The Promise and the Hope

I saw this tweet today and it resonated with me so much in relation to both Montessori education as a system and raising a Montessori child in your home. This Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr quote was from "Eulogy for the Martyred Children" in 1963. 

Sadly, in 1932 Dr. Montessori made a very similar speech at the International Office of Education in Geneva. She was, at the time, still living in Italy and it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to work there. By 1934 she would be shut out of her homeland. Dr. Montessori knew in her bones that the way to avoid the horrors of what she was living through in WWII it was vitally important to change the way we educate child and value the child. She knew that adults were powerless to stop wars. In the preface to the book documenting the speech she said, "Education today is still confined by the limits of a social order that is now in the past. Education today not only is contrary to the dictates of science; it also runs counter to the social needs of our time." (Education and Peace, page xii, Clio Edition). She goes on to say, "The individual has grown to adulthood after being repressed, isolated, and led to pursue only his own personal interests throughout childhood and adolescence, under the blind domination of adults who are only too inclined to neglect the values of life and set him only the petty and selfish goal of getting a good job for himself within the social order." (ibid, pg xiii).

How is it in 33 years, two champions of peace are saying the exact same thing? And now, 55 years after Dr. King's speech, peacemakers are STILL saying the same thing? Because we are not heeding the advice of these peacemakers. Most citizens are in the mindset that politics and government are going to be the saviors and prevent wars. However, all of human history clearly shows that this is not the case. Dr. Montessori saw two reasons for this, two flawed definitions in our human understanding. We need to redefine peace and education.

Peace

We tend to think of peace as an absence of war, but what is really occurring between wars is "the forcible submission of the conquered to domination once the invader has consolidated his victory" (Ibid, pg 6). She asks how this can truly be peace, when one group has taken everything another group holds dear? 

True peace, she writes, is "the triumph of justice and love among men, to the building of a better world where harmony reigns." (ibid, pg 8). In other words, we need to be at the point where no one person wants to dominate over another, rather they just want to live alongside one another.

Education

What Dr. Montessori is talking about when referring to education is not "schooling" as we know it. It is not math, language arts, and other academic subjects. It is not memorizing facts. Instead, she is talking about something far more fundamental. Really, she is talking about the way we allow children to exist. 

Education must concern itself with the development of individuality and allow the individual child to remain independent not only in the earliest years of childhood but through all stages of his development. Two things are necessary: the development of individuality and the participation of the individual in a truly social life. This development and this participation in social activities will take different forms in the various periods of childhood. But one principle will remain unchanged during all these stages: the child must be furnished at all times with the means necessary for him to act and gain experience. (Ibid, pg 56, this taken from a 1937 speech at the Sixth International Montessori Congress).

Schooling does the exact opposite of what she describes an education should be. It takes the individuality away from the child, in favor of a common set academic goals, and schools take children out of social life. Children are not permitted to speak to each other throughout most of the school day!

Difference of Montessori Education

In a fully implemented Montessori school, children are working in community constantly. Whether they are cooking, gardening, running a microeconomy together, or studying a work of literature in community. The adult acts as a mentor and a guide, but not as the child's ruler. The individuality of the child takes an important place in the community. THIS is the fundamental way in which a Montessori school sets a child up for living peacefully in the world. When a person has their needs as an individual met, and they know how to successfully work in community, then the things that have historically caused problems in the world do not emerge. Imagine if all humans were similarly content in their lives? 

As Dr. Montessori once said, "Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” (Ibid, pg 24, this taken from a 1936 address before the European Congress for Peace).