Adolescence is a delicate and critical stage in human development. It constitutes the bridge from childhood to adulthood. It is fraught with dramatic physical, emotional, social, and intellectual change. Underlying all these many changes is the drive to become independent and at the same time to belong to a wider society.
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These key issues of adolescence require sensitive and realistic handling. Students at JMS are guided to responsible independence. Independent activity is allowed to expand in proportion to the student's capacity to meet accompanying responsibilities. Growth in this area is fostered by the ethos of the school community itself.
Work is both manual and mental, and it applies that which has been learned to tangible enterprises. Owing to the introspective nature of adolescence, the arts and humanities occupy a central place in the curriculum, offering the means for expression and understanding of self and others. Time and space for reflection are provided.
Growth through Responsibility
The ideas to which we strive-respect, cooperation, honesty, tolerance, appreciation of quality, commitment, and striving to excellence-are the ground on which we stand. In this way, a climate is provided wherein the adolescent can both find himself within himself and his group. The JMS middle school provides a center for work and study for the early adolescent and includes a social environment conducive to the healthy formation of the adolescent's emerging new identity.
Science and mathematics are applied in meaningful enterprise and related not only to what and how, but also to why. As in other levels at JMS, the middle school students' work at JMS embodies Dewey's and Montessori's principle of "learning by doing." Studies aim at holism - each individual discipline adding meaning to the others.
