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The John M. Tobin Montessori School is a public Montessori in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2015 it was named the first district-level, fully accredited, public Montessori school in the United States.^[1] The mascot is the Tiger and the school colors are royal blue and white.

History

The John M. Tobin school opened in the fall of 1971. The Tobin, named after educator and school superintendent John Tobin, replaced the Russell School which was located on Grozier Road. The Tobin was built adjacent to the fields of Father Callahan Park at 197 Vassal Lane and still uses those fields as its playground. The building was designed by the Architect Pietro Belluschi^[2]. At about that same time, the high-rise apartments, Rindge Towers, were built and the children from there and later from the Walden Square Apartments were districted into the Tobin. Thus, a small neighborhood school became a much larger one.

After school busing was ordered in Boston to address de facto segregation, Cambridge took the initiative to put into place a voluntary desegregation program which allowed for school choice. This was first accomplished by drawing large school districts and later was changed to a city-wide school choice program. Once there was open enrollment, there was a push to draw students to certain schools by creating various magnet programs. At The Tobin, the Follow -Through Program was instituted. This was meant to be a continuation of the “enriched” Head Start Program for pre-school and kindergarten. The program was meant to target low income children and give them a “head start”. Tobin School would then have these “Head Start” families mix with more affluent families in a separate program within the Tobin School. Later, another magnet program was created in which there was an integration of computer technology into the classrooms. This program was known as “The School of the Future”. These magnet programs, as well as the classrooms of the original Tobin School existed together for many, many years.

As educational practices changed and technology was being used in all classrooms in the city, it became clear that the best course of action would be to merge all of the programs at the Tobin School and create one unified school. This merge was accomplished through the cooperative efforts of the administration, staff and parents of the three programs.

The next big change came when Dr. Fowler-Finn, the superintendent of schools at the time, created a Montessori School which was housed at the Tobin. As each new class of Montessori children came through, the standard classroom would be eliminated. This brings us to the 2012-2013 school year when there will be Children’s House to grade five Montessori classrooms. The building will also house the Vassal Lane Upper School Campus that will draw students from the Graham and Parks School as well as the Haggerty School for sixth through eighth grades.

Timeline of the John M. Tobin Montessori School

1907 - Maria Montessori opens the first Montessori school in the San Lorenzo district of Rome, Italy.
1911 - Montessori's work published in McClure's Magazine and becomes popular in the United States
1971 - The John M. Tobin Elementary School opens on Vassal Lane in Cambridge, Massachusetts
2005 - Principal Paulette Jones commences the journey to turn the Tobin into a Montessori School.
2007 - The Tobin School opens four "Children's House" Montessori classrooms.
2008 - Principal Seth Lewis-Levin opens three "Lower Elementary" classrooms.
2009 - A fourth "Lower Elementary" classroom opens
2010 - Due to the growing popularity of the Montessori program in the Cambridge Public Schools a fifth "Children's House" classroom.
2011 - New Principal Martha Mossman opens two "Upper Elementary" classrooms and commences the process of accreditation with the American Montessori Society (AMS).
2012 - Third "Upper Elementary" classroom opens.
2015 - In February, the AMS grants full accreditation to the Tobin Montessori school becoming the first district level public school in the United States to achieve full accreditation. Tobin literacy coach, Jaime Frost is hired as incoming principal for September 2015

References

^ Feijo, Sara. "Cambridge's Tobin School reaches Montessori milestone". Wicked Local Cambridge. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
^ Clausen, Meredith L. (1999). Pietro Belluschi: Modern American Architect (illustrated, reprint ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 420. ISBN 9780262531672. Retrieved 15 June 2015.

External links

[1] Feijo, Sara. "Cambridge's Tobin School reaches Montessori milestone". Wicked Local Cambridge. Retrieved 15 June 2015.

[2] Clausen, Meredith L. (1999). Pietro Belluschi: Modern American Architect (illustrated, reprint ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 420. ISBN 9780262531672. Retrieved 15 June 2015.

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