PLENTY Spring 2020 Plenty Spring 2020-WEB | Page 7

Farm
School
How an organic student-run farm
teaches children about food, nature
and the environment
B Y B u tler
M o ntess o ri
F ac u lty & S taff
A
s the clock ticks to-
wards 8:45 AM, a group
of middle school stu-
dents at Butler Montessori gather
in their classroom. The room is
cozy, part of an old house that
has been turned into a learning
environment. There are pillows on
the floor, tables and chairs in the
center of the room, and books on
the built-in shelves. The students
talk to one another about their
weekends, the movies they’ve
seen, and a funny joke they heard.
They aren’t looking at their phones
or computer screens, and their
laughter is contagious. Someone
notices that it’s 8:45 and rings a
bell, ding!, signaling that it’s time
for the day to start.
Unlike traditional schools,
these students don’t remain inside
to learn. Instead they venture out
to the farm—their own organic
farm—for a morning of feeding
chickens, collecting eggs, prepar-
ing food for the afternoon CSA
(Community-Supported Agricul-
ture), and caring for plants in the
grow room.
“Butler has taught me many
life skills that a public school
wouldn’t,” says Simone Thomp-
son, Graduate ‘19, “like learning
how to cook every Wednesday for
community lunch, to take care of
chickens, to use a weed wacker, to
catch a snake, to ride a horse, and
to disagree with someone politely.”
Butler Montessori’s Micro-
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