Verona’s Perry Maione (back row, right) is the technology teacher at Montclair Cooperative School and he recently led a group of the school’s seventh graders on a trip to rural Vermont.
Every year, the Co-op’s 7th graders spend a week living and working on Spring Brook Farm in Reading, Vt. The dairy and sugar bush farm, noted for its maple syrup and its award-winning cheese, offers students an outdoor classroom that teaches the suburban kids what life and work is like on a farm.
These seventh graders milked and brushed the cows, fed and took care of the goats, pigs, and turkeys, collected eggs from the chickens, harvested beans, squash and spinach, picked apples, made applesauce, hiked regularly, and even cleaned out the stalls. Farm staff commented that the experience encouraged teamwork, responsibility, and respect, and students applied a healthy dose of math and science in their daily work.
The Montclair Cooperative School, located at 65 Chestnut Street, is celebrating 50 years in education this year.
