Peaceful Children, Peaceful World: The Challenge of Maria Montessori

September 21, 2018 - International Day of Peace

The beginning of the school year provides great opportunities for reflection and renewal. Within the first weeks of being together, staff communities settle back into familiar routines in preparation for the students’ return. 

These are critical times to set the spiritual and emotional climate for the months to come. A staff needs to know the reason and rationale for their work, the great and powerful “why” they serve the children and their families in the capacities that they do. 

Throughout her writings, Maria Montessori infused a sense of the greater aim of our endeavors; namely, to cultivate in children a new consciousness, from which peace can flourish. It is essential that now, and throughout the school year, we return to this central vision. 

The words that follow are excerpts from “Peaceful Children, Peaceful World: The Challenge of Maria Montessori” by Aline D. Wolf, with illustrations by Joe Servello (1989). For this book, Wolf selected significant sections from Maria Montessori’s 1932 speech at the International Office of Education in Geneva, Switzerland – published first in Italian as “Educazione e Pace”, then later in English as “Education and Peace”(1943) by the Theosophical Society in India. Wolf edited sections from the Indian edition for this book. 

“Only a sane spiritual rebuilding of the human race can bring about peace. To set about this task, we must go back to the child.

In the child we can find the natural human characteristics before they are spoiled by the harmful influences of society.

The life of the embryo in the mother’s womb has the sole purpose of maturing into the newborn child. But the gestation of the whole human being is not confined to that short period.

Another period of gestation follows, whose sole purpose is to incarnate and make conscious the child’s spirit. Delicate nurture is needed to protect this often unrecognized process which can only be carried out by the child, obeying a natural rhythm of activity which has little in common with that of the commanding adult.

Truly, upon the spiritual growth of the child depend the health or sickness of the soul, the strength or weakness of the character, the clearness or obscurity of the intellect.

The nurturing of the spiritual life finds its expression both within the family and at school in what is still called education.

If education recognizes the intrinsic value of the child’s personality and provides an environment suited to spiritual growth, we have the revelation of an entirely new child, whose astonishing characteristics can eventually contribute to the betterment of the world.

I believe that the new adults who emerge from a more tranquil childhood will use their intellects and achievements to find a means to end the fury of war.

Monumental changes are needed to establish peace in the world: first, the maturing of adults to a higher level of development and, then, the providing of an environment that will no longer deprive any human being of the basic needs of life.

Through new education, we must enable children to grow up with a healthy spirit, a strong character and clear intellect, so that as adults they will not tolerate contradictory moral principles but will gather human energies for constructive purposes.

                                                                                                   - Maria Montessori

- In what ways can we explore Montessori’s profound vision with the broader school community? 

- How might students, teachers, administrators, and parents reach a new understanding of what we are here to do?

- What are the collaborative structures and systems needed such that Montessori’s vision can be realized?

- In what ways can the whole school community share in the keeping of this flame?

                 

It is easy to become distracted. Like any meditation, however, we have to purposely bring our minds and hearts back to ground, back to the breath. It is this practice of mindfulness that will not only assist us in clarifying our mission, but will be palpable to the children and families with whom we share this adventure: priorities clear, distractions at bay, hearts open, ears attuned – minds and bodies ready to be present for the great unfolding. 

Sources

“Peaceful Children, Peaceful World: The Challenge of Maria Montessori” by Aline D. Wolf, with illustrations by Joe Servello (1989)

ISBN-10: 093919502X

ISBN-13: 978-0939195022

and

"Education and Peace" by Maria Montessori (1992 edition)

ISBN-10:1851091688

ISBN-13: 978-1851091683

A Short List of Related Links from This Blog

Why Montessori Matters:

http://radicalmontessori.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-montessori-matters.html

Children Centered Learning – Learning Centered Children:

http://radicalmontessori.blogspot.com/2012/02/children-centered-learning-learning.html

Teaching With Spirit: Maria Montessori’s Cosmic Vision:

http://radicalmontessori.blogspot.com/2012/03/on-spirit-meditations-on-montessoris.html

Weaving the Cosmos:

http://radicalmontessori.blogspot.com/2012/08/weaving-cosmos.html

Looking for Grace in the Work We Do:

http://radicalmontessori.blogspot.com/2012/10/looking-for-grace-in-work-we-do.html

On Gratitude

I have been feeling profoundly grateful recently. This gratitude comes, in part, from being a member of a community who’s noble work is to serve childhood and adolescence at a deeply personal level - providing thoughtfully designed opportunities for our students to connect with and explore the universe and its many possibilities through their hands, hearts, and minds. We do this, not by following a weathered, prescribed, and rote program of education; rather, we partner with and shepherd our students much like expectant parents do: mindful of human development and the tendencies to which we are predisposed, and intentional with how we prepare ourselves and our environments to receive and serve.

I have also been considering the many curricular pathways that Maria Montessori shared with us so to explore and express our own gratitude through our studies with students. The Great Lessons, and embedded supplemental presentations, are rich experiences in the sciences and history, numeracy and literacy, to be sure; they are also pathways to gratitude: gratitude for our planet, our home, to be so perfectly positioned between the warmth of our great central star and the cold of deep space; gratitude for the earliest photosynthetic multicellular organisms on our young planet for filtering its toxic early atmosphere, making the air oxygen-rich and ready to support terrestrial life; gratitude for the lives of our hominid ancestors - bipedal, imaginative, tool making, and fire building; and more.

Indeed, in many lessons and in multiple writings and public addresses, Montessori reminds us of our human solidarity - across continents, culture, and time. She repeatedly returns to a theme of gratitude and unity, even when sharing her ideas during some of the darkest days of modern human history. Our collective strength is what we have created and shared, expanded upon, and developed further - so to bring peace and equanimity to more and more of the world’s citizens: reliable sources of nutrition, clean water, and medical care; education, and pathways out of poverty; nonviolent conflict resolution, and targeted social action - to name just a few. In thinking of those who have preceded us, preparing the way for our lives and work today I, too, offer my deepest thanks.

And lastly, in real time, I feel great gratitude for my colleagues and compatriots in this work - for bringing the world’s possibilities closer to our students and their families. Let us consider the gratitude that we each feel and carry with us. Let us embrace the opportunities we have to study, express, and deepen our appreciation of our own collective gifts today and in the days and weeks that follow.

Our work today, is the child’s world tomorrow.