By Mary Stevens Decker of the Redmond Reporter
Everything old is new again at Stella Schola Middle School in Redmond. A choice school in the Lake Washington School District, it serves sixth, seventh, and eighth grades and is housed in three portable classrooms behind Rose Hill Junior High School.
It's by no means a glamorous setting, but within those walls, history comes alive with astonishing color and clarity. Students soak up the culture of bygone civilizations and emulate the ways people learned, worked, celebrated, and meditated- discovering that in many ways "people are people" and we're not so different from those who came centuries before us.
Carpe diem
"Carpe diem"- Latin for "seize the day"- is the motto of Brigitte Tennis, head mistress and award-winning seventh-grade teacher at Stella Schola. Among many honors, she was chosen as a Disney Land American Teacher in 2004.
It's not just about wise use of time; it's grabbing every chance to link ancient truths and tools to principles or resources that are useful today, she explained.
Virtually all of the learning is based on historical themes, yet the curriculum is aligned with Washington state standards and Lake Washington School District graduation requirements.
Reading and writing, social studies, science, math, the humanities and even physical education and practice in the context of the past.
In sixth grade, Stella Schola students cover Pangaea, which means "all lands" in Greek and refers to the super continent that broke off into the continents as we know them today. Studies of early man, Greece and Egypt round out that year's curriculum.
In seventh grade, the focus is on Rome and Europe in the Middle Ages. Eighth grade begins with the Renaissance and concludes with early America.
"Remember, all curriculum is tied to historical themes," Tennis said. "Astronomy, studies of the planets and stars goes back to ancient Rome. Alchemy, or chemistry, goes back o the Renaissance."
It's challenging for a Stella Schola teacher to integrate all subjects in a seamless way, Tennis admitted. "Math is the hardest (to relate to history), but we come up with ways, such as studying the surface area of a castle," she said.
Words like "matter" relate both to alchemy and chivalry. In science, students analyze matter. In social studies and language arts, they discuss the question, "Chivalry: Does it matter?"\
After examining the code of chivalry upheld by Sir Lancelot and the Knights of Round Table, they talk about people who are like knights in the modern world. They practice fencing, as well.
Studies of Christianity and Islam are incorporated, "not as religious education, but because of their relevance to the Crusades, and as a way to teach diversity, and tolerance," said Tennis.
Clearly, these issues are as complicated today as they were thousands of years ago.
Greek root words are studied in sixth grade, Latin is learned in seventh grade, and in eighth grade, tackle Spanish, tying in with Spain's exploration of the New World.
Students also learn through craft. "To appreciate the handicrafts of cooking, sewing, or carpentry, you need to do it yourself, get a sense patience and the attention to details needed," said Tennis. Building small models of castles, brick by tiny brick, takes about 30 hours as opposed to 20 to 30 years building a real European castle without modern machinery.
While studying monastic life, students listen to Gregorian chants, "take a vow of silence" and copy "Ave Maria," in Latin, by candlelight, using quill pens. And, no one balks, Tennis marveled. "They like it so much, they want to do it again," she said.
At first, it's difficult for the uninitiated to wrap their brains around this concept. That's why this program exists in a choice school with just three classes-rooms of 30 students each and just one teacher each grade level. It's not for everyone. "Stella Schola is not designated as a gifted program. Some students have special needs, some just prefer a more personal learning environment. The common thread is that all the kids in this program really want to be here," said Tennis.
Living in the past
On May 10, Stella Schola seventh-graders threw themselves into a recreation of a Medieval Faire. Some eighth-graders also participated, because they had so much fun last year, they said.
The full group processed in costumes to the commons of Rose Hill and sang an opening hymn, "Dona Nobis Pacem" ("Our Lady of Peace"), before heading off to a mock battle area or other activity stations.
Seventh-grader Mitra Malek played a duke's daughter and explained, "She'd have her dad's servants help her do things, even waking her up in the morning. But she wouldn't get to choose who she would marry, and she'd be married by about the age of 12 because people didn't live long then."
Ray Still, a eighth-grader dressed as a monk, said his character "lived in solitude most of the time, but we were very educated, we learned to read and write when most people didn't know how."
"Art thou named after a saint? I offer free knowledge!" he called out to visitors. He read aloud from a book of saints, to explain the origins of their names.
A baron played by eighth-grader Patrick Manickam offered, "I'm of royal blood, almost like a king. I rule over a land. Lord of Bostivich is my title. It's from a real country that once existed; it later became spilt into other lands." Students demonstrated juggling and traditional circle dances.
The king and queen, portrayed by seventh-graders Alessandro Leporace and Shannon Ong, explained that the songs and dances were intended to ward off the Black Plague.
"In one (European) village, they believed God didn't think they were having enough fun. So they sang and danced all day. No one in that village got the Plague. It's a true story," said Ong.
Leporace added the song "Ring Around the Rosey" originated because a pocket full of poises was thought to be protective; and that the lyrics were "Achoo, achoo, we all fall down," to symbolize the twitching of nervous system before unfortunate collapsed and died. Linda Lippincott, the mother of seventh-grade twins Savannah and Victoria Varyu, chatted as she looked at homemade tin lanterns.
"I'm so glad my daughters are in this program. Initially, one got in and the other was on the waiting list. I felt like we were waiting for a collage-acceptance letter," Lippincott said.
Why study Chaucer?
Days after the faire, the seventh-graders were back to their normal classroom routine. Sprawled out un a circle on the floor of their portable classroom, they read passages from Geoffery Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and pondered aloud as to evidence of the characters' motivation.
Why is the Wife of Bath so loud? She might be a little bit deaf, some thought. But she’s also a widow and wears a really big hat. Cassidy Kaufman posed a theory: "Maybe she wants to be noticed. Noticed by guys." His group snickered and nodded in agreement.
The miller, meanwhile, sees to have mood swings, anger management issues, maybe a alcohol problem, students noticed: "When the miller describes another character as miserly and crusty, does that say it's true? Or does the miller bear a grudge? What does that say about his self-esteem?" Tennis asked the students. And what might all of these characters' quirks’' tell us about our own friends and neighbors?
"Literature is a reflection of society, so by reading this classic work, we can better understand their views on love, death, humor and faith," read the introduction to the students' Chaucer unit. "From people's lives, we can learn about joy and suffering and about success and failure. These help give us insights into the medieval period and also help us to analyze our lives in the present.
Keeping it Real
How do Stella Schola students fare when they eventually venture "out of the box?" That is, to more conventional school environments with larger student bodies and as assortment of teachers?
"I think they develop great study habits here, which gives them an advantage," said sixth-grade teacher Sarah Rustin.
"And socially," said eighth-grade teacher Mark Gorchels, "they become very relaxed and develop solid friendships that carry on."
Group projects- such as building a replica of Stonehenge in sixth grade and constructing guillotines in eighth grade, while studying the French Revolution- incorporate laws of physics and tenets of teamwork, too.
The students' Stonehenge "is built to scale," said Rustin. "They have to measure and haul pieces of stone from a quarry and figure out how to move things on log rollers. They take on different roles, such as foremen, and make basic tools."
Because of such projects, and because they're together all day-every day for three-year period- students in each class "find out who does what well, and step up to do what still needs to be done," said Gorchels.
"Even at socials (featuring ice cream, music and dancing), embarrassment doesn't exist. Everyone dances with everyone. There isn't the usual middle-school awkwardness. They're like brothers and sisters," said Rustin.
Erica Mallin, mom of seventh-grader Zara Sedore-Mallin, has liked what she's seen at the Stella Schola Heritage Fair. "Students looked at their own cultural backgrounds and presented the foods and customs to the community," she said.
Another highlight was witnessing her daughter's rapt attention to Tchaikovsky's ballet, "The Nutcracker." Sedore-Mallin said she "wasn't a great student" before entering Stella Schola, but the hands-on learning style has changed her attitude about school.
A favorite example was an aqueduct project related to ancient Rome. "We used PVC piping and duct tape, ad all teams were given an area to construct. We were the first class to get the whole aqueduct to run about 300 feet. Once one small team finished its part, we moved on to help someone else," she said.
Mallin, who is a counselor at Garfield High School in Seattle, said she's confident her daughter will thrive in high school "because at Stella Schola, the bar has been set high."
-Story by: Mary Stevens Decker
Stella Schola Middle School
