People who are intellectually curious, self-disciplined, energetic, personally stable, and enjoy challenging work. Interns must be open to new ideas, willing to question, challenge and listen. Experience with children is helpful, but not necessary.

"One of the reasons why PMP attracted me so much was that the children here play hard, going from one place to another, with twinkles in their eyes. Also, I was surprised to see such young children being able to verbalize how they felt, clearly and directly."

- Kanako Kumaki, Play Mountain Intern 1989,
  now a teacher in the Nursery Yard

The Learning Process for Interns

The intern experience at Play Mountain is deeply meaningful and often life-changing. An intern's learning path parallels that of the student's in that you learn by doing and experiencing, by self-reflection and self-determination, at your own pace, setting your own goals.

Working alongside experienced teachers provides you with modeling of Play Mountain skills and philosophy. After-school meetings help you integrate intellectually and emotionally what you are experiencing in the program with the children.

All staff, including interns, need support to learn to work in this way with children. In order to provide some of this support, the intern program includes attendance at the following meetings:

• SEMINAR (weekly): Focuses on issues that face teachers and interns on a daily basis. It is a place to practice the skills needed to be a Play Mountain teacher as well as to gain knowledge in child development, humanistic education and curriculum development in a free school. Questions about Play Mountain philosophy are opened up through dialogue, discussion and role-playing.
• STAFF MEETING (weekly): Staff meet to plan the children's program, to plan the parent education program which includes conferences and parent meetings, and to work on team building. A monthly facilitated process meeting supports and encourages staff to explore work-related issues and concerns regarding each other and themselves.
• COMMUNICATION SKILLS WORKSHOP: This four-session workshop introduces the basic skills of active listening, setting limits with genuineness and without punishment or blame, and non-authoritarian conflict resolution-parenting.

"I saw firsthand the direct impact that a positive, non-judgemental environment has on a child's ability to learn. Throughout my time at PMP I took pleasure in watching students initiate their own lesson plan, or ask for help with something that they genuinely wanted to learn, and they trusted me to help them learn it."

- Tony Romeo, Antioch College
Elementary Yard Intern, 2000

Our internship program has been valuable to students interested in:

• Conflict resolution
• Peace studies
• Alternative education
• Psychology
• Child development
• Parenting methods
• Public policy and anti-bias studies

What An Intern Does - Through participation in daily activities,
the intern receives intense training in the following areas:

• Child development
• Experiential learning
• Communication skills
• Group Dynamics
• The function of play in childhood
• Therapeutic play in an educational environment
• Methods of teaching skills and concepts in a free environment
• Structuring for freedom and responsibility

"My self esteem was greatly raised after my Play Mountain intern experience. I became more independent and self motivated, and learned to enjoy my life. Many of the techniques I learned at Play Mountain, I now teach others in Japan."

-Kazuo Yamashita, Play Mountain Intern in 1990,
  now a lecturer at Kansai University of Social Welfare in Japan,
  and co-host of the 8th Annual Forum for Person-Centered Approach
  (inspired by the work of Carl Rogers)