Monteverde Friends School

Author: Surya Castillo

  • Student Journalists

    Student Journalists

    Student Journalists Offer Firsthand Insight into Online Education

    By: Daniel Tyx

    For their final project of the semester, students in our English 9/10 class produced their own online newspapers. It was the capstone of a unit on nonfiction writing in which we read and reflected on a series of newspaper articles from the New York Times Learning Network website, which this spring focused largely on the world’s response to the COVID-19 epidemic.

      While students had the option of covering any topic related to the Monteverde community, many chose to focus on the impact of online education on students in Costa Rica during the quarantine period–a subject with which they had lots of firsthand experience. Their reporting illuminated the views on online education of students across Monteverde, and even around the world.

    For her group’s newspaper Monteverde Times, 10th grader Angelina Figuerola López conducted an online survey via Instagram of 150 students at three local high schools. She also did in-depth interviews with three students, one from each school, to learn more about their experiences.

    The survey found that only 27 percent of students felt confident in their ability to learn online, while 73 percent did not. Challenges mentioned in the follow-up interviews included maintaining a schedule, staying motivated, and in some cases, lack of communication with teachers. Angelina’s article concluded with the following observations:  

    The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing us into a new age of education. This situation has proved that online schooling is possible, and as a result some might argue that traditional schools will no longer be necessary. Although this shift could be favorable in some ways, our survey data and interviews suggest that traditional schools are not on the way out, nor should they be. The truth is that schools provide students with much more than facts and critical thinking skills. The daily schedule is important in giving students structure, and for many the time away from home and family life is important. School is also important for the development of social skills in children and teens. Interpersonal skills, leadership, sports, and learning to present in front of others are all important aspects of school.

    Leo Powers, an exchange student this year, expressed similar sentiments in his online newspaper The Covid Courier. Leo interviewed students at his home campus in Vermont, and compared their experiences with his own in Monteverde. He then wrote an editorial arguing that online education during COVID-19 has exacerbated the digital divide between students with access to fast internet and reliable technology, and those without. 

    His editorial also reaffirmed the value of in-person education:

    “Every kid I have talked to, in both the US and Costa Rica, agrees that they would like to go back to school now,” Leo writes. “Distance learning sounded all right at first, but has just ended up being stressful, annoying, difficult, and not fun.”

  • The Power of Student Organizing

    The Power of Student Organizing

    by Daniel Tyx

    More than 350 people joined the student-organized climate march on September 27. We began the walk from MFS to the public high school in Santa Elena in sunshine, but by the time we were a third of the way up the mountain, we were enshrouded by the typical Monteverde mist. It was a fitting reminder of the imperiled cloud forest we were marching to protect. 

    The march was inspired by the activism of 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. After learning about the Fridays for Future campaign she started, a group of colegio students wanted to join the worldwide action scheduled to coincide with the UN General Assembly. When they discovered that no march had been planned in Monteverde, they decided to organize their own. With the guidance of Social Studies teacher Pam Holschuh, they secured all the necessary permits, coordinated the participation of students from the public high school and the private Centro de Educación Creativa, and planned a native-tree planting on the grounds of the high school–all in a matter of a few weeks.  

    The colegio teachers quickly developed cross-curricular lessons to support the student organizing. In Social Studies, students studied examples of climate activism around the world, as well as how to navigate cumbersome government bureaucracy. In Science, they examined the physical science basis of climate change, read the scientific literature regarding the effects on the cloud forest, and examined possible solutions; students also acted out a play about climate change for the primary students. In Art, they painted colorful signs on recycled plywood. In my 11/12 English class, students designed media projects to help promote the march, ranging from an Instagram campaign, to videos and podcasts, to an op-ed published in the English-language newspaper The Tico Times. Students in my 9/10 class, who were studying poetry, also composed political poems about climate change.     

    The day of the march, the students were anxious about how the event would turn out. Soon, though, the soccer field behind the school was filled with students, parents and grandparents, community members, and visiting tourists. As the march proceeded on the road up the mountain, we held umbrellas and homemade signs and chanted ¿Qué queremos? ¡Justicia climática! ¿Cuándo la queremos? ¡Ahora, ahora!     

    More than four million people participated worldwide in the September climate action. Some 350 of them were here in Monteverde. Although Monteverde is a small town, a journalist who covered the event for a San Jose newspaper told me that it was the largest such action in all of Costa Rica. 

    The impact of the march continued to be felt even after it ended. As a result of the attention generated by the march, MFS received an invitation to send two students to San José to participate in the PreCOP25, an international summit in preparation for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which will be held in December in Chile. MFS students Juan Pablo Porras Suarez and Mónica Chinchilla Moreno represented our school during three days of meetings. They met with officials from the UN and many countries, and traded stories and ideas with youth from around the world. Pablo also spoke on a panel about the impact of climate change on adolescents.

    Reflecting in class about the march, a number of students mentioned feeling important. They felt proud that their voices had been heard, and that their activism had brought so many people from different walks of life together. Most of all, they expressed feeling motivated and prepared to continue organizing at MFS and beyond. 

  • Virtual Poetry

    Virtual Poetry

    Virtual Poetry

    By: Daniel Tyx

    Like schools all over the world, MFS made the transition to online school for the last quarter due to the coronavirus. It was a difficult time for everyone, as we found ourselves learning and teaching in front of computer screens, instead of surrounded by our community of friends, teachers, students, and colleagues. 

    As part of our online curriculum, my 7/8 and 11/12 English classes studied poetry as a way to process all of the changes happening around us. We read poems about dealing with isolation and finding strength in hard times, and shared our own responses and experiences. We also tried our hand at writing our own poems. 

    To my surprise, many of these poems were not concerned primarily with isolation or anxiety, but rather with seeking connections–with forests and farms, with friends and loved ones, and with the world beyond Montverde. Even though they were written at home, outside of the physical space of school, they reminded me that at this moment more than ever we are joined together in one family as a school, community, country, and world. 

    Here are just a few of the poems that were written by students during online school: 

    Old Tree

    If you’re confused 

    and can’t decide on what to do

    just go to the old tree

    and lay under its branches.

    Soak up all of the wisdom

    that it’s willing to share with you.

    But you must be patient. 

    Only then

    everything will slowly,

    but surely,

    fall into place.


    Ashanti Silvey
    11th grade

    Changes

    Winter arrives 

    and everything changes. 

    The breeze is fresh, 

    coming from far horizons 

    on the landscape which

    shape-shifts before my eyes. 

    The birds let forth 

    their tune of happiness,

    cicadas sprinkle the air 

    with acoustical stardust. 

    The wet blanket of grass 

    calls for a cup of coffee, 

    for looking out through windows from my bed. 

    Every leaf and cell swells with rain, and

    green is greener,

    love is clearer,

    a glassy and lucid vision 

    for a new lap around the sun. 


    Charlotte Ottenberg
    12th grade

    The Cloud Forest Is My Mother 

    I say feed me.

    She gives me yellow maracuya on a beautiful green vine.

    I say tease me.

    She directs sun rays onto my skin.

    I say frighten me.

    She unleashes all her wildly beasts.

    I say hold me.

    She wraps me in tangly vines.

    I say heal me.

    She fills my lungs with the scent of fresh air.

    I say caress me.

    She strokes my skin with her gust of cold wind.

    I say make me beautiful.

    She gives me wonderful orchids.

    I say sing to me.

    She chants her lovely lullabies.

    I say teach me.

    She shows me the rain, clouds, and the sun.

    El bosque nuboso es mi madre.

    The cloud forest is my mother.

    El bosque es mi madre preciosa.


    Jackson Kalahanohano Smith
    8th grade

  • 2020-2021 Note for application

    2020-2021 Note for application

    2020-2021 Notes about Application


    English
    Español
    English

    The Monteverde Friends School is NOT accepting new applications for primary school. We are full, with a waiting list. If you would like us to add your name to the waiting list, please fill this form or email your name and contact information to suarez@mfschool.org, and then Yuri will be in contact with you to submit an application if a space becomes available (this is NOT likely for 2020-2021 academic year).

    We ARE accepting applications for colegio (grades 7-12). We will do our best to accommodate as many students as we can, but spaces are limited. Applications must be complete in order to be considered (this includes writing samples as well as a letter of recommendation and copies of report cards). Applications can be obtained by filling this form, writing to ysuarez@mfschool.org, stopping by the MFS to pick one up, or by downloading from our website, www.mfschool.org

    The re-inscription form is normally due in May, but due to the whole COVID situation we have postponed it to Monday, July 20, please complete the requested information and turn it through email to Yuri (preferably) or directly at the school.

    This information is important to update phone contacts, emails and your child’s medical record, please complete one per student. The deadline is Monday, July 20.

    Español

    La Escuela de Amigos de Monteverde NO está aceptando nuevas solicitudes para la escuela primaria. Estamos llenos, con una lista de espera. Si desea que agreguemos su nombre a la lista de espera, rellene el formulario, o envíe su nombre e información de contacto a Yuri ysuarez@mfschool.org, y luego nos pondremos en contacto con usted para enviar una solicitud si hay un espacio disponible (esto NO es probable para el año académico 2020-2021).

    ESTAMOS aceptando solicitudes para el colegio (grados 7-12). Haremos todo lo posible para acomodar a tantos estudiantes como podamos, pero los espacios son limitados. Las solicitudes deben completarse para ser consideradas (esto incluye muestras de escritura, así como una carta de recomendación y copias de las notas). Las solicitudes se pueden obtener escribiendo a ysuarez@mfschool.org o pasando por el MFS para recoger uno o descargándolo de nuestro sitio web, www.mfschool.org

    Normalmente el Formulario de re-inscripción se entrega en mayo, pero debido a toda esta situación lo hemos pospuesto hasta el lunes 20 de julio, por favor complete la información solicitada y mandelo al correo de Yuri (preferiblemente) o directamente en la escuela.

    Esta información es importante para actualizar contactos telefónicos, correos y la ficha médica de sus hijos/as, favor de completar uno por estudiante.  La fecha límite para entregarlo es el lunes 20 de julio.

    Formulario de RE-INSCRIPCIÓN 2020-21

  • Buddy William White

    Buddy William White

    William (Buddy) White

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