The GreenMount School

Infobox
above=The GreenMount School


header1 =
label1 = Established
data1 = 1993
header2 =
label2 = Type
data2 = Private coeducational
header3 =
label3 = Grades
data3 = K-8
header4 =
label4 = Head of School
data4 = Steve Warner
header5 =
label5 = Religion
data5 = None
header6 =
label6 = Enrollment
data6 = 75
header7 =
label7 = Faculty
data7 = 7 full-time
header8 =
label8 = Average class size
data8 = 17
header9 =
label9 = Campus
data9 = Urban
header10 =
label10 = City
data10 = Baltimore
header11 =
label11 = State
data11 = MD
header12 =
label12 = Country
data12 = flagicon|USA U.S.
header13 =
label13 = website
data13 = [http://www.greenmountschool.org www.greenmountschool.org]

The GreenMount School is a cooperative, independent day school located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Children are enrolled from kindergarten through 8th grade. The school is located in the Remington neighborhood of northern Baltimore, near Johns Hopkins University.

History

The GreenMount School was founded by a group of six parents in 1993. These parents, who had previously been homeschooling their children, created a one-room school house with 26 students of various age in the basement of a church on Greenmount Avenue in the Waverly neighborhood of Baltimore. The founders set the school up as a parent-run co-op and initially assumed both the administrative and teaching duties. The first full-time professional teacher was hired in 1995 and eventually administrative duties were handed over to a full-time head of school (currently Steve Warner). Parents remained heavily involved in the daily business of the school, however—a tradition that continues to this day, in large part through the parent co-op.

After years of growing enrollment, the school moved to its current location in the former Wyman Park Recreation Center in the summer of 1997. The building is presently leased from the City of Baltimore and abuts a city-maintained playground.

The school currently has an enrollment of approximately 75 students, a fulltime faculty of 7, an adjunct faculty of 6, and three administrative staff members.

Full enrollment is considered 90 students in kindergarten through 8^th grade.

Philosophy

Since its inception, GreenMount has embraced a child-centered educational philosophy. According to the school’s website:

:" “We see our school as a diverse community where children are given the space and time to learn and the encouragement to succeed. Students develop academic, behavioral and personal skills that enable them to thrive in different environments. The curriculum is connected to or grounded in real-life experiences. It is creative, multicultural, community-based, and centered on experiential learning through thematic curricula. ” "

Along with a strong foundation in mathematics, science and language arts, the curriculum is supplemented with music, art, theatre, environmental and urban explorations, physical education, and library studies. Each year the curriculum is fashioned around three different theme-based programs. Some examples of themes are “From Radicals to Reagan: 1960-to-1980”; “Australia and Oceania”; “The Age of Extremes: World Wars, Boom and Bust, Harlem Renaissance”; and “The Greening of GreenMount.” Each theme culminates in a school-wide event where students share what they have learned with family and friends. [http://www.greenmountschool.org/about.shtml]

These themes are integrated into the curriculum via a variety of projects the students undertake. For example, 5^th and 6^th graders did the following projects in Fall 2007 while studying “From Radicals to Reagan: 1960-1980.”
#Participated in a mock debate between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. to explore the differences and similarities between King’s message of nonviolent civil disobedience and Malcolm X’s “by-any-means-necessary” black nationalism.
#Organized a mock protest march on Washington D.C., circa 1968, as if they were the committee planning the event. This entailed creating a budget, lining up speakers, planning a parade route, developing a transportation plan for 200,000 protesters, and designing posters and bumper stickers.
#Created a mock band that survived the musical changes from 1960 to 1980 intact. This assignment involved creating two album covers for the band, one using the design aesthetic of 1960 and one the design aesthetic of 1980; writing lyrics for a song on each of the albums; and crafting a pseudobiography for the band, covering its two decades of existence. The students also wrote a paper about one of the real bands from this period that served as a musical influence for their imaginary band.
#In music class, students studied the history of rock-n-roll and performed songs from the Beatles, the Who, and Bob Dylan at the culminating theme event.
#In art class, students studied artists ranging from Andy Warhol to Claes Oldenburg. In studying Warhol, they took his famous image of the Campbell's Soup Cans and crafted sculptures of what they considered the perfect local iconic foodstuff: Old Bay Spice tins. Drawing on Oldenburg’s work, the entire school created an oversized picnic: each class contributed a sculpture ranging from a giant paper mache sandwich to a Capri-Sun juice box to the largest bag of Utz potato chips ever to grace a picnic table.

The curriculum is generally oriented towards multidisciplinary, hands-on activities, usually centered on the theme in question.

Based partially on Howard Gardner's [ [http://www.howardgardner.com Howard Gardner / Theory of Multiple Intelligences] ] notion of multiple intelligences, the school is dedicated to multi-age education. This is reflected in the classes themselves, each of which contains two grades (The classes are currently separated into kindergarten and grades 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8). Students frequently work in groups of mixed ages and mixed abilities.

Fridays, which are half days for students, are considered “community days,” during which the entire school meets as a unit and embarks on a single daylong project, usually oriented towards the current theme being studied. All of the students get together to work on a theme-related project with their “buddies.” First graders are paired with 8^th graders, 2^nd graders with 6^th graders, etc.

Students also participate in a variety of out-of-school activities, including field trips, community service, middle-school apprenticeships, camping trips, and (for 8^th graders) international travel.

The school regularly has visiting artists and lecturers from the Baltimore area. Past visitors have included filmmaker John Waters, children’s book author Nancy Patz, and Baltimore Blast players.

Parent co-operative

Since its inception, GreenMount has been based on a co-op model with parents actively participating in the school. Each parent is responsible for donating 40 hours of their time to the school each year, and generally signs up for a specific ongoing job. The jobs can range from serving on the GreenMount school board, to mopping the gym floor once a month, to teaching afterschool classes. Past classes include sewing, painting, hula hoop, and web page design.

See also

* [http://www.greenmountschool.org official school website]
* [http://www.aimsmd.org Association of Independent Schools of Maryland]
* [http://www.baltimoreindependentschool.org Baltimore Independent Schools]
*Theory of multiple intelligences
*Progressive education

References