Self Reliant. Intellectually Curious. Socially Adaptable.
These are just some of the ways teachers from other schools often describe MSGH graduates.
Our children move on from our program with a strong academic foundation and with the realization that learning is a lifelong pursuit.
With over 50 years in the Greater Hartford area, we’ve built a strong alumni community. They not only return for visits; many choose to enroll their own children at MSGH.
2023 Moving-On Ceremony Speeches graduating from our Adolescent Program completing as 9th year students
Hello everyone I would like to say that in my many years here at M.S.G.H I have learned and grown so much (especially the grow part) and I know that after all this time you’ve probably been counting down the hours till you can finally be rid of me. I am very grateful for the opportunities that I have been able to take advantage of here that I could nowhere else. In all seriousness my name is Liam McWhite and I've been at MSGH since my eighth grade. I’ve lived in many places and I’ve gone to different schools around the country, but throughout all the places I’ve lived and throughout all of my experiences some of the best have been here at MSGH.
At MSGH you get the chance to work in an amazing atmosphere, with the animals, with the nature and without being bound to the confines of a classroom. A plant will only grow as far as its pot will allow it, and so is true with a child. And in Montessori we’re given a lot of room to grow.
In these past two years I have developed, I’ve changed, and my life has shifted its course. I know that now and forever in to the the future I want to spend my time getting better in everything I just want to get better I does not matter if there is no finish line for me to reach if there no end goal I just want to go to bed each night and rest easy knowing I was better in some way than when I woke up in the morning. I’ve come pretty far and I still have a long way to go because there is no end, there is no final goal because I will never stop moving forward. Everyday I say to myself “I’m not good enough, let me fix that” because I refuse to be satisfied. And I'm not as good as I could be, but improving is hard but that’s good because I like doing difficult things.
(You know) Wisdom is an important part of growth. Wisdom is constructed upon experience and reflection, and one the best ways to gain experience is to make mistakes (and I sure make a lot of those) but to gain anything from experience one must reflect upon it, one must reflect upon themself, and everything in their life, and that is how you truly grow.
It has been wonderful to be able to work with everyone here, all my classmates, with Caren, Jack, Pape, -Colleen, Bill, Priscilla, -Brenda and of course our dear friend Eddie. Leaving here will be hard but I guess it’s time for me to uproot myself from my pot and plant myself in a new garden.
I’m Riley Christopher, I’m 15 years old and I’ve just completed my 14th year of MSGH. First off I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who has been a part of my 14-year experience at MSGH. I have unique relationships with so many people who have seen the good, bad, and ugly of me, and I am so fortunate to have you all in my corner. I would like to start by thanking Señora Rivera, someone I have always been able to count on for a good laugh or a stern talking to. Thank you to my toddler teacher, Ms. Theresa, who I tremendously admire. And to Ms. Nancy for invaluable core memories from my years in Primary four. You three will forever be some of my favorite people.
Thank you to, Ms. Liz, Ms. Christine, and Sarah, my elementary teachers, and to Ms. Toko, Ms. JoAnne, Ms. Erica, Ms. Orla, Ms Una, Ms. Mary, and Ms. Michelle whose kindness has always made me feel welcome, and comfortable within MSGH’s walls. Thank you to Priscilla, Colleen, and Bill, whose positivity and encouragement never fails to brighten my day. And to Caren, Pape, and Jack, thank you for showing me what I am truly capable of and always challenging me to ask more of myself. You have each made me a better, and more thoughtful person and I will love you guys forever.
I would like to extend that thank you to my peers, you all hold such significance in my identity and I cannot imagine having grown up without you. Lastly, I owe a huge thank you to my parents, sisters, and extended family for their unconditional love and support. When I was little, I remember watching the “all-powerful” 9th-years give their speeches. I remember longing for the day that it was me on that stage with the honor of presenting my MSGH experience. Standing up here today, I don’t feel how they looked. I'm struggling to find the words to capture the unique experience of working and being in this extraordinary school community for 14 years, my whole childhood. To distill my experience would be to express my entire life. I have so much to say and so many feelings to express, that I'm overwhelmed. Nine years ago, six-year-old me was signed up for the first MSGH farm camp in 2014. I boarded the bus that morning eager to milk a goat, little did I know I would return having fallen in love. Six years later, I was finally a Millstream-bound adolescent - it felt surreal. I thought that after six years of farm camp, I knew my way around, but boy was I wrong. The farm school is an indescribable experience and the first few weeks my brain was a sponge to the multitudes of intellectual stimulants that are everywhere at Millstream. I was so interested and wanted to understand and experience everything.
Time was flying by and the next thing I knew two months had passed. By now I’d been swimming in the Nepaug River, stung twice in the beehives (which I was still very afraid of), made grape jelly, sheared sheep, raised chicks, bred dairy goats, and captured them when they escaped. Before I knew it, goat kidding season had arrived with the spring, and summer was only months away. But my blissful innocence was about to be shattered, my understanding of life to be deepened, and my heart to be broken. What happened next was dizzyingly fast and unexpected.
Goat kidding season 2021 dealt me a dreadful blow. Rosebud was fine and delivered 2 healthy little goat kids, who romped in the paddock and nibbled on the pine trees. But Willow struggled in her delivery of two babies. She stayed strong for two days before a rapid decline in health after developing sepsis. I distinctly remember the feeling of dread when we tried to milk her. We didn't know what was coming out of her udder, but we knew it was wrong. It certainly wasn’t milk.
Three days later Willow was euthanized. It was 8:00 pm on a school night that Caren and I buried her. Sobbing, I stared into the daunting grave at Willow, at what was once a vessel full of life, now a cold corpse, stiff as a board. With each shovelful of dirt, we slowly surrendered her body to the Earth. Her orphaned babies' sharp cries broke the tranquility of the resting barn. And what was supposed to be the beautiful bringing of life into the world became one of the harshest experiences I’d ever had.
Being witness to Willow's death in seventh grade stripped the veneer of being on a cute little farm with no threats. There was a sense of helplessness and lack of control that felt so real. Having to come to peace with Willow’s death facilitated so much growth and self-discovery. I realized that I want to feeleverything. I want to experience a full life. I want to feel deeply and authentically and don’t want to cut corners or have reality sugarcoated.
The rawness of MSGH inspires us to do better. If we open ourselves up to everything - the good the bad and the ugly - we can become more whole as human beings. My dream is a world in which everyone could experience education as I have. How could the Earth not be a better place if everyone was predisposed to the reality of its happenings?
The value in living a “real life” is to stand up for what you believe in, make ethical decisions, and inspire change in the world. To understand the universe is to care for it sustainably and to defend both the planet and humanity. It’s also collecting honey from the hives, shearing sheep, and burying goats.
Hi, my name is Levey. I want to start this off with thanks to all the admin and every teacher I’ve had at MSGH, from Primary to the Farm, especially to Mrs. Lockhart for helping me start my journey and Caren, Jack, Priscilla, Colleen, and Pape for helping it come to a close. I would also like to thank my parents for always supporting me and, well, funding this.
It’s hard having so little time to share my entire life here, while to you all, it may only be fifteen years, but to me, it’s all I’ve ever known. I remember when I was three, the first time I ever came to Montessori. I was really excited since my sister always talked about school. I remember when I walked into the classroom (P3) and saw all the different materials: the Pink Tower, the Brown Stairs, the Red Rods, and the Trinomial Cube for the first time and how amazed I was. Although, I never realized that I would spend my entire life up to this point at this school surrounded by the same people. Growing and learning with them, and moving on from classroom to classroom.
So many of my memories have been from this school, from The Farm, whether it’s been planting a bean sprout in a secret location in the woods, delivering goat babies, going into the beehives, or even burying random junk from our refrigerator in holes we dug at the end of the school year. And also the memories I have from the West Hartford campus, like learning my first material, making the friends I would know for my whole life, or learning about the timeline of life or the black strip.
Montessori has helped shape so much of who I am by helping me learn things like critical thinking and independence from a young age. I’ve made so many memories here, with people I’ve known since we were toddlers or others that I may have only known for half that time or even less. I feel incredibly grateful to have had this experience, waking up every day with the privilege to be able to go to a school where I can have the freedom to pursue my interests with people I know and trust in a school I love.
It’s strange, really, I’ve always known that this day would come, but I never expected it to come; the amount of time spent here greatly outweighs the time I have left, a couple of minutes versus twelve years, or about 80% of my life and to think it’s all about to be over, forever. While it’s sad to leave the Farm, with all the animals, the garden, and the maple trees, where I’ve spent so much of my life, I’m also excited to start a new journey next year, using everything I’ve learned from Montessori to help me on my way.
Hello, my name is Arthur. I'm going to tell an incredible story about my time at the farm that has a really profound message. Around one month ago our goat Fern gave birth to two beautiful little baby goats. Coming up to the due date we planned a system so that there would always be someone watching the mother. I stayed at the farm for hours on a Saturday and then almost everyone stayed the night at the farm. we all slept in sleeping bags on the floor. The goat ended up being a few days late but once she went into labor everyone who was there watched with bated breath. Even a student who had left years ago came to watch.
For me, it was both scary and incredible, the last birth I had watched resulted in us losing a mother and I was terrified that that would happen again. After what felt like an eternity of labor we saw a little bit of the first goat, we saw a little black tail. But a tail is wrong, we thought, the baby should be head first. We realized the baby was breached. Quickly we called the vet. He picked up the phone but he was hours away. He gave us instructions on how to get it out safely and Maya, a seventh grader, stepped up, put two elbow-length clear gloves on, and climbed into the kidding stall. She immediately started reaching around in the goat trying to pull the legs out but she couldn’t find them.
The goat was screaming and everybody was urging Maya on. Finally, she got one leg and then the other, and the goat slid right out. Immediately everyone leaped into action. Someone cleaned off its face with a towel, another brought it over to a chair while another got the iodine, and yet another cut the umbilical cord. And everyone let out a sigh of relief while Maya stood there shaking. The second baby came out smoothly and more students helped clean it and cut its umbilical cord. In the end, the mother and both kids survived thanks to each and every student putting any disagreement aside to help with the start of a new life.
What happened that day and leading up to that day is the most amazing display of community I have ever seen. That is the community that I have been lucky enough to be part of for my entire life. That community, that group of people pitching in to save two little lives, that is something I don't know if I will ever find again and that is what I will miss now that I'm leaving. Thank you.
Alumni Corner of the Follow the Child:
A section where readers will be brought back in time with our alum and see what they have been up to.
To read the Interview with Rain Hayles, click here.
