The February 11, 2006, broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion (from Minnesota Public Radio) originated from the University of Minnesota, Morris, whose campus is the former West Central School of Agriculture. WCSA was a residential high school for farm children from 1910 to 1963, offering traditional high school studies as well as agricultural and practical home skills. Montessorians may notice a striking resemblance to the Montessori concept of the Erdkinder (adolescent Farm School). Host Garrison Keillor described WCSA and commented, "Someday, somebody is going to do a study on this and discover that animal husbandry is a valuable tool in building character, and they’ll come up with an idea for a residential high school where you can learn carpentry and cooking and each week taking a couple of hours to take care of an infant, and it’ll be like the Montessori of the future, except they’ll call it the Morris movement." http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2006/02/11/ Go here to visit the Prairie Home Companion web site and hear the entire show or just Segment 3, where Mr. Keillor gives a bit of the history of the University of Minnesota, Morris and the West Central School of Agriculture.
Text from North American Montessori Teacher's Association (NAMTA)
