head of School and Huntsburg Campus Director

“Order…things in their place. It means a knowledge of the arrangement of objects in the child’s surroundings, a recollection of the place where each belongs. And this means that he can orient himself in his environment, possess it in all its details. We mentally possess an environment when we know it so as to find our way with our eyes shut, and find all we want within hands’ reach. Such a place is essentially for the tranquility and happiness of life.” ~ Dr. Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood

In the past several months, the Coronavirus has certainly turned our sense of order upside down. Covid’s impact — on how we educate our students, the economy, working remotely, juggling our family’s emotional well-being, racial strife and a divisive political landscape — is like nothing we have had to address in our modern society. Dr. Montessori emphasized order and beauty for children of all ages for a variety of reasons. For adolescents, emphasizing external order (the classroom, the adult, the response) allows the adolescent to establish their own internal order, which is an essential aspect in their development. Covid has encouraged (albeit forced) us to re-evaluate our established sense of order, so that we may continue to meet the adolescent’s needs and promote both safe and healthy social development. It has been a joy to see the students re-emerge from this displaced sense of order of the past several months to both re-establish, and continue to develop, their own internal order. As they do so, we will continue to be by their side guiding, encouraging, and fostering new pathways. These adolescents show us every day the resilience that is their foundation, the perseverance of their spirit and the essential pathway of hope.