Taking High School to a Whole New Level

Remember being bored out of your skull in high school? No? OK, maybe that's just me. I remember feeling overloaded and under-challenged a lot of the time, and guided by math and science geniuses who, while they might have known the coursework well, surely didn't do a great job of conveying it in a meaningful way. And all that was neatly packages in a vanilla classroom with so-called "lab" experiments. So, when I first heard about the Montessori High School (MHS) in University Circle, I was intrigued. News of this cutting-edge educational experience for young adults has been floating out there for quite a while; this fall, the curriculum is set and the first students will take the experiential learning plunge.

MHS is an International Baccalaureate Diploma program concentrating on arts, sciences and humanities. The school combines "experience-based and community-based developmental learning alongside the teaching of the formal academic disciplines" utilizing the wealth of partner University Circle institutions as interdisciplinary resources. MHS students will work in several different staging areas, including The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Western Reserve Historical Society and learn their subject matter first-hand -- out in the field, where all the action is happening -- and not just in another sterile classroom. Talk about ingenious!

Think MHS might be a great fit for your young adult? The staff just held a recent slate of Open Houses for potential students and their parents, but you still have time to enroll. Students preparing for grades 9-11 are what MHS caters to and, if this all sounds too good to be true, you'd better log on to http://www.montessorihighschool.org and give your eyes a rub. Then stay tuned for a full-length feature on the school in an upcoming issue of Cool Cleveland.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com
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