Reply To: Montessori Cosmic Education and the Planes of Development

[Terri MacKenzie]

Concerning when to begin fostering if not facts about evolution, perhaps more importantly, the sense of cosmic awe and perspective: I quote from Madeleine L’Engle. (The entire piece concerns her understanding of God.):
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“One time, when I was little more than a baby, I was taken to visit my grandmother, who was living in a cottage on a nearly uninhabited stretch of beach in northern Florida. All I remember of this visit is being picked up from my crib in what seemed the middle of the night and carried from my bedroom and out of doors, where I had my first look at the stars . . .
The night sky, the constant rolling of breakers against the shore, the stupendous light of the stars, all made an indelible impression on me. I was intuitively aware not only of a beauty I had never seen before but also that the world was far greater than the protected limits of the small child’s world . . . I had a total, if not very conscious, moment of revelation; I saw creation bursting the bounds of daily restriction, and stretching out from dimension to dimension, beyond any human comprehension.
. . .
This early experience was freeing, rather than daunting, and since it was the first, it has been the foundation for all other such glimpses of glory.”
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Perhaps Madeleine was exceptional in her reaction to that experience — or perhaps that experience helped her to become exceptional.