Listing of AMI 'Communications' 

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To our readers
Mary Hayes

Educateurs sans Frontières

La Maestra
Maria Montessori

Report on the AMI/USA National Conference
Roelie Murphy

The Garden of Eden
Renilde Montessori

Education as an Agent of Peace
Sandra Girlato

The Universality of Montessori’s Discoveries
The First in a Series on Montessori Endeavours Worldwide

25th International Montessori Congress
Sydney, 2005

Question and Answer
Distance Learning

Announcements

Membership fees

 Listing of AMI 'Communications' 

Highlights from 'Communications 2002/4'

La Maestra
Lecture 2

Graduating from an AMI course is just the first step in a very challenging but rewarding process, as is clearly indicated in this lecture given by Maria Montessori on an international course in Rome, in the early thirties of the last century.

By taking a different stance from what is generally common in education, the directress allows the child to develop according to his own inner directives. But it is not only the child who develops. In the words of Maria Montessori ‘this school is both for the teacher and for the child...in which the one contributes to the development of the other’. In 2002/1 we ran lecture 1. From lecture 2 we now quote…

‘The actual task of education is shared between the teacher and the environment. The latter plays the greater part in the teaching of notions since, in order to absorb them, special materials are used by the children. It is clear that the ones to be active are the children and not the teacher.

The teacher is, however, not eliminated; only her task is changed. In our concept of self-education the teacher's activity becomes prudent, delicate and multiform. Her words, her energy, her severity, are no longer necessary; they are replaced by a watchful wisdom and by spreading her attention to the whole of the community. Her task consists in serving, in going to assistance and in retiring; in talking or being silent according to the case. As you see, to do this she must acquire a moral essence which has never been asked of her by any other method: she must be calm, patient, charitable, humble. In the old method her preparation was the use of instructing words. Here it is the mastery and possession of virtue.

…The teacher's task is however easy. She is the means of putting the child in relation to its responses. Therefore, she must know how to choose the proper material and know how to awaken a deep interest in the child. In order to do this, the teacher must have a thorough knowledge of the use of the material, the exact technique of the presentation and be able to recognise when the child is ready for this material so that using it will be of really efficient help.

…Another very essential attribute the teacher must acquire is to have very clear in her mind what is the “sequence of the material” and which are the “parallel exercises”. Besides the attitude, the knowledge of the material and how and when to present it, there is a third essential for the teacher. She must take vigilant care of the order. The teacher must also put the child into contact with a sense of order. To do this, she must give the child some external rules of discipline. These are very simple - but sufficient to guarantee peaceful work to the whole class. …

Above all, the teacher must take care that the child who is absorbed in his work is not disturbed by any other child. She must be as a guardian angel for those souls who are concentrated in an effort that will uplift them.’

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The AMI-USA national conference “Educate for Peace” was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 2002. Full proceedings will be published in due course and available from the AMI-USA office. Here are some highlights of two of the main lectures. Renilde Montessori spoke on “The Garden of Eden” and Sandra Girlato on “Education as an Agent of Peace”.

The Garden of Eden

Fifty years ago Maria Montessori left her work in the hands of her followers to be carried forth with diligence, intelligence and insight into its relevance - a relevance that will persist as long as children continue to be brought into the world.

…Already during Maria Montessori’s lifetime - and most certainly after her death - Montessori became a concept open to an endless variety of interpretations, subject to a kaleidoscopic multiplicity of definitions.

This can be seen from two contradictory perspectives: either as a trivialising fragmentation of the still elusive concept of education as an aid to life, or as the random sprouting of seeds whenever and wherever they fell on fertile ground. If we choose the latter, an image emerges of an inchoate wilderness more akin to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Secret Garden than to the biblical Garden of Eden of our title.

Taking a closer look at the rambling plantation, we realise that this is the human way to re-create The Garden of Eden, for re-create it we must, since, once having tasted the fruit of knowledge, a return to the original is denied us. Knowledge, once attained, is ineradicable. The pursuit of knowledge is undeniably humankind’s greatest passion and the thought of reinstating the misperceived bliss of ignorance is grotesquely contrary to our evolutionary ethos.

…The environment we prepare for our children, whether in the home, in educational institutions or anywhere else, should be founded on truth and honesty and free from hollow absolutes of which we ourselves are not quite persuaded. A clear and transparent milieu will allow the child the liberty to learn the disciplines of existence, acquiring the knowledge it seeks by following the compelling dictates inherent in its human condition. Thus, the physical, intellectual, and spiritual properties of its world will become the prime matter for its self-construction.

…In the Montessori Prepared Environments for children from three to six years of age, now and again, at a propitious moment, a gentle event takes place called The Silence Game. It had its serendipitous origin in the first Casa dei Bambini in Rome and, to all intents and purposes, was created by the children themselves, as recorded in The Secret of Childhood by Maria Montessori. Children are not afraid of silence, being as they are in a state of grace and as yet unthreatened by the stillness of infinity.

It might take decades, possibly centuries, probably millennia for the entire population of the earth to reach a level of concord that will allow the re-creation of a global Garden of Eden.

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From “Education as an Agent for Peace” presented by Sandra Girlato…

In the aftermath of September 11 and in the current climate of heightened tension between nations, the need to realise a different kind of world is ever more necessary. On an earth whose inhabitants have the capability to destroy the planet many times over, educating new human beings who are educated for peace and live not only to maintain harmony, but who seek every opportunity and make every effort to promote the positive art of peacemaking, is not only a necessary goal but an essential component for the continued survival of our race. We must educate for peace versus educating for the avoidance of war. We must strive to create a positive climate for peace versus strategies for the diminishment of strife.

Montessori in the book Education and Peace, makes the following statement: ‘Peace is a goal that can be attained only through common accord, and the means to achieve this unity for peace are twofold: first, an immediate effort to resolve conflicts without recourse to violence—in other words, to prevent war—and second, a long-term effort to establish a lasting peace among men. Preventing conflicts is the work of politics; establishing peace is the work of education. We must convince the world of the need for a universal, collective effort to build the foundation for peace’(Montessori, 1949a, p.24). The central or core concern of any education should be the education for peace. …

Dr. Maria Montessori states, ‘This is education, understood as a help to life; an education from birth, which feeds a peaceful revolution and unites all in a common aim, attracting them as to a single centre. Mothers, fathers, politicians: all must combine in their respect and help for this delicate work of formation, which the little child carries on in the depth of a profound psychological mystery, under the tutelage of an inner guide. This is the bright new hope for mankind. Not reconstruction, but help for the constructive work that the human soul is called upon to do, and to bring to fruition; a work of formation which brings out the immense potentialities with which children, the sons of men, are endowed’ (Montessori, 1949b, p. 17).

… ‘Education, therefore, of little ones is important, especially from three to six years of age, because this is the embryonic period for the formation of character and of society, (just as the period from birth to three is that for forming the mind, and the prenatal period that for forming the body). What the child achieves between three and six does not depend on doctrine but on a divine directive which guides his spirit to construction. These are the germinal origins of human behaviour and they can only be evolved in the right surroundings of freedom and order’(Montessori, 1949a, p. 242-243).

How will education be an agent for peace? The evidence for this is revealed to the person who observes in a Montessori prepared environment for three-to-six year-old children. The primary environment is one that has, through observation and experiment, been specifically created and designed for the children in the social embryo phase of their development. It is a classroom that has not been arbitrarily constructed or based on some practitioner’s theory of the moment; instead it has evolved in response to the natural laws that guide the child between the ages of three and six.

…Mahatma Gandhi celebrated Montessori with the following words, in a letter to her dated November 19, 1931, ‘You have very truly remarked that if we are to reach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won’t have to struggle, we won’t have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which, consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering’(Ghandi, 1953).

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From Question and Answer
Distance Learning - A question posed again and again

Question: I have become very interested in the Montessori method of education and would like to study for an AMI diploma. Can I do this by a “distance learning programme”?

Answer: The Montessori approach offers a broad vision of education as an aid to life. It is designed to help children with their task of inner construction as they grow from childhood to maturity. It succeeds because it draws its principles from the natural development of the child. Its flexibility provides a matrix within which each individual child's inner directives freely guide the child toward wholesome growth.
The preparation of the adult about to undertake work with young children demands a high degree of self-discipline and commitment, and a professional attitude. This preparation can only be achieved through immersion in the Montessori theory under the supervision of experienced lecturers. Furthermore, the special materials to be used with the children in a Montessori class require individual training and supervised practice—as each piece of apparatus has a function in the total scheme of the Montessori Prepared Environment.

These fundamental aspects cannot be covered in sufficient depth by distance learning.

Courses leading to the AMI diploma are run by AMI-accredited training centres throughout the world. These courses are internationally recognised for their high standard and authenticity. Montessori training is a process of re-orientation where students begin to discover for themselves the profound truths underlying the Montessori approach. Courses are full-time and are offered over an academic year or several summers. The course programme includes lectures, seminars and demonstrations on Montessori philosophy, child development and the Montessori materials. Each course also includes significant components of observation, supervised practice with the materials, material making and teaching practice. Students prepare an album which details the purpose, use and presentation of each piece of material. In the words of Dr. Montessori the teacher ‘must give her lesson, plant the seed and then disappear; observing and waiting’ (The Call of Education, Vol. 11, no. IV, December, 1925). This apparently simple proverb continues to be a piece of worthwhile advice and a source of inspiration. It is at the core of the role of the Montessori teacher.

Question and Answer
AMI invites questions for this section of Communications. Just send an e-mail to info@montessori-ami.org.

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