Montessori for adolescents: a springboard for life

Cycle d’Orientation Montessori 12-15 yo

A unique opportunity for teenagers to learn differently, to blossom, to collaborate and to prepare themselves to become enlightened, responsible adults.

Present on every continent, Montessori’s pedagogy for teenagers is recognized for developing the pleasure of learning, self-confidence and personal fulfillment. Through the projects they create, teenagers develop academic skills and experience real adult work.

The mission of Cycle d’Orientation Montessori Meyrin is to offer a bilingual educational environment that provides appropriate responses to the needs of teenagers, who face many challenges during this complex period.

Adolescence is an important period of transition and self-discovery for every young person.

They have a desire for adventure, and teenagers can be seen as explorers of the world and their environment.

So we need to meet their basic needs:

• By encouraging self-esteem,
• By developing their self-confidence,
• By helping them build a new identity,
• By giving them the opportunity to live a rich social life and offering them the means to make a contribution to society.
• By enabling them to develop their creative potential,
• By encouraging them to express their personal opinions.

Creating a framework and setting up rituals

Adolescents need a structuring framework to build their identity and personality.

In this way, we help them to build experiences of solidarity that involve responsibility. The adults are there to show the way, without sparing them the effort of doing things for themselves, by encouraging encounters and opening up their horizons.

The team is there to help them take risks in authentic situations, without putting them in danger:

• offer the adolescents a space in which he can build projects for which he will be fully responsible.
• bring the adolescents into contact with nature as much as possible in real-life situations.

Activities on a farm and working the land represent important potential learning projects and relevant links with DIP academic programs.

Adolescents placed in real-life situations better understand the life of a social community with which they can identify. They learn to make choices while respecting the rules of society. They develop a sense of justice and can become aware of their role in society, to better find their place in the world.

To develop their personal identity, young people need to act in the world and discover themselves through very concrete activities, a project in nature confronting them in the environment in which they evolve.

What we offer in the 12-15 class:

• The teenager at the center of learning
• An active, project-based, interdisciplinary approach
• Individualized teaching focused on autonomy
• Development of micro-economic projects: school on the farm
• Youth-led projects to support academic learning
• Studies carried out with adults in a spirit of support, initiation, autonomy and commitment to work.
• A multi-grade class combining the three grades of 9th, 10th and 11th

“Helping young people to prepare themselves for life” Maria Montessori

The Cycle d’Orientation Montessori Meyrin is based on active pedagogy. Once a week, teenagers visit our partner farm to manage micro-economic projects. We also prepare the youngsters for the exams required for integration into mainstream schools.

These are all opportunities for them to combine academic learning with practical work in an essential spirit of collaboration.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us by e-mail at: contact@montessori-meyrin.ch

Cycle presentation