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The Adolescents’ Microeconomy Work

May 9, 2022
In the third plane of development, the task of the Adolescent is to prepare for economic independence. Just as children in the first plane of development ask, “Help me to do it by myself” and children in the second plane ask, “Help me to think by myself,” Adolescents ask, “Help me live by myself.”

To meet this need, Dr. Montessori envisioned Adolescents participating in and managing small businesses (called “Microeconomies”) in order to experience economic activity in their community. This work provides “an opportunity to learn both academically and through actual experience what are the elements of social life.” (Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence, Appendix A). Thus, the Microeconomy functions not only as a way for students to generate funds for their projects and trips, but as an integrated curriculum that provides the opportunities for real-world, experiential learning.

At Greenspring, our Adolescents learn that economies can be based on production and exchange, capital, services, or even reciprocal relationship and community. They explore different economic models and consider the full life-cycle impacts of an activity before selecting it. What are the impacts on affected populations of people? The environment? What systems does the activity reinforce or work to break down? Microeconomy projects are large, and require both collaboration and division of labor. This is another way that the adolescents practice working together. As Michael Waski notes, “teamwork is the superpower of the adolescent.”
This year, the Adolescents began the year engaged in a compost microeconomy, where they began providing a service to their community and the environment. They created lessons to teach the other classrooms how and what to compost, which provided moments of growth for many of our students. They enjoyed collecting pumpkins to compost in early November, which led to both cooking and preserving pumpkins to eat, as well as ideas for a possible pumpkin patch in the spring.

Next, the Adolescents researched deer-free fencing to enable more ambitious gardening projects. Their hard work paid off! They have successfully grown seedlings of tomatoes, basil, kale (and more). 

Bicycle Repair

Bicycle Sale

Seedlings

The Adolescents recently collected donations of bicycles in need of repair. They refurbished the bicycles and held a bike sale. The profits from the bike and seedlings sales will go towards the Adolescents’ upcoming Odyssey trip.
One of the key outcomes of Microeconomy work is what Dr. Montessori referred to as “valorization of the personality.”  This is her term for an Adolescents’ process of realizing they are useful and capable of great effort. Participating in real economic activity also serves a first step towards economic independence and allows them to measure the worth of their activity against an external standard.
Adolescents “…derive great personal benefit from being initiated in economic independence. For this would result in a “valorization” of his personality, in making him feel himself capable of succeeding in life by his own efforts and on his own merits, and at the same time it would put him in direct contact with the supreme reality of social life.” (From Childhood to Adolescence, p. 65)

Montessori observed that there is more than the intellect that requires nourishment during Adolescence. She saw the importance of adolescents having opportunities to be useful to their peers, to be valorized through their own labor, and to join in the actions of society.

About the Author

Sylvia Glassco

Sylvia is the Mathematics and Science Guide for our Adolescent Community at Greenspring Montessori School. She is passionate about environmental education and has deep roots in the ecology of Maryland, from the Allegheny Mountains to Chesapeake Bay tributaries. On campus, you may find her investigating composting microorganisms under a microscope and guiding students in how to propagate heirloom vegetable seeds or even studying projectile motion or the chemical reactions in sourdough. She enjoys using math and science to describe the world, make plans and predictions, and look for beauty.

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