TRAVERSE CITY - Compass Montessori Junior High is giving students in Traverse City an opportunity to learn in a nontraditional setting. The school is the junior high to the Children’s House but when they move up in grades they move to Downtown Traverse City.
The school offers student-led learning, letting them explore what they find an interest in. The students are able to explore and learn through field trips, and speakers in the community telling them about their everyday lives. Most of the learning is focused outside of a textbook.
“We learned all of the subject, learning into things that are happening in real time in our community. So, for example, right now we’re learning about the election and we’ve had the opportunity to talk to our federal representative. We visited the state capital and tomorrow we’ll have a visitor from the DDA talking about city proposal 1 and 2,” says Tori Craig, Junior High Guide.
“We’ve been able to like expand our social life kind of in like talking to people and like interacting with more people than I think we usually would in like a public school,” explains Student, Shamus Sullivan.
The junior high finished a 7-month long renovation last November, featuring large gathering place, work spaces, a computer lab, kitchen and more to be used in the Montessori learning approach.