Montcrest: a little bit of country in our little piece of the city

As we approach Earth Day, I’ve been contemplating the Aesop fable, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse. In this tale, The Country Mouse welcomed the Town Mouse for a visit. She served a modest meal foraged from the land around the farm that she calls her home. As they ate, the City Mouse regaled the Country Mouse with tales of the city and the luxuries that abound there. The Country Mouse was intrigued and asked if she, in turn, could visit the Town Mouse’s home. When they arrived in the city, there were indeed many delicacies to be enjoyed, but they were soon chased away from enjoying them by a terrifying dog. As the Country Mouse hurried back home to safety, she reflected that she would prefer her plain and peaceful life to the luxuries that come with complexity and danger.

The story of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse originated sometime before 560 BC in Ancient Greece and is attributed to Aesop. The fable was passed down through the oral tradition for centuries and has been republished by numerous authors as recently as 2022. Although times have changed, in some ways, the moral has remained relevant. From my youth, I remember the 1961 version by Richard Scarry. Growing up in a smaller town, I recall the intrigue of the city and, in spite of the moral, the lure of adventure and new treasures in coming to Toronto.

The shiny technologies of today, including smartphones, social media and AI, mirror the allure of “city life” from previous times. With the advancement of technology that is intended to enhance our lives through increased productivity and convenience, there come complexities and, in some cases, potential dangers. In his recent article in The Atlantic, Jonathan Haidt advocates for us to “End the phone-based childhood now.” He asserts that schools have an important role to play in limiting access to tools that are changing children’s brains, including smartphones and social media. Haidt links the use of cell phones to a decline in play and independence and an increase in anxiety and mental health challenges in children and adolescents. Schools like Montcrest and school boards across North America are engaging social media giants in lawsuits in an attempt to bring an end to the algorithms that create addictive, dysregulating and impairing behaviours in youth. Further, while reflecting on the current unprecedented digital immersion, Nita Farahany, the author of The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology and keynote speaker at the recent National Association of Independent School (NAIS) annual conference, discussed the transformative impact of AI and its implications on human cognitive freedom particularly its impact on children.

Rather than an either-or solution like that found in the Country Mouse and the City Mouse at Montcrest, we believe there’s an opportunity for a yes-and approach.

The “yes” of yes-and represents our responsibility as schools to teach children to be digitally literate and to understand and be able to access the productive tools that technology offers. While we lock away cell phones during school and educate our students about the dangers of social media, we can also embrace assistive technology and the potential of virtual reality to bring faraway places into the classroom. Farahany concurs, emphasizing the importance of intentionally integrating AI into educational systems while prioritizing children’s well-being. She encourages educators to lead the charge in redirecting the use and relationship with technology to foster self-determination, cognitive liberty, and human flourishing among our students through the effective use of AI.

The “and” of yes-and relates to the imperative to focus our curriculum on human skills like those found in the Montcrest Learning Principles to Practices, which includes competencies like connecting, engaging, inquiring, reflecting, collaborating and others. Haidt asserts that the antidote to the impact of technology is providing children with more independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world. These opportunities reflect the best of those lived by the Country Mouse. Getting your hands dirty, doing hard work with your peers and realizing the satisfaction of a job well done.

Montcrest is intentionally leaning into the provision of enhanced experiential learning on and off campus. One way we are doing this is with the development of the Community Garden. The Community Garden will be an outdoor space on campus where students can grow plants and food in gardens and a greenhouse, prepare food in an outdoor kitchen and firepit and learn in nature. We have already begun engaging with experts in the design of this space and the possibilities of expanding experiences with permaculture to other areas around campus.

And there are already so many projects afoot that are embracing the incredible spaces that Montcrest has to offer. This week, the JKs were observed walking down Broadview carrying plants after purchasing herbs, the Grade 1s shared their inquiry into the question “Should Montcrest have bees?” with the whole school during community time, the Grade 4s walked to the archeological site at Withrow School with an Indigenous knowledge consultant (Fred Martin) as part of their exploration of early societies and a group of Grade 7 teachers met with an urban farming consult to embark on a student project to map the campus for future agricultural potential. The Grade 8s have also recently engaged in learning with Fred about the significance of the Don River and surrounding area, exploring the past, present, and future of our unique location in Toronto and working both scientifically and artistically on a culminating project. A group of Grade 6 students has also started a co-curricular committee to bring leadership to the project of thinking broadly about food at Montcrest, including what we eat, when we eat, where we eat, and how we can bring greater well-being to our student population through growing, preparing and sharing food.

This project is in its early stages but gaining momentum quickly as students and teachers together think about the possibilities. People can be randomly heard in hallways and outside saying words like “greenhouse,” “chickens,” “social entrepreneurship,” “city skills,” and “miniature goats.” There is growing enthusiasm for helping students embrace social responsibility, environmental sustainability and personal well-being that this programming will afford.

So rather than the Country Mouse or the Town Mouse, Montcrest is thinking about the benefits of the Yes-and. We have the privilege of being a little bit country in our little piece of the city. We are excited to intentionally build a community where we are developing the knowledge, skills and attributes to fully engage and thrive in both the country and the city.