| Vol. 22, No. 1 Winter 1997
Pathways to Maturity:
Fulfilling the Montessori Vision
F.clltorial: Pathways to Maturity
by… |
| WHAT Is NAMTA?
The North American Montessori Teachers' Associa-
tion provides a medium of study, interpretation, and… |
| THE NAMTA JOURNAL
VoL. 22, No. 1 • WINTER 1997
p ATHWAYS TO MATURITY:
FULFILLING THE MONTESSORI VISION
e
In affiLiation… |
| PATHWAYS TO MATURITY:
FULFILLING THE MONTESSORI VISION
---10
EDITORIAL: PATHWAYS TO MATURITY… |
| EDITORIAL:
p ATHWAYS TO MATURITY
by David Kahn
As the new year is underway and we approach the twenty-first
century with… |
| In order to support an Erdkinder, however, the intellectual
foundations must be fully established at the elementary level.… |
| America were developed to imitate the solidity of traditional schools.
Although they included multi-age groups, prepared… |
| unified vision will need to be explicitly defined, after Erdkinder is
explored and after schools determine how they can expand… |
| The NAMTA Joumal
5 |
| Larry Schaefer
6
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 22, No. I • Winter 1997 |
| To DANCE WITH THE ADOLESCENT
by Larry Schaefer
Dr. Schaefer's vivid metaphor of the dance unites his vision of… |
| something or get some assistance in a store, I am reminded of this. It
seems that adults think that if teenagers are in a… |
| first, that I couldn't dance and appeared to be devoid of any sense of
rhythm; second, that I was totally inept at… |
| dancer. Finally, dancing is a partnership that can inspire, elevate
expectations, and move the partners to venture out in new… |
| with adolescents-mistakes
that bring out their worst behavior-
and it raises the question of how adults can metaphysically… |
| This is the first part of the dance partnership,the proper relation-
ship between the adult-in-formation and the adult-who-… |
| What happens when this is done? The true adolescent appears:
• the adolescent respectful of peers and adults;
• the… |
| EVALUATING EXPERIENCES IN
ADOLESCENT PROGRAMS
by Peter Gebhardt-Seele
Dr. Gebhardt-Seele asserts that the development of… |
| When Maria Montessori set up her first class environment in San
Lorenzo in 1907, there were many educational scholars who… |
| A most striking account of Maria Montessori's willingness to
observe without prejudice is the episode of the child… |
| Development" 1 and more detail in From Childhood to Adolescence
(French first edition 1948).
What were the… |
| It is remarkable that, even without a clear formulation of the
different planes of development, an elementary school model… |
| We may summarize
this list by speaking of
the harmonizing of the
child's personality. Any
With the Erdkinder model we… |
| Key experiences: farming; farm experiences for a limited number
of days or weeks; community service; economic activities; ap… |
| The NAMTA Journal
21 |
| 22
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 22, No. 1 • Wimer 1997 |
| UNIFYING THE URBAN CONTRIBUTION:
MOVING TOWARD ERDKINDER
by David Kahn
This article suggests that the Erdkinder is a… |
| appendices of the book From Childhood to Adolescence: Appendix A,
"Erdkinder," and Appendix B, "… |
| human intellect" (p. 92)-that is to say, the Great Lessons. The
experience of social life in the second plane, then,… |
| human functioning. The goal is adaptation-preparing
the adoles-
cent not for a particular task or post, but to be able to… |
| Figure 1. Practical Considerations (from "Study and Work Plans,• pp. 119-121)
Museum of Machines
Shop of Produce and… |
| school operation as a whole, maintained by a young family. Thus the
Erdkinder is teeming with so many opportunities for work… |
| Figure 3. Store Occupations
Envisioning the Store
Finances (bookkeeping, budget, etc.)
Inventory and Suppliers
Display of… |
| Figure 5. Organic Gardening Occupations
Envisioning and Planning the Garden
Agricultural Craft
Time Employment
Market… |
| history, now become lived needs applied to a subsistence way of life.
The adolescent learns through real experience just how… |
| Interestingly enough, Dewey speaks directly to an interdiscipli-
nary approach built upon practical activities, exhibited here… |
| Can you imagine the prepared classroom environment (see fig-
ure 6) emerging from the businesses of the Erdkinder? Book nooks… |
| considerations" are a reflection of the practical life exercises at the 3-
6 level). History is certainly the hub of… |
| sight into self and others, and a high degree of personal integrity
necessitated by the rigors and high expectations as the… |
| the modes of self-expression. For example, John McNamara's inte-
grated use of the computer for science, writing, and… |
| ship between its content and form and the flow of their experience.
It becomes no longer an assignment that everyone does in… |
| which represents the theme of human unity emphasized throughout
Montessori's writings, and actually lived out on the farm… |
| REFERENCES
Dewey, J. (1956). The school and society (Combined edition with
The child and the curriculum). Chicago: U of… |
| COSMIC EDUCATION AT THE ELEMENTARY
LEVEL AND THE ROLE OF THE MATERIALS
by Carnillo Grazzini
The first section of Mr.… |
| misleading if it leads someone to believe that cosmic education also
applies, or can apply, to other planes of development-… |
| COSMIC EDUCATION IN THE FORM OF A CONCRETE IMAGE
I think that everyone, during the course of their lives, has
experienced at… |
| • "God Who Has No Hands"-the story of the creation of the
universe, etc., and, therefore, the greatest… |
| For language: a large chart for the story of "The Ox and the
House," the material in relation to the grammar… |
| materials and equipment which are, or ought to be, found in any
Montessori elementary environment.
Each group representative… |
| is try or physics, and you cannot study life without its environ-
ment, which brings us to geography. But then again, you… |
| For the second quote, we find: "The child's intelligence ... a fertile
field in which seeds may be sown"… |
| With the addition of Dr. Montessori's words, the room was
complete-transformed
into a model of an all-embracing environ… |
| self-evident and emotionally satisfying, and the child is never left
wondering, "What is the point of all this?&… |
| touched, the exploration is also an emotional one, and there arises that
strong sentiment to God and Man. When these young… |
| is, or can be, referred to the whole; where the whole is a set of ordered
parts;and,finally,… |
| This cosmic fable begins something like this:
I know of a marvelous nation, a marvelous country where the
inhabitants are… |
| Chart2
THE GREAT RIUER
J t,
Of course the chart of "The Great River" is only an impres-
sionistic aid and… |
| "IN Mv SERVICE Is PERFECT FREEDOM!"
Some advanced Montessori training courses do not include the
sixth… |
| the Italian fascist experience was well and truly finished, and fascism
had been definitively defeated five years earlier.
In… |
| answers or ideological solutions to the problems facing humanity.
Furthermore, on the personal level, Montessori had no reason… |
| Each individual, each
one of us, has a body made
up of billions of cells (50
thousand billion, to be ex-
act) and, from the… |
| The first is like a river which carries substances to all parts
of the body. But it acts also as a collector. In fact, the… |
| beings, the exploration of this aspect of human society, we usually
identify as economic geography in our courses.
Montessori… |
| In this lecture, Montessori explores at great length her idea of the
"union among the peoples," "… |
| ... all those achievements ... which have benefited humanity,
are due to the work of men who often struggled in obscurity
and… |
| profound existence of these bonds of interdependence and social
solidarity between the peoples of the whole world."… |
| of human interdependence and the building of human solidarity:
This is cosmic education.
And in all of this, "The… |
| ..
••
•·
Australian baobab
64
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 22, No. 1 • Winter 1997 |
| THE TELLING OF THE STORY
by Audrey Sillick
Evoking storytelling as a human tendency, Audrey Sillick suggests that the
story… |
| dreams as our private myths. Their meanings transcend the bound-
aries of language, of custom, of time, which makes the… |
| moccasins of the other or to express it authentically without the real
temptation to "sanitize" it to fit… |
| generations, and the spirit of a place reflected the spirit of the people
who inhabited it. Displacement is also the tragedy… |
| the story place over and over, much like a favorite walk that follows the
same route but yields something new and different… |
| WHEN IT COMES TO BUGS
I like crawlers,
I like creepers,
hoppers, jumpers,
fliers, lea pers,
walkers, stalkers,
chirpers,… |
| ments of animals or the wind in the trees, or to express feelings, they
are given the opportunity to explore alternate… |
| There can be little doubt that engaging the listening ear with a
story transports the listener to another level of… |
| when crafted well are memorable experiences. I was privileged to be
at the last live performance of Chief Dan George telling… |
| memory. Over the centuries, they roamed sea and land and learned
them well; their history was encoded in stories and chants,… |
| Life, they say, is a great circle, beginning with Creation and
ending, not with death, but with a return to Creation itself.… |
| Someone has said that the Great
Spirit made humans because He/
She loves stories.
every moment, be treated with
proper… |
| implementing new ways of educating our children today, informed
by a different view of teaching and learning, of the kind that… |
| also chanted throughout the dances. Their dress, representing each
of these animals, had taken years to make, and the sense… |
| story told by an Inuit woman to ethnologist Rasmussen early in
this century:
In the very earliest time
when both people and… |