Hilltop Montessori School's mission is for students to
practice responsible independence in a caring community
of curious, critical learners and thoughtful citizens.
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Django and Oliver help Kegan with playground renovations.
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Next Week:
Thursday, June 11
- Final day of school for TP-UE
- All School Gathering, 9-9:30am (including a Virtual Bead Ceremony for "Orders" moving up and on!
- Elementary End-of-the-Year Car Parade, 12:30pm
Friday, June 12
- Final day of school for MS - Graduation at 5pm (not open to the public)
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Upcoming:
June 22 - July 3
July 13 - July 31
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Notes From the Head of School
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Furthering the Work of the Peace Table
This has been a challenging week at the end of an unprecedentedly disrupted and difficult spring for our country and its people, and indeed around the world. The most recent incidents of racism and police brutality have made many of us anxious, pensive, heartbroken, and wanting to do more. At a predominantly white school in a predominantly white state, the negative impact of racial bias is not something that many of us are forced to deal with on a daily basis, while our parents, students, and staff people of color do.
We as a society have a great deal of work to do to address systemic racism, and the Montessori community is no exception. Many Montessori organizations, including
MPPI
,
AMS
, and
AMI
, have been acknowledging the ways that they have participated in upholding systems of oppression and racism and their plans for actions moving forward.
While the Peace Curriculum is an integral part of Montessori philosophy and practice, it is not enough to combat racialized violence. These lessons need to be rooted in a value system and understanding that addresses the white privilege and systemic racism that exists in our society and in our school. This can be difficult and uncomfortable work. The “Peace Table”, for children and adults alike, is not always an easy or comfortable place to be, but is an important place of learning and growth.
We are committed to looking at the ways that we contribute to systemic, institutional, structural, and interpersonal racism, and learning how we can disrupt and uproot these systems from our school and our community. We have had members of our staff and family community who have been incredibly helpful in moving us forward, and I’m extremely grateful for their work with us. And, we cannot rely on only affected factions of our community to do the work for us. It is the white members of the Hilltop community that need to be doing active anti-racism work, both within the school and within ourselves. While we recognize that many have been actively engaging with Hilltop on these issues, we also all need to acknowledge that this work is not over and we must continue this work with humility, honesty, and appreciation. We also invite parents and HMS community members to participate in Hilltop’s Anti-Bias and Equity Workgroup, whose work will resume with the next school year. This is an all-inclusive group whose role is to advise on specific changes which Hilltop can make within our own community to dismantle racist and anti-equity structures, and make our community safer and more supportive for everybody.
We want to support our community and are invested in learning and growing together. In our school lending library we have the following resources that can support families who are interested in learning more, please contact the
Front Desk
if you would like to borrow one, and we can arrange for a pick up:
- My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menaken
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- What If All the Kids Are White?: Anti-bias Multicultural Education With Young Children And Families (Early Childhood Education Series) by Louise Derman- Sparks
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
- Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
- This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell (who did training with us two summers ago)
- Waking up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
- Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey and Tim Wise
- White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson
We need to draw on the many resources available to us to combat the prejudice around us and in us, including keeping dialogs open, despite the difficult nature of this work. There is still so much we can do personally, as an organization, and as a society.
For parents who are interested in help with talking about race with your children, and working to raise anti-racist children, we believe these resources for parents (some are specifically written for white parents), can be helpful:
Children's Book Lists
These lists of children's books, compiled by a variety of sources, have themes that aim to accurately reflect the many people, cultures, and traditions of our world; help dispel myths and biases; and promote peace and understanding.
- LGBT Books for Children, by the Bank Street School of Education, is sorted by category: picture books, juvenile fiction, juvenile nonfiction, children's poetry, young adult fiction, and juvenile biography.
- See What We See, a coalition of writers, scholars, educators, librarians, and activists who believe that what we read can help shape our attitudes and actions, has created this guide for selecting anti-bias books for children.
- We Need Diverse Books, a grassroots foundation that invites us to "imagine a world in which all children can see themselves in the pages of a book," offers suggestions of books for children of all ages.
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Bonjour!
Sarah just began the second half of her Montessori training this week! We hope that your garden is growing well; we have heard good news about them during our ZOOM meetings. Be sure to remind the children to water daily, and take some time each day to observe the miracle of mother nature. We are working on new garden spaces in our expanded playground space. We can’t wait to see the blooms and fruits that will be there when we return in the fall.
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After working in the garden is a great time to relax and stretch our bodies! Your child may enjoy using the yoga cards while waiting for a nice cup of tea to steep. Perhaps you have some new herbs growing to try for tea. Classroom favorites included linden flower, lemon balm, lemon verbena, and of course mint!
Have a nice weekend,
The Toddler Team
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Today the last “Goodie Bag” will be available for you to pick up for your child. You’ll notice the theme is “Peace.” While the intention had always been for this to be the theme, it feels especially relevant given the most recent racist incidents that have occurred over the past few weeks. Perhaps, we should also consider adding Justice to the Peace theme?
In our classrooms, we practice Peace education and hope to plant seeds in our children for how they can be kind, respectful, and accepting of one another. We talk about differences and the importance of honoring those differences while also learning about our similarities. But, is that enough?
Over the last few weeks, an abundance of resources have been circulating over social media on how to talk to children about racism and to take it further, how to raise children that are anti-racist. We welcome this push to build on our existing anti-bias curriculum. Having peace and racial justice be central to our curriculum is important, but as a majority white school in a majority white town, we also strive to work towards learning how to be allies to people of color and to be actively anti-racist. As educators (and parents), many of us are still learning how to do this. We have shared a number of these resources on our google classroom and encourage you to read them. We hope they help you to have these conversations with yourselves and your children.
Here is a link
to a great video that addresses talking to children about racism. It is facilitated by Dr. Kira Banks, and includes a panel of parents who are actively working for social change.
We are experiencing a moment in time where many white people are realizing they can no longer ignore the racism that exists in this country (and around the world). It is time for those of us who are white to take responsibility for our white privilege, for the racist violence that stems from white supremacy, and to show up as allies to people of color in our families, in our schools and in our communities.
In peace (and justice),
The Children’s House Team
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Elodie and Owen enjoy music with Jay!
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This was the last week of online classes and individual check-ins for the Lower Elementary students. Next week, our focus will be on coming together to reflect on the year, and engaging in some games and activities. To that end,
we will be having an extra, and final, morning meeting party next Thursday, June 11th, at 8:30.
This will precede the final All School Gathering of the year, at 9:00. We encourage everyone to attend, if possible. We would love to see you! And don't forget -
the end-of-year Elementary Car Parade is Thursday at 12:30!!
In our Google Classroom, there will be work and activities for students to do, in addition to any older work they are able to make time for. However, there will be no new assignments. We thank all of the students, along with their parents, for working to the best of their ability during our strange spring term.
Lastly, please review
this video of lost and found items to see if anything belongs to you!
Have a wonderful weekend,
The LE Team
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Sylvia practices identifying coins and adding their values.
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Eko's haiku about his sweet cat, Robin.
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On Wednesday, Amber and Marco visited with the class to help us make sense of the events surrounding George Floyd’s murder. Amber led us in an exercise of putting our arms out feeling open and thinking about something happy, then closing our bodies about something that makes you feel scared. She shared what it is like for black and brown kids to have to appear open and make themselves look not-dangerous when they aren’t feeling safe themselves. Amber and Marco shared personal experiences about how they are perceived and what they must do in a store or on the street to not appear dangerous or threatening.
They also shared two video clips: one of a demonstration at police headquarters in Burlington, VT, and another about Fox News coverage of the stay-at-home order protests, and the George Floyd demonstrations. They explored: Who tells our stories in the news or at school, and how might the stories be different depending on who is telling the story? On a related note, the sixth graders were comparing what happened last week in Central Park with a scene from their seminar book,
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
In both cases, the white power structure was used as a weapon against an innocent person of color - one in 1930’s Mississippi, one in 2020 metropolitan NY. So much to learn and discuss.
We all have plenty to think about here. UE looks forward to working with Amber, Marco, and others on age-appropriate ways to talk with children about the issues of race and bias that have been highlighted in the news just recently, yet are ever present in our society.
If anyone was unable to join us on Wednesday and would like an audio version of the meeting sent to them, please email
Jen
.
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Amber and Marco lead Wednesday's discussion.
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In other UE news...
- We have enjoyed more ISP (Independent Study Project) reports from our sixth graders. Gabe presented on Winston Churchill, Corbin on Norse Mythology, and Morgon on Viking technology.
- The Museum/Workshare is slated to open Monday. We hope to hold a “live panel” of students to answer your questions about their museum projects on Tuesday, at 11:00 a.m., over Zoom. Please stay tuned for more information over email.
- Moving-Up students will be honored at next week’s All School Gathering, 9:00 a.m. on Thursday.
- Students are prepping for our 6th grade graduation, scheduled for next Thursday at 10:00 a.m., over Zoom. This class event is typically shared among teachers and students.
- Finally, the End-of-year Elementary Car Parade is Thursday at 12:30
**Please see emails coming soon on items we need returned to the school next week. We have things to give you as well (you can review
this video of lost and found items to see if anything belongs to you!)
, so items can be passed between us at next Thursday’s car parade, OR dropped off at the school in bins outside.
Details to follow!
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At noon on Friday, students took their completed math and language arts exams, slipped them into the provided envelopes and put them in the mail. Thus ended the first and hopefully last remote exam taking. It also signals the end of our exile because for our final week of school we are reuniting as we prepare for graduation on Friday the 12th. The Vermont Department of Education’s newest guidelines has opened the door for the middle school class to gather with all the necessary precautions of masks and social distancing and chartered a path where we can come together for a live graduation.
The eighth graders are drafting and redrafting their speeches and the sevenths are organizing their contributions to graduation. We are looking forward to some time together in Upland preparing for the big day as well as celebrating this community and our year together.
In so many ways it has been an extraordinary year. In September we joined the throngs downtown for the Climate Strike and a better future and now as we close the year, crowds are once again in the streets protesting against racial injustice and police brutality. Graduation is a symbol of hope. Our students are aware and emerging citizens with the hearts and minds that can make a difference.
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“If you give a hungry man food, he will eat it.
[But] if you give him land, he will grow his own food.”
– Fannie Lou Hamer
Help us purchase land for Black and brown farmers in Vermont!
Our vision is to build healing and nourishing spaces for our people and our children in the here and now but our vision is long-range as we look to the future. A future where food sovereignty is guaranteed to the next generations of Black and brown people in Vermont.
You can read more about and donate to this project
here.
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Relief Funds for Undocumented Immigrants in NYC
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Dear Hilltop families,
COVID-19 is affecting everyone, but I have been really feeling the injustice and unfairness of the fact that because I have a social security number I will get a stimulus check, while so many undocumented immigrants, many of whom are considered essential workers and who are in extremely vulnerable situations, will not get a penny of help. Many of them have families in their home countries that depend on their income and they do not have savings to fall back on. They cannot apply for unemployment and often have landlords that are not flexible with payments. We have decided to send part of our stimulus check to undocumented loved ones in New York. A lot of us really need this check right now, and if you do, please don't feel pressure. This message is not for you. Please keep your check and know that there are other ways you can help. But, if you are in a position that you can share some or all of your check, please contribute to this campaign and share it. We will be sending all of the money contributed to undocumented folks we know in NYC who are needing help right now and not getting it because their immigration status. If you are able to contribute, thank you. And if you know people who might be able, please share this with them. ❤️
Thanks so much,
Allison and Marco
Here is the link:
Relief funds for Undocumented Immigrants in NYC organized by Allison Korn
We have already sent money to 25 undocumented immigrants in NYC who are in financial need and who are not receiving any relief funding from the government. We could not have done this without your generosity. We know more people who are in need and would gratefully accept financial assistance.
We also know not everyone has received their stimulus check yet and we wanted to assure folks that we will keep this campaign open to receiving donations as long as people are still receiving their stimulus checks. If you haven't yet received your check and would like to donate some or all of it when you do receive it, you will still be able to. Thanks so much! Please share this fundraiser with those you know and if you are able to do so, consider donating some or all of your stimulus check. Thank you!!!
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