Named for the monastery established by St. Benedict in 6th century Italy, Monte Cassino School has been providing an academically challenging education for students in Tulsa, Oklahoma, since 1926. The school serves 930 students in grades P-8.
“Monte Cassino takes pride in educating the whole child and providing solid emphasis on our core spiritual values of faith and service. Since our first exposure to the All Kinds of Minds approach in 1995, we recognized it as the only way to accomplish this goal,” remarks School Director Sr. Mary Clare Buthod.
Monte Cassino has found success with the All Kinds of Minds approach through which students, parents, teachers, and learning specialists systematically work together to discover a child’s strengths and challenges. Through this detailed observation, educators are able to describe a student’s unique learning style and determine the underlying causes of learning struggles, which allows them to plan appropriate strategies. These findings are shared with the parents, all the student’s teachers, and usually the student—depending on age and ability to understand the process.
“An indication of our commitment to All Kinds of Minds approach is our weekly focus meeting. Each Friday, our principals, Schools Attuned director, school counselor, clinical child psychologist/learning specialist, and I devote the full day to individual case meetings with parents, teachers and students to assess progress or communicate strategies,” notes Sr. Mary Clare. In addition, each faculty member is required to participate in the five-day Schools Attuned to All Kinds of Minds course, as well as an annual refresher that may include specific subject or grade level technique training.
