| THE
Vol. 16, No. 3 Summer 1991
In this issue-
Montessori:
The Unfolding Dimension
Experiment for the Experiment
by David… |
| (i)
WHAT IS NAMTA?
The North American Monressori Teachers' Associa-
tion provides a medium of study, interpretation,… |
| THE NAMTAJOURNAL
e
V0L16 No. 3 • SUMMER 1991
MONI'F.SSORI: THE
UNFOIDING DIMENSION
In affiliation with A5wciation… |
| MON1F.SSORI: THE
UNFOIDING DIMENSION
THE EXPERIMENT FOR THE EXPERIMENT
by David Kahn… |
| THE ExPERIMENT FOR THE ExPERIMENT
by David Kahn
From the dual perspective of Montessori educator and father of two chilaren… |
| strides they had touched che outer limits of che universe, they painted their
timdines, collected fossils and rocks of… |
| necessary for real-world functioning-but note chat it is a description of
personality and not curriculum content.
For success… |
| emerged? Indeed, maybe all that tuition and hard commitment to Montessori
revealed its manifest destiny. He spoke again. &… |
| through a developmental, philosophical program that helps the adolescent
make a smooth transition into the world of adult… |
| projects of action they recogniu as their own ( The Diakaic of Frttdmn,
1988, p.12).
Like the highly formative· early… |
| ture vs. interest, spontaneous activity vs. prepared environment. Many times
the practitioner will regard these issues as… |
| We could cooperatively establish a curriculum using as a guide the student's
goals, interests, and needs. Coming out of a… |
| professionals. That naturally implies that essential questions must also derive
from the student: the best questioru in my… |
| prepare the adolescent by continuing the Montessori emphasis on the inte-
grated process of personality and learning based in… |
| programs rely more on conventional textbooks and development of traditional
study habits.
The Ruffing East program had its… |
| Bue I think there were other aspects that affected the good testers as well.
They began co talk about tests, about "… |
| Montessori years that come before-for what is laid out in the middle school
years as we watch our children bec.ome adults is a… |
| elementary child we imparted the universe-for the adolescent, ic is simply a
f.mn.
Bue it is more than a farm. le is a… |
| an even more self-realired and unified personality?
Bue then again, he has rewarded himself by finding screngchs beyond… |
| THE IDFA OF THE ERDKINDER
by Gerry Leonard
Today, more than ever before, there is a tremendous need for the Erdkinder. We… |
| "Man," said Maria Montessori, "is overcome with hatred and does not obey
the laws of nature. Nobler… |
| our codin& (cultural and genetic) is to be found, he says, in revelatory vision-
the dream, intuitive insights, non-… |
| On our outdoor wilderness trips extraordinary transformations take place;
real inner growth happens, and flashes of insight… |
| living within a cultivated ecosystem offers the adolescent a participatory role in
the life cycles and energy systems of… |
| altar for their First Communion. 19
The practical work of learning composting techniques, maintaining and
enhancing the… |
| Footnotes
1. Thomas Berry. (1988). The dream of the earth. Sierra Club, p. 206. See
also: (a) Thomas Berry, "Coming… |
| The biodynamic fann seeks to fanction as a self-sustaining, total organism
comprising humans, plants, animals, water, and… |
| Thomas 1JeTTy
24 The NAMTA Journal - Vo! 16, No. 3 • Summer 1991 |
| AN INTERvIEwWTIH TuoMAS BERRY
In an interview with Gerry Leonard in November 1990, Thomas Berry
discussed his views about the… |
| GL. How best do you see us helping children, especially the adolescents
who are moving towards taking their place in the… |
| ago, predicting the end of an era, a geological era.
TB. She used that term?
GL. Yes
TB. Amazing!
GL. She said it would be… |
| TB. Mose certainly. That goes along with my suggestion chat "the
historical mission of our times is co reinvent the… |
| TB. It's an awakening experience that children have when they are very
young. When you see animals and young humans, they… |
| which is trying to become a self-sustaining community in relationship with the
plants, the animals, the landscape, the humans… |
| difficulties.
Now there is a tendency to do away with tensions by eliminating difference
rather than harmonizing difference… |
| that it's satisfying. One of the difficulties with this and with fu.rms is that we
have never developed a village culture… |
| GL. So is there a place there then for, say, the humanities?
TB. Well, definitely.
GL. You've talked about the face that… |
| GL They will be learning to respect diversity by working with it. You talk
about the role of the human being to celebrate, to… |
| TB. Well, I believe that something can be done and we ought to do it, and
beyond that I am encouraged by the extent co which a… |
| GL. Now, what about traditional spiritual values? We don't have religion
in our schools any more, and it seems chat we… |
| THE CAsE FOR CREATION THEOLOGY
by Peggy Stern
Peggy Stern believes that today more than ever we need to re/,ate our… |
| Like the God of Genesis, creation theology looks at che whole of creation
and sees chat it is good. Traditional Christianity,… |
| A theology which makes redemption its primary theme will have a vested
interest in man's sin and weakness, fur if these… |
| There is a futuristic dimension of man's relation to the rest of the created
universe suggested by both religious and… |
| MO~ORI
AND THE BAHA'f FAITH*
by Barbara Hacker
The life and work of Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952), scientist and… |
| co guide us in our development in each of these areas. It is tremendously
exciting co contemplate this world civilization and… |
| which new, higher, more perfect forms of life appeared, as totally new
conditions of existence on earth came about (Education… |
| conuibuted to her being somewhat ostracized by the scientific and educational
establishment and her being labeled as "… |
| Although externally her life was affected by political forces, within she
remained detached as this statement indicates:
Not… |
| sicy of Rome Medical School. There are many stories of the "petty persecu-
cions" she endured with good… |
| Whilst everyone was admfring my idiots I was searching for the reasons
which rould keep back the healthy and happy children of… |
| motivation and became self-directed learners. They were readily obedient and
respectful of reasonable authority, strongly… |
| process for the spirit of the child. The words of'Abdu'I-Baha come co mind in
this regard:
Therefore must th.e… |
| of President Wilson. Montessori lectured in cities in South America, and, of
course, conducted many courses in India during… |
| &location must be considered as most imponant; for as diseases in the world
of bodies are extremely contagious, so, in… |
| at five years of age has become an intelligent being, must have gone through a
constructive evolution { TIii! Fonnation of Ma,… |
| in face, we call the child'man'" (p. 9). With regard to this concept, Montessori's
grandson, Dr. Mario… |
| this principle in this way will surely make a difference in our world. In The
Promulgation of Universal Peace, 'Abdu… |
| And to the European Congress of Peace in Brussels she said:
Preventing conflicts is the work of politics; establishing peace… |
| promptings of the moral self, that erects obstacles and barriers in the way of
the development of intelligence, that condemns… |
| spiritual basis for education and her uncovering of the prejudices commonly
held about childhood and education orient us in a… |
| References
'Abdu'l-Baha. (1982). The promul,gation of universal peace. Wilmette. Baha'{
Publishing Trust.… |
| ORDER IN CoNSCIOUSNFs.5
by Jim Roberts
As a Montessori primary teacher, Jim Roberts had often observed deep joy in his… |
| seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even
at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing… |
| those striking moments of concentration which had first drawn Dr. Montessori's
attention. Such moments were simply… |
| Unexpectedly, I made an imponant discovery about outdoor advenrures
by observing a group of children create and perform an… |
| usually enhances self-esteem indirectly: the child is not often conscious of a
connection between the work and its effects. I… |
| What a great description of tablewashing! Why have I never said it so
clearly? Yet Csikszentmihalyi is not talking about… |
| the table washing exercise stretch these abilities to the limit. Thus, table
washing and the other exercises of practical life… |
| new point of view, he can easily verify it by observing his own child. As
Csikszentmihalyi points out, "The rapt c.… |
| point was part of my standard spiel for parents-but &om my new perspective,
I discovered again that it is the level of… |
| '-.\110:S.\I
lil~l'-flllK
o F
E\l'EHIE\CE
MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI
68 The NAMTA]ournal- Vol 16, No. 3 •… |
| HAPP~ REvlSITED
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has spmt the last 25 years pursuing an understanding
of… |
| end up feeling that their lives have been wasted, that instead of being filled with
happiness their years were spent in… |
| Our perceptions about our lives are the outcome of many forces chat shape
experience, each having an impact on whether we feel… |
| Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it
could be placing with trembling fingers the lase… |
| In the beginning our data consisted of interviews and questionnaires. To
achieve greater precision we developed with time a… |
| 74 The NAMTA]oumal- Vol. 16, No. 3 • Summer 1991 |
| MORAL EDUCATION:
A CONVERSATION WTIH ARIS'fOil.E
by Steven S. Tigner
The fallowing light-hearted rendition of Aristotle… |
| here only about the part chat goes on in schools. That's partly why I say "to
help cultivate" rather… |
| Maybe, as I came to be more at home in the world, understanding more of
what's really in it and how it works, the dark… |
| animal. Thjs pitiable creature wantonly devours cookies for no reason beyond
blind desire, simply "because they are… |
| times did I find myself in the position of St. Paul, "doing the very thing I
hate,"13 when I was trying co… |
| of my first smokdess year I had lost the urge. And now, to tell you the truth, I
find cigarette smoke positively offensive. I… |
| which we have now come in constructing our scale of character states is thus
concerned with decision or choice respecting both… |
| the strong-willed person fighting his own desires.
BU. You're beginning to sound like your old teacher, Plato.24
\\i•… |
| BU. If so, then it seems co me char a good deal of today's talk about enhancing
"self-esteem" in… |
| Notes
1 Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 1.1, 1094a 1.
2 NE 1.4, 1095a20; 1.8, 1198621.
3 NE II.I, l 103al4.
4 NE. 11.5,… |
| 16 William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator I.I Oanuary I, 1831), 4.
17 N.E. 11.6, 1106b36.
18 N.E. 11.6, 1107a6; cf. III.4, J l… |
| University of California Press, 1980), pp. 395-435.
31 Plato Apology 29e.
32 See, e.g., Plato Protagoras 360d: courage is… |
| PARENTS' PERCEPTIONS:
THE 'TRANSITION OF PuBuc ScHOOL
MONIESSORI STIJDENIS IN10
TRADmoNAL MIDDLE ScHoors
by… |
| is part of the Milwaukee Public School system, and has been a Montessori
school since 1983. The school has been recognized by… |
| All calls were completed during a one-week period after the students had
been in middle schools for twelve weeks. The answers… |
| with like responses are listed below. The results listed in the left column are
deemed positive and those on the right are… |