The Abba’s Orchard School History
:
A Tribute to God’s Faithfulness |
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The Abba’s Orchard was
started in 1998 on the plateaus of
Bukidnon with 12 Casa (pre-school) children. From
the very beginning, it espoused the principles and
ideals of one of the more prominent educators of our
time, Dr Maria Montessori. It was envisioned as an
orchard of the Abba Father, where teachers
are privileged gardeners who nurture children to become
the fulfilment of their chosen roles. |
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In 1999, the
school moved to Cagayan de Oro City. Nestled on top
of a hill overlooking the Macajalar Bay and right
behind, a towering Malasag Forest Park, the Abba’s
Orchard offered a secure sub-urban location at the
Alwana Business Park, just 15 minutes drive from the
city, yet away from its noise and dust. It opened
with 50 children enrolled mostly in Casa and a few
in Lower Elementary. |
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In the next four years, by
2003, the school has put up the
complete Montessori Elementary program and was enrolling
close to 200 students.
The school’s proponent had trained with the
Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), specifically
with its training institutes in Phoenix AZ, in San
Diego CA, and in Denver CO, for the Casa, the Elementary
Program, and the Assistants to Infancy Programs
respectively, and with the Loyola College in Maryland
for the Montessori Masters degree. |
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AMI,
with headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands,
is the organization established by Dr Maria Montessori
herself to preserve and propagate the integrity
of what has come to be known as the Montessori Method
of Education.
In 2003, the school faced a major
fork in the road whether or not to venture on the
Montessori Adolescent Program called the Erdkinder
(German for “children of the soil”).
In the global Montessori movement, it is a path
less travelled because of the huge hardware and
software resource needed to put up and sustain a
farm-based program. |
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The Erdkinder
Program affords the youth the proper environment
and curriculum that go beyond the academic. Designed
to address the pressing need of the adolescent to
discover dignity and social justice in the context
of the socio-economic life of the adult world, the
program proposes a boarding facility in a farm environment.
The system upholds the idea of work and entrepreneurship
that are enmeshed with the student’s academic
pursuits, making academics relevant and engaging.
It is a laboratory of life that prepares the youth
not only for his life in the university but for
the remainder of his adult life, as a functional
contributor to and positive influencer of society,
fulfilling his God-given vocation in the community
of men. |
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In 2003,
the other school proponent became the first Asian to be
certified by the North American Montessori Teachers Association
(NAMTA)
in Ohio for its Montessori Adolescent Studies. NAMTA
is a national AMI-mover based in the US, which initiated
and developed in 2000 a successful farm-based prototype
of the Adolescent Program as Dr Montessori wrote in her
Appendices to the book "From Childhood to Adolescence."
The output of this initiative is the Hershey Montessori
Farm School in Ohio. |
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In 2005,
the school broke ground to establish a 4-hectare
farm school in Pualas, Baungon, Bukidnon, the very
first of its kind in Asia-Pacific, and quite possibly
the second in the global movement of Montessori
Adolescent education. It sits on a mesa of a land
that overlooks a meandering Cagayan River known
for its whitewater rafting rapids. It is surrounded
by a 9-hectare property development known as La
Granja Estates, where prospective locators find
the luxury of having their children just walk up
to a nearby farm school. A gem of Bukidnon rusticity
yet barely 7 minutes away from the growing uptown
of Cagayan de Oro City. |
Entry
to the Abba's Orchard Montessori Farm Campus at
La Granja Estates, Pualas, Baungon, Bukidnon, Philippines |
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Aerial Shot of the Farm Campus (ongoing development)
at La Granja Estates |
The following year, in 2006,
the school sowed seeds in Davao City and in BlueRidge,
Quezon City, with its senior teachers as partners
and heads of school of the new facilities.
In 2008, another campus was birthed
in Cebu City with another senior teacher as partner
and head of school.
And again by last quarter of 2009,
another campus will be started at the Mckinley
Hill in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. This facility
is targetted to open by second semester (November
2009).
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Today, at the start of the academic 2009-2010
and on its eleventh year of operations, the Abba’s
Orchard Family, by the faithfulness and grace
of the Almighty Father, has grown to roughly 550
students enrolled in its five (5) campuses, and
is expected to grow with a few more when the Mckinley
Hill campus opens in November 2009.
The Abba’s Orchard School stands to this
day as the only Montessori school in Asia-Pacific
equipped, trained and experienced to offer a bona
fide Montessori curriculum for children below
3 years old, all the way to adolescence.
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