Calvin Chambers, Jacob Larrabee, and Quinton Kaser read together after lunch at The Community Roots School in Silverton, Oregon.
Bookcases cover the walls of the classroom, each one supplied with a colorful set of materials—a box of three-dimensional geometric shapes; an abacus with red, green, and blue beads; and a plastic puzzle replica of a human heart. Equipped with these items, children work independently or in small groups throughout the room.
One child sits with a map of Western Europe in front of him. His eyes dart back and forth across the continent. After several moments of concentration, he takes a small green flag and pins it to Italy. A few feet away, another child studies her multiplication tables using a multicolored checkerboard and strands of beads. She places a strand into a square and scribbles something in her workbook. A girl at the neighboring table drags a diminutive rake across a Zen garden, slowly tracing an “S” pattern in the sand.
This is the three-hour work period at The Community Roots Montessori School in Silverton, Oregon—a time for children to independently delve deep into their studies. In many respects the school is a departure from traditional teaching methodologies.
Many types of alternative educational models exist around the world. The Montessori method focuses on child-led exploration, while Waldorf concentrates on teaching through storytelling and art, with an emphasis on introducing new concepts at the appropriate developmental stage.
Both methods share one powerful theme: helping children find joy in learning. Rather than expecting children to memorize facts and figures, the schools focus on discovering what will motivate children to seek out information on their own and inspire their intellectual curiosity.
Audrey Surbaugh displays a picture she drew in the cafeteria during lunch at The Community Roots School.
The Montessori and Waldorf methods, developed by Maria Montessori in 1907 and Rudolf Steiner in 1919, are structured to educate students differently depending on where they are developmentally. Followers of both methods believe younger students are sponges that absorb information from their surroundings, and think children need concrete examples to understand foreign concepts.
While creating her namesake educational method, Montessori developed sets of materials to express ideas to children in a tangible way.
“As opposed to memorizing what to do, [the Montessori method] can give you lessons to show what is actually happening,” Community Roots instructor Gary Grenier says.
In a typical Waldorf classroom, desks face the front of the class in a configuration similar to those seen in traditional schools; however, the similarities end there.
Waldorf educators teach Rudolf Steiner’s concepts by using both dynamic and pictorial methods. Students are either asked to move their bodies or are presented with art and stories when introduced to new lessons.
“Developmentally, children are so in their imagination in those early years,” Valerie Perrott, public relations and enrollment coordinator for the Eugene Waldorf School, says. “That’s the way they find their motivation or interests—through that picture or through that movement.”
Perrott says that letters of the alphabet, for example, are often presented with a picture and a story. The instructor might introduce the letter “F” by drawing a picture of a fish leaping from the water. The instructor would then tell a short story to the class using words that made “F” sounds. At the end of class students would be given the chance to draw their own fish. When the students return the following day, the instructor would relate the story of “F” once again, using repetition to cement the lesson.
The Eugene Waldorf School is a private school, and therefore does not receive state funds; administrators charge tuition instead. Most Waldorf schools must be private due to their nondenominational “emphasis on the divine.” Perrott says every person has a spiritual self, and the Waldorf method explores this self through teaching its students about world religions. This can sometimes include highlighting a celebration observed by a student’s family and integrating that into lessons.
Audrey Surbaugh displays a picture she drew in the cafeteria during lunch at The Community Roots School.
Unlike Waldorf, many Montessori schools are charter schools, which means they’re partially funded by the government and have much more freedom in their curriculum than traditional schools.
State law requires that at least 50 percent of charter school teachers are certified in traditional teaching methods, regardless of what system the school employs. The Community Roots School additionally requires their teachers to be Montessori-certified. The Eugene Waldorf School has its own two-year certification program on site. These certifications are issued to maintain the integrity of Waldorf and Montessori’s unique teaching styles.
As opposed to traditional classrooms, Waldorf schools don’t use textbooks. Instead students work with a selection of materials and create their own workbooks as they progress through their lessons. These workbooks are considered just as useful as any textbook, and students will often use them to reference previous lessons.
This is not to say that Waldorf classrooms are completely without books. Waldorf schools will often have encyclopedias, dictionaries, and atlases available for student use.
At The Community Roots Montessori School, each student is given a workbook containing lessons and a set of goals. They work independently and move about the room collecting materials to complete their studies. Students choose which lesson to work on and spend as much time as they need on each task before moving onto the next one.
“You might have a kid working on the same project for two or three hours,” Community Roots Principal Miranda Traeger says. “It allows for that deep concentration that a lot of traditional schools interrupt.”
Amaya Running Cox takes some time to relax and read in Gary Grenier’s class at The Community Roots School.
This block of time is essential to the Montessori method. During this work period, teachers assist students as needed and sometimes give short lessons to the class.
Fifth-grader Amaya Cox says she enjoys the way The Community Roots School allows her to learn at her own pace.
“I think it’s a lot funner,” Cox says. “When I was in the other schools I got kind of bored just listening to a teacher teach. I think it’s funner to be independent. I’m a very independent person.”
Unlike traditional public schools, students in typical Montessori classrooms vary widely in age. Most classrooms have at least a three-year age range. The idea is that older students—who are accustomed to the Montessori method—will model appropriate behavior and help younger students understand the material. This helps the class develop a sense of community.
“You won’t see [older students] giving directives on how things should go, but just graciously intervening when they see a child is needing help or a child is struggling,” Traeger says.
“We’re training these little people to treat each other in this amazing, warm way; and we’re giving them the opportunity to do that without the adult intervention.”
At The Community Roots School learning doesn’t stop at lunchtime. Each day instructor Jenny McCord asks her students to give thanks before lunch starts. The process helps students ease out of their work period and honors the notion that every child has something important to say.
As students file into the lunchroom, McCord turns off the lights. The natural light from the sun instead fills the room.
“I’m thankful for my mom,” one student exclaims.
“I’m thankful for everything,” another says.
After each student has given thanks, one student proudly proclaims “Bon appétit!” The lights flick back on and the students dig in. Their lunch tables are devoid of soda, flavored milks, or other sugary treats. Instead, students munch on carrot sticks, salad, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
The Community Roots School considers food preparation an important part of the Montessori philosophy. The school encourages students to take part in preparing their lunches. This helps them learn about nutrition.
When a student brings something unhealthy to lunch, fellow classmates offer constructive suggestions. The point is not to shame the food choices of other children, but to build a community where students work together to find healthier alternatives.
“That piece of community is really important because they rely on each other versus relying on the one person in the classroom, which is the teacher,” McCord says. “So they have to use their resources.”
Grace Traeger uses strings of beads to learn math skills during a three hour work period.
Montessori and Waldorf schools are popular among educators and parents who feel traditional public schools aren’t reaching the children in their community. Parent Jade Elms says that Waldorf’s creative teaching methods prompted her to enroll her two children into the Eugene Waldorf School.
“I walked through the school for the first time on a tour during the school day and heard the children singing, saw the beautiful watercolor paintings, observed the artful and soothing classrooms with chalk ‘paintings’ on the board, and found myself crying with relief that there really was a living alternative to the sterile, over-stimulating, rote educational experience I had as a child,” Elms says.
When her daughter Rya first entered the Eugene Waldorf School she struggled academically. Rya’s instructors encouraged her to express herself artistically instead, building her confidence and keeping her interested in learning.
The Community Roots School only offers classes up until the fifth grade, so students must return to a traditional school when they leave. Unlike Montessori, the Waldorf curriculum extends into high school; however, no Waldorf high school exists near Eugene. Perrott says most of their students move onto either the International High School in South Eugene or Churchill High School.
Elms says her daughter’s transition from the Eugene Waldorf School into high school was easy. Rya received mostly As and Bs and graduated from the International High School with a cumulative GPA of 3.67.
“In my experience, the Waldorf graduate is an inordinately compassionate, respectful, confident, and intelligent individual who has already created many beautiful and useful objects with their hands and possesses the beginnings of a deep understanding about not only the mechanics but also the relatedness of our world,” Elms says.
Instructors at both the Eugene Waldorf School and The Community Roots School hope to ingrain a love of learning and self-confidence in their students so they will continue to succeed once they graduate. Konrad Siefer, a fifth-grader at The Community Roots School, feels he’s gained something invaluable from the time he’s spent receiving an alternative education.
“I’ve learned how to respect and have a choice of freedom,” Siefer says. “That’s what I’ve learned—what freedom feels like. I just love this school.”
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