A Green School
The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the earth. MARIA MONTESSORI
Our collective responsibility as citizens of the world is an important part of what we teach at Berkeley Montessori School. That's what led us to choose to "go green" when we built our new Elementary-Middle School campus, which opened in February 2004. Some of the "green" features of our new school include: photovoltaic solar panels, including a computer link to allow students to monitor the energy savings (we currently produce about 10% of the energy we use); automatic light dimming system; sustainable bamboo floors, featuring radiant heating; and cedar sunshades as an efficient and inexpensive way to cool our classrooms. Our students also tend their own organic gardens, and enjoy ready access to the outdoors – because there are no interior hallways, every classroom opens directly to the outdoors, and is suffused with natural light and fresh air.
The "green" vision that went into the construction of the new buildings continues through a school-wide service learning effort that's focused on enhancing our stewardship practices across the board and making BMS as environmentally sustainable a school as possible. Our service learning projects change year to year; this year, we're working on projects to address global warming through the microcosm of our own community. More thoughtful transportation choices, monitoring our energy consumption, reducing our paper usage, doing tree-planting projects, and choosing more environmentally friendly products to clean and maintain our school are ways we're making our own community as "green" as possible, knowing that those efforts serve the larger community as well.
