TRAVERSE CITY – Compass Montessori Junior High gives Traverse City students the opportunity to learn in a non-traditional setting. The school is the Children’s Home middle school, but as they move up in grade, they move to downtown Traverse City.

The school offers student-led learning, allowing them to explore what interests them. Students can explore and learn through field trips and community speakers who tell them about their daily lives. Most of the learning takes place outside of the textbook.

“We learned about it and found out what is happening in real time in our community. For example, right now we are learning about the elections and we had the opportunity to speak to our federal representative. We visited the state capitol and tomorrow we will have a visitor from the DDA who will tell us about City Proposals 1 and 2,” says college tour guide Tori Craig.

“We were able to expand our social life by talking to people and interacting with more people than I think we usually would in a public school,” says student Shamus Sullivan.

The college completed a 7-month renovation last November, including a large gathering place, work spaces, computer lab, kitchen and more to use in the Montessori approach to learning.