| Volume 25 Number 3
Summer 2000
N ·A· M • T ·:A
J 0 u
Margaret E. Stephenson:
Following the Child
across the Planes of… |
| WHAT Is NAMTA?
The North American Montessori Teachers' Association
provides a medium of study, interpretation, and im-… |
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THENAMTAJOURNAL
VoL. 25, No. 3 • SUMMER 2000
MARGARET E. STEPHENSON:
FOLLOWING THE CHILD ACROSS THE
PLANES… |
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I
NAMTA is grateful to Renilde Montessori an1 the
Association Montessori Internationale for permissio•n to… |
| MARGARET E. STEPHENSON:
FOLLOWING THE CHILD ACROSS THE
PLANES OF DEVELOPMENT
MARGARET E. STEPHENSON:
FOLLOWING TH£ CHILD… |
| MARGARET E. STEPHENSON:
FOLLOWING THE CHILD ACROSS THE
PLANES OF DEVELOPMENT
by David Kahn
Margaret E. Stephenson's… |
| Montessori Institute of Milwaukee. Miss Stephenson now lives in
England, where she is an AMI lecturer, examiner, and trainer… |
| collaboration with his mother in their conceptualization of Cosmic
Education. Miss Stephenson's devotion to the broader… |
| Mario M. Montessori, late 1960s
1957 Advanced (Elementary) Course, London.
Mario Montessori is fourth from left in front row… |
| THE HUMAN TENDENCIES
by Margaret E. Stephenson
At Dr. Montessori's last public lecture she disclaimed the atten-
tion… |
| If we can find evidence in our
study that there is a power in man
which makes it possible for him
to overcome all obstacles… |
| consider what there is in man which has forced him to make the
conquest of independence so vital a part of his human… |
| record of the life of the child in societies without writing. But we know
that some must have grown to maturity; otherwise we… |
| A man whose mind is stored with the knowledge of the
great and fundamental truths of nature and of the laws of
her operations… |
| varies from stage to stage because of the way a child learns at each
period of his growth and development. The adult, instead… |
| of the Via dei Marsi were not superman. Perhaps we need to keep on
reminding ourselves of the fact that these children were… |
| comes into our ken. To marvel at what man has done in the past will
allow for the marvel that is the child now and his gift to… |
| the species man. Proof of the fact that man, by some means or other, was
able to feed his hungry body is the realization that… |
| the mind, incarnated in a way which would allow man to go out and
come back without getting lost in the process.
The tendency… |
| help the legs brought about the exploration of whatever ways man
could use to move about and thereby extend the field of his… |
| tool, a better shelter than the hole in the cave inhabited by the wild
beast. The tendency to imagine and the tendency to… |
| he first appeared if he was to continue his existence and work. Activity
of the hands-work-is
still a tendency of man which… |
| characteristics with the plants and others with the animals, and some
are his own, uniquely. We need, therefore, a deep… |
| operation, the exploration by sentiment for the development of the
spiritual territory, the exploration by the senses for the… |
| But as well as this material territory to be exposed to the child, with
the ways in which man has come into contact with other… |
| materials and took their spiritual territory with them to the countries
they visited for materials. Where these visitors went… |
| were met, we arouse a collaboration of the spirit of the child, without
which all our endeavors in education will come to… |
| The NAMTA Joumal
23 |
| Margaret E. Stephenson's trainer,
Mother Isabel Eugenie, r. a., 1971
24
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 25, No. 3 • Summer 2000 |
| THE FIRST PLANE OF DEVELOPMENT
by Margaret E. Stephenson
One of the more significant principles of Dr. Montessori was her… |
| his time, place and culture." 1 Within all life the germinal cell is
endowed with a plan to bring the particular life… |
| middle, and an end, a sequence, a classification, an organization. We
still do that kind of thing when we find ourselves in an… |
| characteristic tendencies of the child as he appears in our midst. And
if it was these human tendencies that made it possible… |
| given special gifts as he had a unique part to play in the drama of life.
Those special gifts were intellect and love, reason… |
| In the first three years of life the tendencies for exploration,
orientation, order, and communication are exercised on his… |
| the adult, whether parent or teacher. Non-recognition of the power of
this great gift to human beings has led, inexorably, to… |
| Because, even with all the glory and the grandeur of those furnish-
ings, the world would have been an unfilled promise, this… |
| us, which has very little grace and courtesy? We hear a great deal about
love-which mostly means the fluffy kind exemplified… |
| ing led to the development oflanguages. In order, therefore, to have the
world present to the child in his prepared… |
| There is another aspect of the world that also must be included in
the prepared environment of the Casadei Bambini. The coming… |
| • to recognize and understand the Sensitive Periods as those
transient times during which the child tends towards a certain… |
| Montessori will never grow and develop as fully as it could until
teachers are convinced that, because Montessori is to do… |
| In Education and Peace, Dr. Montessori has said:
The simple treasure of Man, the raw material that promises
to yield Man… |
| The NAMTA Journal
39 |
| Margaret E. Stephenson, circa 1970
40
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 25, No. 3 • Summer 2000 |
| PLAN WHICH WILL BEST PRODUCE THE
RESULTS MONTESSORI CAN GIVE
by Margaret E. Stephenson
The Montessori class should begin… |
| There is, then, a unity
within the school, a real
atmosphere of community
work, a chance of real
social life, where each… |
| napkins folded in different ways, plates, cups and saucers or glasses
and paper cups, even if the meal is only to consist of… |
| Richard and Karin Salzmann, founders of
Washington Montessori Institute, circa 1970
•
., •• ·.'.ac~:,,. ~c.;;;;;,;. :4… |
| REMINISCENCES AND THOUGHTS
ABOUT MONTESSORI DAY CARE
by Margaret E. Stephenson
I'd like to start off by saying that I… |
| formally (I hate to use the word formally, but I think perhaps it
expresses what I mean) within the Montessori classroom, more… |
| the morning, we had to dear the work
area and then move tables together so
that four or six children could be at a
table.… |
| dark about 4:00, it was not possible to play outside. Under wartime
conditions, there were no lights outside. During this time… |
| an environment where the social amenities are not the same as those
we set up in the school or day care situation, we must be… |
| activities, so much the better. They could go off together to buy the
~vening paper, or walk the dog, etc. If children see… |
| The NAMTA Journal
51 |
| Cleveland Elementary Course, directed by Miss Stephenson, 1988
Miss Stephenson and trainers Kay Baker and Peter Gebhardt-… |
| COSMIC EDUCATION
by Margaret E. Stephenson
Cosmic Education is, in a way, what we have been leading up to
all these days,… |
| impulse towards work." 1 She had noticed that impulse in the work of
that first group of children she was asked to… |
| the interrelation between the things that he's already noticed and
absorbed. He is able to grasp this interrelationship… |
| explores the whys and the wherefores of the universe, using the keys
given with the elementary environment and employing his… |
| chosen by adults are wrong. Moreover, these centers of interest are
superfluous, for the child is interested in everything. Do… |
| We have to be careful that we recognize
that Cosmic Education is not a scheme
in which education is divided into
subjects of… |
| child. He is insatiable for knowledge; he has a hungry mind. If he is
impeded in his research, we create unrest and rebellion… |
| to be careful that we are not doing the same thing under the guise of
Cosmic Education. That is the difficult thing to do,… |