Middle School (Grades 6th to 8th)
Our Philosophy:
The world is good. The world is beautiful. The world is true. As the children progress into middle school truth becomes our leading theme. What is truth? First and foremost it is the fruit of an objective and honest approach to what we perceive with our senses. Secondly, truth is the authentic expression of one’s self. At age twelve, students develop the capacity to perceive other people and the world in a more objective way. They question why, observe and reflect, challenge social norms, formulate their own opinions, and ultimately ask themselves the most important question: who am I? At the heart of the teacher's work is the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health of each unique student.
Our middle school curriculum is both creative and rigorous. The bulk of our curriculum continues to be organized in “blocks.” Block lessons are periods of time when the class dives deeply into a subject giving the opportunity for integrated learning with art, hands-on projects, and individualized topics. All social studies, history, geography, and science courses are taught in this way. One important function of learning in blocks is to keep a high level of enthusiasm and buoyancy with each new subject and the unique experiences that accompany it. The other goal is to serve through the subject the developmental mood and needs of each grade. No subject is relevant if it doesn't help the students to grow, as growing is the main thing they need to do at this time in their lives. Growing means feeling at home in their own skin, developing passions, trusting in themselves, meeting people and the world with openness and curiosity, being able to relate every subject to their personal experience. During this time, skills classes and subjects that require continued practice are taught as tracks. These include mathematics, language arts, Spanish, world languages, handwork, woodwork, and games.
Classroom Without Walls (CWoW)
Learning does not only happen inside the classroom. Once a week after their morning lesson, each grade leaves the campus with our CWoW outdoor education teachers. They continue to explore the beautiful nature surrounding the Bay Area but also take trips into urban areas for community service projects and museum visits aligned with the themes they explore in the classroom. Our middle schoolers continue gardening, cooking, and animal husbandry (chickens, goats, alpacas) at our farmland in Novato as part of the CWoW program. However, at this age they take on larger projects which they see from beginning to end. Below you will find the formative end-of-year middle school class trips each one a milestone in their development.
- 6th Grade: Two-week trip to Mexico where our students attend school in a small town in Tapalpa, Mexico where they are fully immerse in Spanish culture and language
- 7th Grade: three-week self-financed trip to Europe typically Spain, Italy, and Greece
- 8th Grade: three week trip to Patagonia embarking on a rite of passage “sit”for personal reflection. The duration of the sit depends on the class and each student’s level of readiness
Science
We follow a phenomenological approach to science, which implies a lot of time is devoted to the direct experience and observation of phenomena and to building the awareness that human narratives, models, and theories are constantly evolving and being debunked by new, more expansive ones. This approach to science and the scientific method celebrates currently revered theories but does not exalt them as ultimate truths; instead, it reveres the rigor and the love that goes into the process of acquiring knowledge. The same reverence imbues all discourse about cultures and the “moral truths” that come to the fore in each time and place making up the highest values shared in civil society. In middle school the students apply the rigorous methods of scientific inquiry. At the same time, they begin to realize that consensus on what is true and good is the only way humans can work together. Developing a rigorous critical mind gives us greater agency, and it must also give us a greater ability to work together with other fellow humans, and to serve and heal the world.
An example of how scientific discourse serves a moral goal is in how Darwin's theory of evolution is taught. This theory tells us, among other things, that there is a continuum in our development in relation to our fellow mammals. At the same time, it also points to radical differences that have made Sapiens the dominant species on the planet and the only one, as far as we know, to apply “collective learning” to the development of tools and the solving of moral dilemmas. The moral implications of holding both truths are enormous. Our capacity to act out of empathy, rather than impulse, is dependent on developing quiet reflection and moral imagination. We can pursue more than our immediate self-interest, and our highest self-interest can align with the needs of our fellow living beings.
The realms of belief, particularly those beliefs that answer the big questions of life, are brought with respect for the different cultures in which they arise, their ways of life and geographic conditions. They are brought also with a great sense of reverence for those pearls of wisdom that appear in different parts of the world at given times forming the shared legacy of humanity.
Sixth Grade
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade
Kindergarten
Life in Kindergarten
Elementary School
Our Elementary School Experience