Community Partnerships

Bloomington Montessori students are learning to care for themselves, each other, and the Earth. Montessori classrooms are designed as multi-age communities, preparing children for life as global citizens. Children broaden their understanding of empathy and interconnection throughout their years at the school, beginning in Early Childhood with learning to care for their own needs, the needs of their classmates, and to care for the classroom environment. In elementary, they care for themselves, each other, do campus-care jobs, and begin going out into the community to work alongside and care for others they do not yet know. This outreach is the foundation of the concept of citizenship--involvement beyond one's own family and friends for the common good of one's community. Students benefit from their larger community, as well, learning from guests who come to campus to share expertise and experience and visiting educational resources throughout the area such as Indiana University, the public library, local nature preserves, and more. They also give to their community, raising money and working to organize and shelve donations for local food pantries, building share closets for women and children experiencing homelessness, removing invasive species from public lands, helping prune and tend the community orchard, and other projects in which they partner with nonprofit organizations doing vital work that aligns with BMS curriculum and values. This give-and-take, this interdependence, is experiential learning of what Dr. Montessori called "Cosmic Education": the understanding that we are each a small but important part of an interconnected Universe.