Charting the Course: Forming Community from the Start

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Thank you to all who participated Tuesday’s discussion!

Over 40 practitioners came together to share their experience and ideas. The following is a summary of the conversation.

What we know is that there’s still a lot we don’t know about COVID-19 and adolescents.

Current scientific evidence suggests that school aged children, especially those under ten, are: less likely to contract the COVID-19 virus; less likely to develop severe symptoms; and less likely to be vectors of transmission to others in the community. Children older than ten may have the same susceptibility and ability to pass along the virus as adults. Growing evidence shows adolescents are at a greater risk to be negatively affected by the physical distancing measures put in place to mitigate community transmission. Studies are starting to show increased levels of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders due to the prolonged isolation from peers and social groups

The developmental tasks of adolescence are to form a sense of personal identity and build the skills necessary to function as an adult in society. These tasks can only happen within the context of a social group, in the context of community. This is why adolescents are so drawn to their peers and why community is emphasized in Montessori adolescent programmes.

Themes that emerged in the discussion

The Importance of Face-to-Face interactions

Even if schools are starting virtually at the beginning of the year, can you find ways for your community to meet that are in keeping with your jurisdiction’s physical distancing guidelines?

  • Meet at local parks or open community spaces for to see each other in person before having to interact online

  • Plan physical or creative expressions that can be done safely at a distance

    • scavenger hunts

    • orienteering

    • painting murals or chalk art

  • Community service project done in small pods

    • Creek or park clean up

    • Neighbourhood beautification projects

    • Making masks

    • Organizing food drives

    • Creating care packages for unhoused individuals

    • Supporting those in Long Term Care Facilities

  • Work on the land

    • Repairs/maintenance on school buildings that can be done in small groups

    • Harvesting gardens and caring for animals in a rotation

    • Partnerships with local farms who are without workers to help bringing in crops

    • Processing vegetables and fruits outside for preserving

  • Re-think start of the year rituals and trips

    • Odysseys that are local and respect physical distance guidelines

Intake and Orientation

  • Host student goal-setting conferences out of doors (at school or on a front porch)

  • Mentorship between current adolescents and new students

  • Set clear guidelines and expectations within which the adolescents can design their community contract/code of civility/ charter for the year

  • Involve the parents, their observations of their children are essential in online learning situations

  • Ask adolescents returning from last year to share their perspectives as you plan for this year

  • Have returning adolescents hold instructional tutorials or make videos about how to navigate the online learning environment :

    • How to sign on to GoogleClassroom

    • How to post an assignment

    • Etiquette of a Zoom meeting

Building Community Online

Remember all those “experiences of social life” that are integrated into the day of an adolescent programme. How can those be recreated/replicated online?

  • Cooking together

  • Eating together

  • Sharing in cultural celebrations and rituals

    • Birthdays for example

  • Creative and physical expression

  • Community Meeting

  • Social activities

    • Games/Trivia

    • Virtual Escape Rooms

    • Murder Mysteries 

    • Clubs and extracurricular activities

    • Movie nights

Production and Exchange

Experiences the economic system (production and exchange) build community because they appeal to the adolescent needs for economic independence and collective work.

  • Engage your adolescents in the challenge of converting your in-person micro-economy to an COVID safe business.

    • What can still be done in person?

    • What products can still be made?

    • How will you sell them? Advertise?

    • How will people pay?

    • How are other business managing during this moment in time?

Involve Returning Adolescents

When programmes moved to distance learning in the spring, communities had been together, in person, for many months; the culture was set. We will be starting from scratch in the fall, but we will have adolescents with institutional memory.

  • Recruit older students to help plan events, set the culture, make suggestions for what works and what doesn’t

  • Talk with them separately from the new students about the responsibility they have in building this new community from their memories of pervious years

  • Empower them with information, get them to lead the charge for adopting health and safety measures be it mask wearing, hand washing, and physically distancing in person or cyber safety, responsible technology use, and making time to be offline.

What is next? 

We plan to host more discussions as the school year approaches. Please feel free to suggest topics for discussion at contact@montessoriadolescent.com and check the Events tab for announcements and instructions about registration. Have a story about something that went really well in remote learning so-far? Please reach out to us. We are happy to have guest bloggers share their experiences.