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When Park Road Montessori's sixth-graders finish gardening, they return to class.
Ian Wise throws a rug on the floor to study Latin vocabulary. John Thomas ponders the stability of the element ununoctium. Emma Ray and Ferne O'Ham work at a small science station.
These 11- and 12-year-olds represent the promise and challenge of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' latest magnet venture: expanding the popular Montessori elementary program to middle school.
They work enthusiastically and independently, in a setting that feels like a big family room. Three of the four say they'd much rather be here, in a classroom with fourth- and fifth-graders, than sitting in rows doing the same work as everyone else in sixth grade.
"I can challenge myself at a little higher levels," says Ian, 11.
But half of their fifth-grade classmates are no longer with them. Ferne, 12, hopes to switch to Randolph Middle School before this year is over.
"I want to have a normal education," she says. "I've learned a lot (from Montessori), but I think it would be better, looking at my brother and sister, to go to a traditional middle school."
John is the only one of the four who feels confident he'll go to the new Montessori magnet planned for Sedgefield Middle next year. With only 36 Montessori sixth-graders districtwide, it's unclear whether the January application period will draw enough to fill even one seventh-grade class.
"We really are working with some unknowns," said CMS magnet director Jeff Linker.
The school board decided last year to add a Montessori middle school, based on parent requests and academic benefits.
Linker takes the startup hurdles in stride. He helped create CMS's first International Baccalaureate middle school, in the early 1990s at Marie G. Davis. At first, officials begged families to try it, he said.
"After two or three years, we had wait pools and were turning people away."
National trend
Italian pediatrician Maria Montessori developed the methods that bear her name: Letting children learn at their own pace, make choices about what they'll explore and work in real-life settings. CMS's three Montessori elementaries are among its most popular magnets, with waiting lists of 4- and 5-year-olds.
Now the district is joining a national trend, expanding the philosophy for adolescents. Local private schools went first: Countryside, in northeast Mecklenburg, has a Montessori middle school and recently added a high school. Omni has a Montessori middle school on a Waxhaw farm.
Adding sixth grade was natural for schools that already use multi-age classrooms, says Park Road Principal Anna Moraglia. Her school added band, Spanish and career-technical classes so sixth-graders don't miss out on middle-school life. But most of their day is spent in the Montessori setting they're used to.
Each class has a garden. On a recent morning, Cecelia McGloughlin's fourth- to sixth-graders pulled up summer plants, saving green tomatoes to fry and turning corn stalks into fall decorations.
Inside, they chose what to work on and helped themselves to peanut butter, apples and celery. Seven gathered around McGloughlin, who sat on the floor talking about fractions and decimals.
Ian laid out cards bearing Latin roots, such as "circum," "post" and "bi," and tried to match them with definitions. He asked McGloughlin for a Latin dictionary, but the class doesn't have one. "Guess I've just got to use the college dictionary," he said.
Later he picked a "design experiment" card that posed a puzzler about how a student could calculate how quickly classroom pencils were being ground down. He grabbed Ferne and Emma, who consulted on a solution.
"I like the way Montessori teaches," Ian says. He wants to go to Sedgefield next year, but says his mother prefers Northwest School of the Arts, a grades 6-12 magnet that would develop his piano skills.
Enrollment drops off
CMS's Montessori enrollment dwindles by the end of the elementary years. This year the three schools have a combined kindergarten enrollment of 193, but only 44 in fifth grade.
Chantilly, the newest Montessori school, didn't have a fifth grade last year. At both Highland Mill and Park Road, half of last year's fifth-graders returned for sixth.
Moraglia says some families switch to charter or private schools in the late-elementary years. This year, some parents opted to send their sixth-graders to the middle schools older siblings attend, while others chose schools they thought would better meet their children's needs.
Choosing Sedgefield will require a leap of faith. It's currently a high-poverty neighborhood school that has seen academic gains but logs below-average test results.
CMS hopes to hire a principal with Montessori experience, along with teachers trained in Montessori methods and state certified to teach core subjects. Linker said his goal is to have one math/science and one language arts/social studies teacher in place next year. "I don't know how likely that is, to be totally honest," he said.
Fear and hope
The Ray family illustrates CMS's challenge.
Denene Ray and her husband attended Montessori schools. There was no question their children would, too. They'd lived in states where Montessori meant paying tuition, so they were thrilled that Charlotte offers it in public school.
Denene Ray teaches at Park Road. Sixth-grader Emma says she loves it there. Next year she'll go to Southwest Middle, her neighborhood school.
Denene Ray says she isn't convinced CMS will have the right staff and supplies in place to do a Montessori middle school right from the start. "I haven't seen enough movement to make me comfortable," she said. Three years from now, when her second daughter reaches seventh grade, she hopes Sedgefield's program will be stronger.
Linker hopes families will be attracted by Sedgefield's just-renovated building in south Charlotte, with a creek lending itself to outdoor exploration. CMS will hold open houses later this fall.
School board member Ken Gjertsen, who sends his first-grade son from their south suburban home to Chantilly Montessori in central Charlotte, is hopeful.
"Chantilly is not in an affluent area, but it's a little gem of a school," Gjertsen said. In a few years, he predicts, Sedgefield "is probably going to be a viable option and it's probably going to have a waiting list."
