Lakewood Montessori Middle School is a unique place. Students making the transition from childhood to young adulthood are encouraged to become independent thinkers, engaged learners, and positive contributors to our society by showing responsibility for each other and the world around them. Lakewood is a public magnet school, and students come from a diverse array of backgrounds. Montessori instruction expects that the student will be responsible for his/her own success and actively involved in purposeful learning.

Duke students taking a class at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies spent the 2012 fall semester documenting the life of Lakewood Montessori. The class is called Capturing Transience: Documentary Photography and the Digital Age. This time of sixth grade through eighth grade is one of the most transient times in our lives, and each Duke or Carolina student spent the semester photographing an individual, class, or program within the school.

Service learning at Duke provided a grant to produce this website, and students provided final prints for an exhibit during an Open School Night. The website and all prints were given to the school as a gift with the hope that they support the hard work teachers and staff put in every day to educate the children of Durham.