Rainbow Mountain Omega Program
RMCS's holistic approach to education is vitally important during the middle school years, when children experience tremendous emotional, biological and cognitive changes. The Omega Program has been carefully designed to help students successfully navigate the mysterious and complicated journeys through adolescence.
The Emotional-Biological Journey
The onset of adolescence brings with it many new and strange feelings. At this age, children often experience rapidly changing emotions, feel the need to test limits and authority, and begin to question the world and their place in it. Engaged in the subtle and not-so-subtle dance of hormonal and physical changes, it is not surprising that emerging adolescents often confuse parents, teachers, and everyone else—including themselves.
It is as this juncture between childhood and adulthood that the needs of the whole child must be attended to with sensitivity and understanding.
Our Omega Program is a child-sensitive curriculum that is designed to help children become young men and women who have a strong sense of personal worth and an understanding of the self in relation to the web of life. Omega teachers help middle schoolers find their voice and use it clearly and authentically.
The Cognitive Journey
Middle schoolers find themselves transitioning from earlier developmental stages toward the intellectual sophistication of high-school requirements. Academics are increasingly emphasized to ensure the necessary skills are acquired for a lifelong learning adventure. Students refine essential learning skills that include
- organizing, planning, managing, and evaluating information
- abstract, critical, relational and reflexive thinking
- creative problem-solving and group processing skills
Our middle-school curriculum, with its nuanced approach, is more sophisticated than most. Omega students ’ level of thinking and engagement with subject matter often surpasses what is expected in the first year or two of high school. Our students are able to explore complex questions and issues because, at RMCS, the cognitive journey is never separated from the biological/emotional journey.
The Mysterious Journey
Adolescence is a time full of mystery. In the Omega Program, we have created safe spaces for exploring the maturing self in our Mysteries Council and Gender Mysteries. We view this exploration as sacred work, and it is a special feature of our middle school program.
In Mysteries Council, children and teachers center together and engage in heartfelt dialogue free from fear of censure, share frustrations and confusions, bear witness, and explore solutions in community. Teachers share archetypal stories and poems that reveal we are not the first to undertake the hero's journey. In this space, kids learn they are not alone, that their experiences are normal, and that there are many ways to navigate the journey safely. Mysteries Council can be very effective for restoring emotional balance and perspective; it can also free up energy for academic pursuits.
Gender Mysteries is another unique feature of the Omega Program. On alternate weeks, girls and boys separate to explore gender issues in a safe, sacred space. A variety of tools are used to explore femininity and masculinity including storytelling, sharing, martial arts, yoga, dance, ropes courses, climbing and sweat lodge ceremonies. In keeping with our holistic focus, we encourage students' knowing on a mental, physical and emotional level.
With a female lead teacher as their guide, girls explore what it means to become a woman using the stories and myths surrounding past and present heroines. Girls are encouraged to cherish their feminine bodies and their emerging womanhood while critically evaluating distorted gender stereotypes that are prevalent in our popular culture.
Boys, along with their male teacher, explore what it means to be truly masculine in contrast to the hyper-aggressive media action hero of today. Physical activity is encouraged to allow boys to demonstrate physical prowess and self-mastery while releasing testosterone-based aggression and clearing the mind for academic and interpersonal development.
The Moral and Spiritual Journey
At RMCS, we believe that, from birth, we are all on a journey to learn what it means to be truly human on this planet we call Earth. This moral and spiritual journey is the subtext for all other journeys, and it is implicit in our curriculum at all levels.
In the Omega Program, we continue to emphasize self-respect and self-discipline as well as personal, social and environmental responsibility. Students are encouraged to use a language of self expression that supports and acknowledges the web of life. Service learning projects foster genuine self-esteem as children learn the value of community participation and service to those in need.
Omega classes are from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Students may also participate in the before- and after-school program.
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