Kyle Herman

Kyle Herman

Bio

Kyle Herman earned his Bachelor of Arts in English with a writing concentration and minors in History and Philosophy from IUS in 2005.  He acquired his language arts middle/high school teaching licensure through Indiana Wesleyan in 2008 and then completed the North

American Montessori Teachers’ Association Orientation to Adolescent Studies training in 2010.  He participated in the Coaches Workshop training provided by the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector in 2018, earned his Masters in Montessori Education

from Sarasota University in 2019, and attained his adolescent credential through the Center for Guided Montessori Studies that same year.  

He started teaching at Community Montessori Public Charter School in 2005, spending his first five years in the middle school program before transitioning into the high school program in 2010, where he teaches courses such as Humanities, Big History of Earth

and Space Science, Zen and Existentialism, Philosophers of the World, Gender Studies, Critical Thinking and Argumentation, and Creative Writing.  He also serves as an academic advisor for teens and as a coach for the high school teaching faculty

Keynote:

Within the Story and the

Story Within – Endowed with the power of

language, humans crave stories, both for entertainment and meaning.  As modern science continues to make new discoveries about the origin and nature of the universe, the profundity of the story deepens and calls to humans as a referent for meaning and purpose. 

Montessori understood the power of the universe story to stoke the flames of imagination in children and awaken them to their cosmic task on this planet, but adolescents and adults also need to know where they fit into the greatest story ever told and, just

as importantly, how they carry the power of the story within themselves.    

Workshop

Summary:

Telling the Universe Story

in Adolescent Education –  Cosmic Education

refers to a specific curriculum designed to meet the developmental needs of the child in the second plane, but Montessori’s “cosmic vision” can and should be extended into secondary by integrating Big History and the New Story, two other lineages that share

in Montessori’s cosmic vision.  All subjects at the secondary level can be linked and taught in a transdisciplinary approach that has already proven to be deeply inspiring at this level as students move toward a more adult understanding of their cosmic task

and place in the grand narrative of the universe. In contrast to the fragmented approach normally used at the secondary level, an approach that integrates Montessori’s cosmic vision with that of the New Story and Big History offers an orienting experience

that makes learning easier, exciting, and personally meaningful for the adolescent, particularly in high school.  

Workshop

Goals and Outcomes:

  1. Understand how Big History
  2. thresholds relate to the Great Lessons/Stories
  3. Use the most up to date
  4. scientific — and age appropriate — information to inform our understanding of ourselves and assist in our realization of cosmic task. 
  5. Integrate questions of deep
  6. meaning and purpose into your curriculum. 
  7. Meet high school standards
  8. while staying true to the Montessori philosophy and curriculum.