All Countryside teachers have completed teacher training from the Association Montessori Internationale for the level of students they teach. This training offers a complete complement of content in the curriculum areas which are then taught in a manner that has been found to most effectively help students learn, including:

• Hands on materials
• Student choice throughout the day
• Short periods of direct instruction followed by collaborative and individual work
• Constructive creation of content rather than regurgitation, lessons that present questions and challenges rather than content and answers
• Comparatively minimal homework

Countryside is not trying to re-create public school curriculum. That is already available at the local public schools. That being said, faculty continuously review curriculum based on various areas of input including public curriculum, standardized testing, and internal assessments. Teachers always feel that they can continue to improve their teaching and revise curriculum content. This often results in teachers attending workshops and then revising curriculum or teaching approaches accordingly.

All students have different levels of freedom to direct their own days. Teachers are not simply following the child. Students who do not demonstrate readiness to direct the course of their own days will receive more direction from the teacher including collaborating on work choices for the day, working near a teacher’s lesson table for more oversight, checking in after each work is completed, etc... However, the ultimate goal is helping students to internalize these executive function skills they will need for later success. Rich teacher-student relationships allow teachers to help students learn to hold themselves accountable, use their time wisely, contribute to their communities, and set high standards for themselves. Ultimately the goal is for every student to be growing each year in independence as s/he moves closer and closer to adulthood.

The truth is that students don’t need to be prepared for conventional education. Transitioning from conducting the course of their own days, managing mentoring responsibilities, caring for the environment and keeping up with class assignments to essentially following direction is not difficult for our students. They have high expectations for themselves; they value education and learning. With the emphasis placed on the three Rs: respect, responsibility and resourcefulness, our students are prepared to figure out how to make things work, whether this means learning in a new school environment, dealing with difficult people, advocating for themselves, taking initiative, or following a leader, our students have already had hours and hours of experience in all these areas. Read more about how students transition from Countryside to their subsequent schools.

The overwhelming majority of our students transition into high school very successfully. Some feel a sense of loss of the community that CDS fosters, but that does not stop them from achieving and creating the community they desire in their next schools. One of our graduates stated it best:

“Countryside is definitely worth it. The transition wasn’t easy, but you get over it once you find your friends. Besides it’s good experience to have some sort of hardship transition in your life.”

Our students aren’t looking for easy. They are looking for challenge, engagement, and responsibility.

Our faculty takes public school curriculum into account and incorporates subject and content areas when appropriate. But our goal is not to recreate the public school curriculum. We are not a “better public school.” We offer a qualitatively different educational experience in countless ways that are explained throughout the website and instantly evident when visiting CDS classrooms.