A PLACE WHERE THE ATMOSPHERE IS UNHURRIED, FREE, AND FULL.
A PLACE DESIGNED FOR THE CHILDREN'S SAKE.
A PLACE WHERE A TRUE KNOWLEDGE IS A CARING ONE.
A PLACE WHERE HOW YOU LEARN IS AS SIGNIFICANT AS WHAT YOU LEARN.
Mission
Red Mountain Community School is an educational offering to the families of Birmingham, Alabama in the Charlotte Mason tradition. We are an intentionally small (K-12) day school devoted to educating the whole person. Our program is especially designed to foster relationships within a rich and varied curriculum of books, materials and experiences. Regular outings, a healthy atmosphere of respect and care, habits that develop life-long learners, family involvement, and consistent exposure to fruitful ideas are Red Mountain distinctives. We are informed by the following questions and keep them before us each day: ‘What is best for children?’ “What impact do our educational practices have on the mind, body and spirit of our students and families?’ and “How can our school be a gift to our city and its residents?”
We believe that the child is born a person. Because of this we seek to protect and stimulate the intrinsic desire instilled in each child. Learning is its own reward.
We desire to be a place where the whole child is welcome and inspired to learn, and believe that an atmosphere fitting for a child must be hospitable to the whole person, mind, desire and will. We value simplicity, hospitality and an unhurried posture in creating an atmosphere for learning.
‘A liberal education for all’ is our motto, and we call our rich and broad curriculum a ‘living feast.’
We believe in a differentiated approach to instruction, which involves recognizing each student’s varying background knowledge, readiness, language preferences, learning interests , and then responding to them.
We are a school that reflects our location, demonstrating diversity of all kinds. We have intentionally chosen to place our school in downtown Birmingham, believing that if people are to live in the city, they will need a place to educate their children in the city.
Practices
Nature Study is one of the habits we practice. This watercolor is by teacher Melissa Shultz-Jones.
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In Mason's day PNEU (Parents National Education Union) schools were dependent on a unique collaboration with friends and family of the area. We too are always looking for what is provided in our neighborhood, community and families in terms of special area teachers, guests who are 'experts in their field' as well as our funding. We do not grant scholarships but barter services as a way of life. We do not hold fund raising campaigns as a rule but have been provided for by friends of our work - those who are enriched by our presence and want to see us flourish. We find as Mason did that 'one of the secrets of life is to know glory when we see it.' We wait and look for daily bread as well as the glorious as we share life together.
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We draw on inspiring ideas, people and things in literature, science, math, history, geography, art, music, handwork and all realms of knowledge. We are informed by but not limited to the Alabama Course of Study when making curricular choices. The life of the school is structured “so that the strong have something to strive after and the weak may not fall back in dismay”. We rely on real books, real things and real experiences, incorporating the best in literature, the arts, sciences and history. We exchange workbooks for copybooks, textbooks for living books, and short-term results for long-term learning. Subject areas include penmanship, composition, literature, history (world, U.S., local), geography, science, mathematics, handcrafts, nature study, artist and composer study, drawing, French, Latin, folk music, and dancing.
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The persistent effort to help a child do what he lacks the power to compel himself to do is a significant work for parents and teachers. These repeated ‘doings and beings’ create paths for freedom, character and self-governance for a lifetime. At Red Mountain Community School our attention is given to fostering intellectual habits beginning with attention, listening, and remembering along with moral ones such as responsibility, gratitude, and respect.
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Our primary educational tool is narration. This is simply the retelling of what has been read, heard, or seen. Whether telling back orally or through illustration or writing, the child finds himself relating to the information and growing in his ability to attend. Material is not simply memorized for a test. It becomes a part of the learner and cannot be taken away from him.
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Our calendar year is informed by the personal need for work, play and rest, the natural seasons of fall, winter, spring and summer and the Christian church year calendar which expresses growth, preparation, living by gifts, epiphany, discipline and suffering, life and spirit. We believe in the examined life and offer our families habits and rhythms that nourish 'a life well-lived.' Each day includes a morning gathering of songs, hymns, story and 'share days' before entering our academic morning work. We eat lunch together as a school and can be found cooking together on occasion! Our afternoons include music, improvisation, handwork, field study, nature study, and more.
Perennially, we host a Folksong Gathering with Handicrafts Bazaar in the fall, Advent Hour, an Epiphany Feast of Lights/Treasure Hunt, REDTALKS, a Poetry Picnic and Our Medieval Saint George's Day Feast and Coronation.
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The mystery of personhood is the signature premise for all we hold dear at RMCS. We seek to educate the whole person and believe that each person is always more than meets the eye!
Charlotte Mason writes,
"I want, am made for, and must have a God.' We have within us an infinite capacity for love, loyalty, and service; but we are deterred, checked on every hand, by limitations in the objects of our love and service. It is only to our God that we can give the whole, and only from Him can we get the love we exact; a love which is like the air, an element to live in, out of which we gasp and perish. Where, but in our God, the Maker of heaven and earth, shall we find the key to all knowledge? Where, but in Him, whose is the power, the secret of dominion? And, our search and demand for goodness and beauty baffled here, disappointed there––it is only in our God we find the whole. The Soul is for God, and God is for the Soul, as light is for the eye, and the eye is for light. And, seeing that the Soul of the poorest and most ignorant has capacity for God, and can find no way of content without Him, is it wholly true to say that man is a finite being? But words are baffling; we cannot tell what we mean by finite and infinite.
We say there is no royal road to learning; but this highest attainment of man is for the simple and needy; it is reached by the road in which the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err. In this fact, also, we get a glimpse of the infinite for which we hunger. How strange it is to our finite notions that ALL should be offered to the grasp of the simplest and the least!
We have found this true.
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Each week we set aside books and things for a 'jaunt.' Traveling by foot, city bus, or cars we journey all over the state of Alabama to uncover its particular stories, treasures, crafts, industries, natural beauties and historical moments together.
We cultivate these things for the children’s sake:
A respectful learning atmosphere based upon the recognition that children are first and foremost persons.
A small, ‘human scale’ school intentional about individual, family and community relationships. We limit our class sizes to reflect this principle.
A rich, relevant, rigorous curriculum designed to intrigue, delight and challenge students. We draw on the best books, regular excursions, the arts, the sciences and the natural world.
Supported, caring teachers with specialized training.
Unique, effective instructional and assessment practices employing ‘retelling,’ self-effort and trained attention.
Offerings
Day School
RMCS opened its doors for the first time in August 2005 to 9 students in grades 1-3. We now have over 70 students in grades K4-12. Our school day runs from 8:45-2:45 Monday through Fridays. We have found the writings of British educator Charlotte Mason to be the most important voice in the shaping of this work and are unabashedly seeking to nurture children (and parents!) who are full participants in all of life.
RMCS Afternoons
Red Mountain Community School recognizes the need to offer after school care to our families. Our afternoon hours try to blend the need for companionship and solitude. During Red Mountain Afternoons we offer time in the out of doors ( a long stint of play at the park or the garden is a must), a corner for quiet reading, a healthy snack, crafts and lessons in new skills, music lessons (banjo, guitar and ukulele available with enough demand) and jaunts to the library.
Pro.ven.der Retreats
Prov.en.der weekends are the teacher-training and parent enrichment arm of our work. Learn more at https://www.prov-en-der.com/