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Just outside Waxhaw sits one of the Charlotte area's most unusual private schools: Omni Montessori School, set on 13 rural acres, where working the land is part of going to school for a group of middle-school-age children. The land provides the students woods, ponds and fields to learn in. David Kahn, executive director of the North American Montessori Teachers Association, says Omni's connection to its rural farming community is unique in the region. "Every animal on the farm is a biology lesson. Every pond is a chemistry lesson." GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

It's a team effort, with Tomas Roy (right) working as the foreman, under the guidance of organic gardener Mary Roberts (in hat), who is helping the students get started with the garden. Students, from left: Nathan Dowd; Cameron McKinley; Roberts; Kaya Eskind; Matt Hawse; and Roy. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

The students are also studying what lives in the soil. Andrew Nielsen pokes with a finger, going after an insect he's turned up. Every organism is identified and listed - snakes, insects, grubs - whatever is part of the ecosystem. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

The students have worked out a business plan for their garden, planning to sell produce at the Waxhaw Farmers Market. For now, they are facing the challenges of building raised beds, installing an irrigation system, and lining up volunteers to work the garden over the summer. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Saving a bit of time, Cameron McKinley dismounts a shared bicycle after retrieving a rake from the tool barn. The barn will someday house goats and a minature donkey. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Mary Baker (right), an organic farmer from Monroe gives helps Emily Couillard measure for a rasied bed while Tomas Roy works on the irrigation system. Baker says watching the students is amazing. "This gives you hope for adolescents. This is the antithesis of what you think of teenagers." GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

After turning up a beetle with his shovel, Chase Morgan took it up to a freezer in the farmhouse, which is now the school. Later, he'll identify its genus and species and add it to the list of insects the class has found on the farm. The beetle itself will be pinned up in an ever-growing collection of the farm's fauna. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

On a recent spring day, a sky dotted with clouds rolls over the garden while Jake, a mutt the class adopted last year roughhouses with a dog from a neighboring spread. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Anna Kate Smith drives a shovel into the soil alongside her fellow students. When asked how to explain her school to friends, she laughs. "Most of them are like 'You go to school on a farm?' You kind of have to see it for yourself." Montessori is not all free-form and creative. Students study math, humanities, literature, writing, Spanish and other subjects. And there are exams as well, either state-mandated or their private-school equivalent. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Overlooking the school's newly-renovated building, Cameron McKinley saws a cedar branch for stakes to mark the corners of raised beds in the garden, while Kaya Eskind, stabilizes the work. Cameron was miserable as a seventh-grader in public schools, making Cs and Ds. After sending him to Omni, his parents, both educators, would have been satisfied just to see him care about school. Instead, he says it's been an awakening: "It's just such an incredible welcomeness." His mother says there's been a bonus. "The standardized achievement tests went through the roof." GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Grae Baker, Omni's adolescent program director, says he's seen a huge change in his charges since December, when the students started spending full days at the farm.ÒYou get this deep engagement,Ó Baker says. ÒThey own it. They care about it.Ó GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Mary Roberts, an organic farmer from Monroe watches the students build vegetable beds. ÒIt's amazing. They are so bright and so goal-oriented. This gives you hope for adolescents. This is the antithesis of what you think of with teenagers.Ó GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Relationships with the land, the community and each other are all part of the cirricuulum. Megan Hecimovich (left) and Kaya Eskind chat while bringing a cart from the tool barn. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Looking every bit the part of a Union County farmer, Chase Morgan puts away the tools at the end of the students' work day. Grae Baker (Grae Baker is CQ), the school's adolescent program director says the negative stereotypes of teenagers stem not from their nature, but from society's failure to give them meaningful work. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com