| N·A·M·T·A
J 0
Montessori
Spiritual: God,
Evolution, and the
Natural World |
| WHArlsNAMTA?
The No11h American Montessori Teachers' Association
provides a medium of study, interpretation, and im-… |
| THE NAMTA JOURNAL
VoL 27, No. 3 • SUMMER 2002
MONTESSORI SPIRITUAL:
Goo, EvoLUTION,
AND THE NATURAL WORLD
In afliliation… |
| MONTESSORI SPIRITUAL:
Goo, EVOLUTION, AND THE NATURAL WORLD
MONTESSORI SPIRITUAL: Goo, EvoLUTION, AND THE NATURAL WORLD… |
| MONTESSORI SPIRITUAL: Goo, EvoLUTION,
AND THE NATURAL WORLD
by David Kahn
It is sometimes difficult to characterize the… |
| ics, philosophy, etc. This process of exploring time and space is
certainly different from worship.
Mitchell Thomashow, as he… |
| Work for Csikszentrnihay Ii is not too far from Maria Montessori' s
notion of cosmic task. He writes:
When a person… |
| education. I would add that there may actually bea fusion
between this question and the question of the origin of self
as… |
| The NAMTA Journal
5 |
| Sofia Cavalletti
6
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 27, No. 3 • Summer 2002 |
| LITURGY IN THE CosMic PLAN OF Goo
by Sofia Cavalletti
Sofia Cavalletti's conviction that the greatest realities are… |
| Creation was waiting for human crea-
tures, for their capacity to enjoy and
work in the world in order to trans-
form it and… |
| Creation was waiting for human creatures, for their capacity to
enjoy and work in the world in order to transform it and… |
| world needs someone to bring it to fulfillment. This someone has to be
the human creature, who, while physiologically… |
| becomes part of Jesus, and Jesus "is God's." Thus, worship which the
human creature performs in Christ… |
| 12
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 27, No. 3 • Summer 2002 |
| THE Goo Wtto HAs No HANDS-PART I
by Peter Gebhardt-Seele
The "cosmic tale" of God Who Has No Hands is put… |
| TttEPROLOGUEOFTHESTORY
That story is meant to be the grand overture to all of cosmic
education, and it is told to the six-… |
| sea which is always astir, ... [the] trees, the flowers, and the
scent they shed around them? ...
Yes, that is how it seems… |
| erything in the beginning, but he or she directs every particle's behav-
ior at any moment in time. This directing is… |
| OTHER WORLD MODELS
Let's see what models we find. There are creation myths, like the
turtle that carries the world on… |
| with a creator helplessly standing by, not being able to change events,
would he have stepped up against Goliath? No. Even… |
| Goliath. We might recognize God's intention to do away with this
monster, but in our world model there is no option for… |
| How can a free personal being coexist with the law of nature?
That's the pivotal little question we have here. Is it not… |
| in nature itself. Maybe our everyday experience of nature has led us to
conceive of a model which is just a window. Partially… |
| So there is no logical contradiction in describing the law upon
which all matter is based as the free will of God. So far we… |
| where trains run at random would not be very helpful. That does not
mean that once in a while there could not be an extra… |
| p ART II: FURTHER IMPLICATIONS
1. MORE DETAILS
Maria Montessori on the Universal l11tellige11ce
In the text of the story of… |
| 2. PHYSICAL SCIENCE AS A POSTERIORI (EMPIRICAL) KNOWLEDGE IN
TERMS Of IMMANUEL
KANT
Physical science provides what Immanuel… |
| It is important to recognize that the hypothesis of absolute consis-
tency in nature is an assumption that can be verified… |
| The human being as an important end in the cosmos is introduced
in another Great Story, "The Coming of the Human… |
| model recognizes the development toward goals, toward harmony
and beauty. Such a model must sassume a guiding intelligence.… |
| to the human beings, "I have spread thick covers so that your feet can
walk on soft ground, I have put flowers in my… |
| life is extinguished, there will always be minor life forms that will
survive. The roaches have survived several such… |
| The Lord is in charge; He is the All-Mighty. That is understood as
to say, He acts in nature, the particles obey Him, He does… |
| 32
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 27, No. 3 • Summer 2002 |
| Goo WHo HAs No HANDS
by Mario M. Montessori
Sometimes referred to as the "Story of the Universe," "… |
| 11 And where is He?"
"He is in Heaven and on this earth. He is everywhere."
"What can He… |
| And really it does seem impossible. We who have hands could not
do these things, so how could someone who has no hands do them… |
| stars: as hot, you might say, as a blazing furnace from which no heat
can escape. In this measureless void of cold and… |
| might think too tiny to matter, was bound to behave according to the
rules He had made. For the drop of the blazing cloud… |
| will take up more room than the particles of a solid. And to the gases
God said: Your particles shall not cling together at… |
| When you throw a stone into a pond it sinks to the bottom. Similarly
the heavier liquids sank towards the centre of the earth… |
| Here they grew hot and light again, light enough to rise up once
more, carrying with them part of the heat from below, which… |
| The NAMTA Joumal
41 |
| l f t /
\ ' I /
:---" \
Figure 1.
42
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 27, No. 3 • Summer 2002 |
| Goo's CosMic PLAN
AND THE WORK OF THE CHILD
by Carol Cannon Dittberner
Integrating the broad vision of cosmic education… |
| We use the term cosmic education to refer to an education
which is an effective preparation of the new generations to… |
| all connected. And so we want to look at the unity of the whole and
foster in the child that sense of the unity and the cosmos… |
| represents human work and the development of the intellect. We ask
the question that has been asked throughout time, "… |
| have little vials of perfume because of our need to decorate ourselves.
We have different seeds. We have pictures of animals… |
| species, all of these things are affecting them. They are important to the
children. And we also say to the children when we… |
| child said, "Well, I think the people in Kosovo and Croatia need the
light to stop fighting. And other people need… |
| universe? The "Plan of God" material, which is introduced in Elemen-
tary II and used for three years,… |
| things that are in heaven and on earth (Ephesians 1:10). And every
creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in… |
| There are different ways to look at cosmic education and at the
cosmic vision. One that Montessori talks about is how we… |
| Figure 4 was done in the Atrium
as a get well card for one of the
children who had a broken arm.
This is a six-and-a-half-… |
| ,--------------------------------~
---
Figure 7 is a picture again of the
cosmic cross. This child shows herself
in this… |
| Figure 10.
Figure 11.
Figure 10 is done by a five-
year-old child who never had
the presentations of the cosmic
cross, and… |
| REFERENCES
Cavalletti, Sofia. II potenziale religioso tra i 6 e i 12 anni. Trans.
Rebekah Rojcewicz. Rome: Citta Nuova… |
| The NAMTA Journal
57 |
| 58
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 27, No. 3 • Summer 2002 |
| JOURNEYING WITH CHILDREN
TowARD Goo
by Rebekah Rojcewicz
Rebekah Rojcewicz' s short summanJ of the Ca techesis of the… |
| Where do such deep responses come from in children? What
triggers them? What do they tell us about the religious nature of… |
| Two MYSTERIES
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd has been called" the meeting
ground of two mysteries: the mystery… |
| In 1954, Sofia Cavalletti began a quest to understand the nature of
the child's relationship with God, and to discover… |
| most striking aspect of this drawing for me are the faces of the shepherd
and the sheep around his neck. They have matching… |
| THE ATRIUM
And so we prepare a space, the atrium, where these great truths
can be proclaimed and these mysteries explored. It… |
| Jesus invites us to comprehend the depth and intimacy of his relation-
ship with us, the providential love and care of the… |
| Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
HOWARD GARDNER
MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYJ
WILLIAM DAMON
GOOD
WORK
When Excellence
and
Ethics
Meet… |
| THE Gooo WORK
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Csikszentmihaly incisively defines soul "as a person… |
| a big mistake on his part and felt guilty for having influenced genera-
tions of parents and teachers by neglecting this… |
| crystal, the energy is simply spent to keep itself from dissolving into
its particles. But when you talk about a living… |
| trying to develop autonomous individuals who were self-sufficient,
who knew how to fend for themselves and how to survive and… |