Vision and Values

OAK FARM MONTESSORI SCHOOL MISSION

To provide a Montessori environment that inspires children to reach their potential through meaningful work.

BACKGROUND

In September 2008, Lorene Dekko Salsbery, the founder of Oak Farm Montessori School, and Judith Cunningham, the Head of School, began work with an outside facilitator to identify the "Core Values" that define Oak Farm Montessori School today and will continue to serve the school beyond their tenure as leaders.

Though this information is incorporated into the 2009 Strategic Plan developed at the same time, this information should be enduring and is too important to be buried or overshadowed by a document with a limited time horizon. This comprehensive document was created to guide strategic and academic decisions for the life of the school without fear of their getting lost in a handbook revision, website redesign, or leadership change.

This document is a compilation of how we do our work from several different perspectives. This includes substantial details with the hope that organizational leaders and staff can understand and apply these core values well into the future.

The role of education is to interest the child profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all of his potential.

- Maria Montessori (1870 — 1952)

How Oak Farm Montessori School Began

Lorene Dekko Salsbery Founder

November 10, 1961December 16, 2009

Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them.

- Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

Only when I reflect on past roads taken can I see the connection between myself and what was to become Oak Farm Montessori School. School never made that much sense to me, so I am sure it is with great surprise to those who knew me as a student, to find me one day beginning a school, a school I would teach, administrate, and lead to be a model of excellence. I would ask myself: How many people find school meaningful? How many do well in our current system? Is it possible others want something different for their children as I did?

While my two daughters were finishing their toddler years and beginning their primary years at a Montessori school in Fort Wayne, I began a new position at the Dekko Foundation as President. I had the opportunity to tour 25 different public and private school systems in Iowa, Alabama, and Northeast Indiana; speak with their superintendents; observe classrooms; and meet numerous teachers. As a collective group, we would attend Bill Daggett's International School Reform Conferences and be engaged with him in discussion on how to make our schools better. This gave me exposure to the issues surrounding education from kindergarten to high school. But, what about our youngest children? I was hearing that the brain is formed by the time a child is six years old. Visits to 30 day-care centers, church ministries, and home providers were conducted, as well

as traveling with fellow foundation grant-makers to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. This was my professional life, while personally I was attending parent-education nights, engaging in discussion with the directors, serving on their board, attending Montessori conferences, and volunteering at my children's school. Eventually, the question that was bound to arise, as it does with most of us who understand school reform and Montessori, was: why are we reinventing the wheel?

Choice, choice, choice.

Montessori trusts the child with choices, yet adults cannot choose an educational system that reflects their family values. Well, you can, but you must have money—money to pay taxes and then money to pay private tuition. On my dad’s grave is the inscription, “Only the educated are free.” This freedom incorporates the freedom to choose with the freedom to be educated, but first you must have money. At this point, I knew our choices in Northeast Indiana, and there was not a single non-traditional choice for people in the counties where I grew up and had known people for a lifetime. I thought, this is what I can give back to the community.

The Dekko Foundation became interested and supportive because it fit my dad’s ideals about education, the financial freedom that comes with education, a free-market system, entrepreneurial-spirited students, problem-solvers, and lifelong learners. My dad talked about all of these things as I was growing up and long before they were popular topics. I think he would be proud. Most importantly, I think I have served God and may He continue to bless this school. Now, as many of my stories in the lower elementary classroom have ended—this is how Oak Farm Montessori School came to be.

If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.

- Maria Montessori (1870—1952)

Oak Farm Montessori School and the Montessori Philosophy

The Montessori method of education is named after Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952). Maria Montessori was a physician, scientist, and educator as well as the first woman to receive a medical degree in Italy. Dr. Montessori devoted her life to the education and development of children and was honored and respected throughout the world.

Montessori is an educational approach that frees the child’s potential for self-development. It guides each child according to individual capacity and need, permitting self-development at a natural pace.

A Montessori school is more than a classroom with different materials. In order to understand how it is different, we must expand our thinking to include more than just the basics. Our classrooms represent a social and emotional environment where children are respected and empowered as individual human beings and learn to be contributing members of society. Oak Farm Montessori School is an extended family and a community of students who take care of one another with respect. No other educational environment is as well equipped to see each student as an individual and to build the skills each student will need to take his or her place in our global community.

Eight Principles of Montessori Education

1. Movement and Cognition— that movement and cognition are closely entwined, and movement can enhance thinking and learning.

2. Choice— that learning and well-being are improved when people have a sense of control over their lives.

3. Interest— that people learn better when they are interested in what they are learning.

4.Avoiding extrinsic rewards— that tying extrinsic rewards to an activity, like money for reading or high grades for tests, negatively impacts motivation to engage in that activity when the reward is withdrawn.

5. Learning from and with peers— that collaborative arrangements can be very conducive to learning.

6. Learning in context— that learning situated in meaningful contexts is often deeper and richer than learning in abstract contexts.

7. Teacher ways and child ways— that particular forms of adult interaction are associated with more optimal child outcomes.

8. Order in environment and mind— that order in the environment is beneficial to children.

by Dr. Angeline Lillard from Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius

Oak Farm Montessori School

Peace Education

Peace is a way of life and a change of attitude from competitive to cooperative, from reactive to proactive.

Dr. Maria Montessori called on educators to teach peace to our children in every way and at every opportunity. She made it clear that the Montessori method of education is not just about teaching children to read and write, but an effort to build a global community by raising children in the ways of peacemaking. In her vision, schools would be designed to liberate the human spirit and teach tomorrow’s leaders how to create, sustain, and enjoy a culture of respect and peace.

Learning how to work and play together with others in a peaceful and caring community is perhaps the most critical life skill Oak Farm Montessori School can teach your child. Everyday kindness and courtesy are vital practical-life skills taught at the School. Our students come to understand and accept that we all have responsibilities to other people. They develop a clear sense of values and social conscience. We teach our students everyday ethics and interpersonal skills from the beginning. We insist that every person in our community be treated with dignity and respect.

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education...

- Maria Montessori (1870—1952)

Oak Farm Montessori School

Ecoliteracy

Our vision of a model Montessori school providing a world class education includes a functioning and sustainable rural campus. The goal of the ecoliteracy project is to expand learning beyond the classrooms and into the greater campus setting of the gardens, woodlands, wetlands, prairies, and conservation corridors. By integrating lessons on healthy living, community, earth education, environmental stewardship, organic gardening, and personal ownership; the ecoliteracy project will enhance the programming of every student. With Montessori’s Chart of the Interdependencies as a guide, the ecoliteracy project will bring the outdoor classroom to life at Oak Farm Montessori School through gardening, conservation, field work, life sciences studies, and micro-economy opportunities in the greenhouse, farm areas, and woodshop. It will also bring a guiding model of sustainable building and environmentally appropriate planning to make the most of this beautiful rural campus. The ecoliteracy project also involves administrative issues such as: building maintenance and construction, rainwater runoff and pollution control, recycling and composting, as well as the everyday work of providing school lunches and purchasing office supplies. By focusing throughout on sustainability, the project aims to prepare students for a world of shrinking natural resources while establishing the school as a long term member of the greater community.

Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open himself (or herself) to life.

- Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

Montessori Chart of Interdependencies

Vision Map

Vision of Oak Farm Montessori School

It is envisioned, in the years ahead, that Oak Farm Montessori School will pursue a path of growth and excellence through:

• Continued commitment to Montessori principles and methods

• Accreditation

• Ecoliteracy

• Expansion through Grade 12

• Local partnerships with colleges, arts organizations, healthcare establishments, and businesses

• Further strengthening of relationships and partnerships with parents

• Pursuit of our Portrait of a Montessori Teacher and Portrait of a Montessori

Graduate models

The bigger picture of Oak Farm Montessori School is a one-of-a-kind combination of synergistic efforts that not only strengthen the core work of the school, but also allow the school to share its expertise with a broader audience.

Focused Governance – to focus on finance and operations, not curriculum

Teacher Training Institute – to raise expertise locally and in the broader Montessori community Montessori Partnerships — to draw attention to the latest research and serve as a laboratory

Model of Excellence

Educational Clearinghouse — to assemble all of the educational resources from the Dekko Foundation and Oak Farm Montessori School for easy access and dissemination

Portrait of a Montessori Teacher

Lifelong Learner

• Knowledgeable about cutting-edge educational content and developmental theory

• Engaged in professional and personal development

• Critical thinker (reason, knowledge, and analysis based on truth and facts)

Emotionally Literate

• Practiced in establishing meaningful emotional and psychological engagement with all students

• Emotionally mature (self-confident, selfunderstanding, and self-respecting)

• Always striving for self-development (never settling)

• Optimistic and joyful

Leadership

• Skilled in the modeling and teaching of mission-appropriate characteristics that grant significant levels of responsibility and adult-like roles to all students (selfmotivated, self-disciplined, compassionate, and empathetic)

• Practiced in administering missionconsistent discipline in all instances (matches freedom with responsibility)

• Practiced in setting high, but not uniform, academic standards and expectations for all students

• Skilled in eliciting deep, engaged, active learning for all students regardless of grade or age

• Skilled in providing continuous reinforcement/feedback that leads to consistent high-level performance (i.e. performance at or near each student’s capacity)

Citizenship

• Practiced in giving support for and establishing active engagement with colleagues

• Practiced in making positive contributions to a professional, missionfocused sense of community with all constituent groups

• Practiced in establishing proactive communication with, and service to, each student's parents

• Civic-minded (knowledge and awareness of the impact of one's actions on society)

• Social activist (knowledge, awareness, and beneficial action on behalf of the world and its people)

PORTRAIT OF THE OAK FARM MONTESSORI GRADUATE

Lifelong Learner

• Engaged (curious and wants to know what “that”means)

• Critical thinker (reason, knowledge, and analysis based on truth and facts)

• Problem-solver (understanding objective, identifying problem, generating ideas, and implementing solution)

Emotionally Literate

• Self-confident (knowing one’s effort met with success through one’s own effort)

• Self-understanding (secure and comfortable in one’s abilities)

• Self-respect

• Always striving for self-development

• Optimistic and joyful

Leadership

• Self-motivated

• Self-disciplined

• Compassionate

• Empathetic

• Collaborative

Citizenship

• Civic-minded (knowledge and awareness of the impact of one’s actions on society)

• Social activist (knowledge, awareness, and beneficial action on behalf of the world and its people)

• Optimistic

OAK FARM MONTESSORI SCHOOL CORE VALUES

Commitment to Montessori Principles:

• Building and maintaining the ability to concentrate

• Empower staff, teachers, and parents

• Principle-driven, character-building (responsibilty and accountability)

Continuous Improvement:

• Problem-solving

• Collaboration and teamwork

• Maximizing strengths

• Experimental attitude

• Benchmarking

• Professional development

Preparing Students for a Global Community:

• Responsibility to the environment and the Earth

• Portrait of a Graduate

• Peace Education

Focused Governance:

• Board focusing on the business side of organization

• Head of School leading the curriculum side of the organization

• Clear Policies and Procedures ensuring consistent quality and implementation

• Economic Diversity and School Choice

• Independence

Oak Farm Montessori School

Core Values Explained and Applied

Core Value: Commitment to Montessori Principles

BUILDING AND MAINTAINING THE ABILITY TO CONCENTRATE

We believe:

• The ability to concentrate is developed through a regular and uninterrupted academic work cycle

In action, this value looks like:

• Each school level determines its ideal implementation of the three-hour cycle to facilitate focus on academic subjects

EMPOWERING STAFF, TEACHERS, AND PARENTS

We believe:

• In partnering with parents to educate their children

• In respecting each individual

• In supporting the personal and professional development of staff and faculty

In action, this value looks like:

• Meeting the needs of the individual child

• Developing trust

• Working in relationship

• Valuing open dialogue

• Providing the advantages that parents would equate with a small school

• Working in partnership

PRINCIPLE-DRIVEN, CHARACTER-BUILDING (RESPONSIBILTY AND ACCOUNTABILITY)

We believe—In the Portrait of a Montessori Teacher:

• Lifelong learners

• Emotionally literate

• Accountable leaders

• Responsible citizens

In action, this value looks like:

• Always acting as an advocate for what is best for the child

• Supporting the child and their parents to understand the world in which we live

• Practicing the Montessori values ourselves that we practice with children

• Supporting children with learning differences, while not allowing those needs to compromise the learning of other students

One test of the correctness of the educational procedure is the happiness of the child.

- Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

Core Value: Continuous Improvement

PROBLEM SOLVING

We believe:

• In viewing problems as creative opportunities

• In initiating, not reacting

• In finding the root cause

• In being active, not passive

In action, this value looks like:

• Encouraging students to figure things out for themselves

• Inviting others to help with a problem

COLLABORATION AND TEAMWORK

We believe:

• In nurturing community

• In teams who compensate for each other's weaknesses

In action, this value looks like:

• Developing a strong staff culture

• Practicing the Montessori values ourselves

• Establishing external collaborations and partnerships

MAXIMIZING STRENGTHS

We believe:

• In respect for individual differences

• In self-awareness that encourages every staff member to work to his or her strengths

• In individuality, not conformity

In action, this value looks like:

• Encouraging individual thought and opinion

• Accepting without judgement

• Asking people to operate out of their strengths

• Hiring and assigning work to use individual strengths

EXPERIMENTAL ATTITUDE

We believe:

• In always evaluating any effort to find ways to improve

• In creativity leading to innovation

In action, this value looks like:

• Trying new Montessori approaches to increase learning

• Sharing effective practices

There is in every child a painstaking teacher so skillful that he obtains identical results in all parts of the world.

- Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

BENCHMARKING

We believe:

• In viewing, discussing, and learning from the methods of others

• In striving to be a model of excellence

In action, this value looks like:

• The head of school's finding the appropriate environment to benchmark, collaborating with supervisors and teachers as to the components that will be observed and analyzed upon return, and defining action steps with accountability and an agreed-upon timetable

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

We believe:

• In building a strong leadership team and broad teaching experience among faculty

• In on-going professional development of staff at all levels

• In benefitting students by employing teachers who have a global awareness and life experience

In action, this value looks like:

• Developing both the academic and leadership skills of our staff

• Leading with questions

• Using The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to encourage shared language and basic concepts

• Effecting "Management According to Dekko" with a problem-solving curriculum

• Hiring the right people thoughtfully

• Designing incentives to attract and retain faculty that encourage global travel and cultural development

The greatness of the human personality begins at birth. From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion that education must start from birth.

- Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

Core Value: Preparing Students for a Global Community

RESPONSIBILITY TO THE ENVIRONMENT, EARTH

We believe:

• In a conservation program that fosters a love of the natural world through the care of animals, plants, forests, and ponds

In action, this value looks like:

• Students demonstrating a responsibilty to the earth in their conservation, gardening, and community-service projects

PORTRAIT OF A GRADUATE

We believe:

• In creating graduates who are emotionally literate, lifelong learners, accountable leaders and responsible citizens

In action, this value looks like:

• Global citizens identifying and pursuing their vocation

PEACE

We believe:

• In peace as a way of life and a shift of attitude from competitive to cooperative, from reactive to proactive

• In our role of teaching tomorrow's leaders how to create, sustain, and enjoy a culture of respect and peace

In action, this value looks like:

• Students resolving conflict through understanding and negotiation and by creating collaborative agreement

Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.

- Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

Core Value: Focused Governance

BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOCUSES ON THE BUSINESS SIDE OF ORGANIZATION

We believe:

• In a board that brings the greatest value through expertise in finance and operations, not through teaching or curriculum development

In action, this value looks like:

• Developing a board that is small, brings individual expertise and loyalty to Montessori methods, and utilizes a Montessori board champion and Head of School

• Restricting the Board of Directors from making curriculum decisions

HEAD OF SCHOOL LEADS THE CURRICULUM SIDE OF ORGANIZATION

We believe:

• In the Head of School’s being an expert on Montessori methods and guiding all evaluation and development of curriculum

In action, this value looks like:

• Employing a Head of School who is a certified and experienced Montessori professional with Montessori elementary teaching experience

• Defining a process for discerning whether new methods are consistent with Montessori philosophy, research and faculty evaluations

Free the child's potential and you will transform him in to the world.

– Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952)

CLEAR POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ENSURE CONSISTENT QUALITY AND IMPLEMENTATION

We believe:

• In establishing guiding principles from the beginning, using them, and remaining faithful to them

In action, this value looks like:

• Establishing policies prior to a problem or a crisis

• Reviewing policies periodically to ensure relevance

ECONOMIC DIVERSITY AND SCHOOL CHOICE

We believe:

• In giving everyone a choice in education

In action, this value looks like:

• Offering tuition assistance without stigma

INDEPENDENCE

We believe:

• In Oak Farm Montessori School's ability to act in the best interest of the children

In action, this value looks like:

• Not compromising Oak Farm Montessori School's methods or core values for the sake of maintaining or increasing student enrollment

• Supplementing tuition fees by foundation support of endowment fund

How We Sustain Our Values

While defining values is key, they do not instill themselves or sustain themselves On a continuous basis, the staff and board leadership of Oak Farm Montessori School must ensure that the values are incorporated into new staff, teacher, board member, and funder orientations, discussed regularly, and looked to in times of decision.

POLICIES

• The Head of School is a certified and experienced Montessori professional with Montessori elementary teaching experience.

• The Board of Directors does not define curriculum.

PHILOSOPHIES

• Oak Farm Montessori School Board members should be regularly trained in Montessori philosophy.

• Leaders and funders who value process are identified, because that is how the Montessori method works.

• With ongoing communication and training, the differences between the educational and business perspectives of the top staff and volunteer leaders are recognized.

• The Board and funders should not micromanage and need to appreciate that this is a long-term commitment that will take time to evolve and mature.

• Oak Farm Montessori School will strive always to have a long-term Montessori Board champion who can bridge the transitions and the ongoing development of the school.

And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.

– Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952)

CULTURE

• The Head of School and Board Champion are “keepers of the Montessori values.”

• The Head of School conveys values to board and staff.

• The faculty and administrative staff at all levels understand and are committed to Montessori.

• Teachers convey values to parents.

TRAINING

• Values in Action are regularly highlighted to parents, staff, faculty, and board.

• Each board member’s orientation, training, and support are steeped in Montessori philosophy and methods.

• Each board member will engage in regular communications such as Values in Action and case studies of other schools succeeding and failing.

• Board members have a long-term commitment.

• There will be staggered transitions between members for the sake of continuity.

• The board’s leadership will regularly recheck the commitment of all board members.

• Board members will train in most common educational alternatives to Montessori and why we are committed to Montessori.

• An immersive experience will be researched and created for board members.

CRITERIA TO DETERMINE CURRICULUM FIT FOR OAK FARM MONTESSORI

Potential channels where ideas could emerge:

• Research within the Montessori community

• Faculty

• Head of School

• Board members

• Parents

• Traditional education community

No matter what medium from which the idea originates, every potential idea goes through the same two filters:

• Is it consistent with Montessori philosophy (see below)?

• Does our faculty accept and endorse it?

To match the key aspects of Montessori Philosophy, methods must be:

• Hands-on

• Child-centered

• Individualized

• Sensory-based

• Multi-sensory

• Specific

• Research-based

• Ideally, researched within the Montessori community

• Supplementing, but not replacing Montessori methods

Furthermore, we must have either sufficient expertise on staff or seek out third-party Montessori expertise to understand and appropriately evaluate each method fully.