Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education

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Our 103rd year starts September 7, 2010! 50% off tuition for those enrolled between now and Sept. 3.

Children are born to learn, and each child brings to his or her life a rare combination of instincts, abilities, interests and processing styles. We believe that every child is exceptional, and it's this belief that forms the foundation of our approach to education.
Progressive educaton is nothing new. In fact, at our school, it's been around since 1907, when a freethinking educator named Marietta Johnson founded the School of Organic Education in Fairhope, Alabama.
Marietta Johnson believed - as we do - that teachers should see each child as a unique individual, with different rates of growth and methods of processing information. Rather than striving for conformity, our school encourages a sense of pride and accomplishment in a child's natural, incomparable abilities.
The Organic School assumes that children will naturally learn exactly what they need to know, if they are taught in an environment without pressure or regimentation. Our curriculum offers the standard academic studies along with a balance of self-prompted activity and formal work under teacher direction.
Naturally, children want and need external discipline, but when the ultimate goal in progressive education is self-discipline, the children learn how to think for themselves. With this comes the ability to develop a basic understanding and love of learning what lasts a lifetime.
Our concept can easily be broken down into these simple points:
1. We respect a child's individual learning style and pattern of growth.
2. We encourage children to experience the world by trying new tasks and ideas, experimenting and experiencing with all their senses.
3. Rather than requiring traditional tests, examinations and pressure to achieve an adult-designed goal, we allow freedom in approaching learning experiences according to the individual child's needs.
4. We strive to create an atmosphere that promotes the desire to learn by offering a flexible, free-flowing structure, adaptable to each child's needs.
In Organic Education it is possible - even natural - for a student to challenge assumptions in order to absorb new information.
Organic Education asserts that education is life.