@kherman
Active 2 months, 3 weeks agoForum Replies Created
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Regarding your post, Di, I feel the same way. The word tolerance, for me, doesn’t sit well. It feels, as you say, like putting up with something rather than feeling love and appreciation for other people with different experiences and cultures. Acceptance is better, but it still feels a little “off” because I can accept something with resignation rather than welcome it with love and gratitude. Not sure we have a word in our language that really captures the meaning I think all of us are striving to articulate.
Jennifer, regarding your original question, thanks to the inspirational work of Traci and others at Ridge and Valley Charter School, we are teaching our humanities course this year using various cosmic lenses to better understand and perceive human society’s relationship to the patterns and features of the macrocosm. One of those lenses is differentiation, and we introduced this lens during the Indian Removal Act, Civil War, Reconstruction Era period. We began by marveling at the importance of differentiation at the inception of our universe, as captured by the images of cosmic microwave background radiation, which show tiny fluctuations in the density/temperature of space. Those differences were critical to the formation and emergence of stars, galaxies, planets, and ultimately life because they allowed gravity to go to work.
In this sense, we set the context of the value of differentiation in Creation. We then invoke the Eastern perspective of “mutual arising,” which just means that at every scale, we see the feature of on/off systems, of birth/death, light/dark, self/other, and so on. This differentiation, although illusory in the sense that it always constitutes One Whole, nevertheless generates energy and creativity through dynamic tension. Therefore, as it relates to human and particularly American history, we make a grave mistake when we try to assimilate or even eradicate such all-important differences. First of all, such attempts are futile because, as we can see at every scale, differentiation exists, so human society will always be governed by the same principle, and secondly because even if we were successful, such an undifferentiated status would stagnate creativity and the dynamic exchanges of collective learning.
Differentiation, then, as it applies to race, ethnicity, sexuality, political ideology, and so on, is something we should celebrate. I mean, sure, I can’t help but wish that Donald Trump hadn’t been “elected” president. Nevertheless, look at the passion and creativity his embarrassing and inexcusable behavior is stirring up. We would never know what we stood for if there weren’t people standing for something else. This ideological tug-of-war will always exist, and no matter how frustrating, it does in fact produce the very political/ethical tension necessary to create the values and principles that each one of us must then either protect and promote or reject and guard against. Nevertheless, we would do well to keep in mind that we will never eradicate “the other” belief system. Such a goal would be foolhardy because it ignores the immutable law of differentiation and mutual arising that holds at every scale of the universe.
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<p>Jennifer, thank you for serving as the “connective tissue” that joins all of these Great Minds from across so many disciplines together for one Grand Cosmic Conversation. </p><p>It’s hard to say which of the principles is most important to me, firstly because they are all intertwined, and secondly because Deep Time Education affects me differently when I think about it from my own personal edification versus how it enhances the learning experience for my students in a Montessori setting.</p><p>On a personal level, “Passion, Place, and Purpose” is the most profound and potent element of Deep Time Education because it points the way to an enlightenment that can only be achieved when we transcend the ego-self and discover the Higher Self that has been hiding there all along beyond the range of the ego’s myopic vision. </p><p>As a Montessori educator, I absolutely want my students to experience the same kind of transcendence through Deep Time Education, and I believe that many of them will come to see it, but they have to see it for themselves.</p><p>For that reason, as a Montessori educator, I tend to give primacy to “Awe and Wonder” because in the adolescent plane of development, the individual is asking big questions and searching for meaning that is very hard to find in a commercialized culture in which money and status rule or in a traditional high school setting in which the most important thing about one’s education seems to be getting good grades (a goal that for some, no matter how hard they try or how many tutors they have, just won’t happen). </p><p>Thus, since adolescents find themselves disoriented in both school and the society in which they’re about to play a bigger role, they end up feeling the opposite of awe and wonder (which we might call indifference and boredom), and then they get stigmatized as lazy, apathetic, jaded, angsty, you name it. The reality is that they feel awe and wonder quite naturally in this plane of development, but when all they get fed is artificial and bland ingredients (in both school and the larger culture), they lose their appetite pretty quickly. </p><p>Furthermore, I believe that Montessori’s paramount goal of her life’s work was to “reform humanity” and foster a more peaceful world in which all people recognize the interconnectedness of their interests and fates as well as appreciate the full profundity of their power to transform both the physical and the spiritual world for the better (our Cosmic Gift/Task). </p><p>In my mind, that kind of epiphany begins from Awe and Wonder, from the deeply moving experience of feeling oneself part of a larger whole. Once we really appreciate that, not only does warfare appear absurd, but interpersonal violence of all scales and forms (emotional, physical, psychological abuse) appears absurd too.</p><p> What I try to impress upon my students is that we can’t get focused on whether or not the whole world will ever be peaceful. All we can do is make our “local world” (consisting of the people we interact with everyday and all of the choices we make everyday) as kind and helpful and peaceful as we can possibly make it. And if we make our local world a better place, then we have in fact made the world at large a better place because each person’s “local world” makes up the whole of the larger world. </p><p>Then, from this experience of feeling themselves part of a larger whole and realizing that in their own way they can change the awesome and wonderful world in which they are lucky enough to live, the “deeper identity” of the Higher Self hiding in each of them appears well within the range of their newly enhanced vision…and they will see it for themselves. </p>
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Orla,
I found your post very interesting, and I’m hoping you would do me the favor of elaborating on “cartesian culture,” as I think I have an idea of what you mean, but I’d like to understand it deeply since it seems to inform so much of the way we think, function, and learn.
Thanks,
Kyle
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Rich,
I would like to hear more about the “elements of transformation” that you have identified and followed in teaching Big History at the college level. I teach Big History in high school, and I’m very curious to see in what ways our students’ experiences line up. I’m also eager to see some elements of transformation that I haven’t thought of yet so that I can begin to integrate them into my approach to Big History. Any further detail or resources you could provide would be much appreciated. I am interested in hearing some specific examples of our two-way participation in systems across scales (would our contribution to and benefit from society be an example?)
Thanks,
Kyle
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Andrea,
Thank you for sharing such a thorough explication of each plane of development, how one builds on the other, and how an understanding of evolution in a Montessori environment seems quite natural rather than bizarre or foreign.
I really like the idea of the child in 3-6 first experiencing the planet through the sandpaper globe of land and water alone. How powerful that the first impression of the planet is purely physical and not from an anthropocentric perspective!
You mention “quiet times” for adolescents, and I’m wondering if you can elaborate on what this looks like in your experience. How do you present the concept to them? Does everyone have quiet time together, or is it a personal decision rather than a collective activity? What conditions and methods have worked best to support this process?
I am curious because our program has struggled to find a way to make this important reflection time feel autonomous rather than mandated, genuine rather than artificial. At this point, we have abandoned whole group activities and have a space in our commons reserved for independent, quiet reflection. Teens can use this space at any point during the day that they have open work time. It has worked well so far, but it seems to me that everyone should practice going inward, being still in both mind and body, but the people who need to practice it the most don’t choose to do it on their own. I find this conundrum to be quite perplexing, so any insight you could offer would be much appreciated.
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I can’t help but chime in here because it seems to me that the main sticking point is the association of Montessori’s conclusions about human development with popular psychology when the two are in many ways at odds. Jonathan, your “rebel” approach to questioning the validity of all prevailing theories and challenging the rigid notion of One Right Way is actually an approach that served Montessori’s groundbreaking work in education extremely well. But I do think that Michael’s points speak to the ways in which your approach overlaps with Montessori’s. Perhaps it’s really a Socratic issue of defining our terms. What does Montessori mean by “sensation” and “intellect?”
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Montessori argued – contrary to popular opinion then, and in many cases, even now – that children are not empty vessels that progressively become capable of “holding” more and more information as they get older. Rather, she used the cosmic metaphor of a nebula to describe the psychic potentialities of the child. The mind – even in the “unconscious” stage of development – is a nebula with the potential to bring forth concentration, imagination, language, math, morality, and so on. These potentialities exist and need not be “given” or “introduced” to the child; rather, all the child needs is an environment prepared to maximize the plan of Nature.
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One great example that she uses is language – the child does not need instruction in grammar and vocabulary and verb conjugations and tenses and so on in order to begin speaking her native language. Rather, the potential to absorb language from the environment already exists in the mind of the child from birth. In a sense, you can think of that processing of language as intellect, but all of that complex processing actually occurs through the senses first. The child hears language first. The child intuits tone of voice and inflection, feels it and absorbs it first before intellectually understanding it. The auditory experience of language activates the unconscious cognitive processing that we may call “intellect.” So, it’s not that the child has no intellect at first, but rather, the very young child in this “Absorbent Mind” phase is not consciously exercising her intellect. Instead, the child’s initial sensorial exploration of the world forms her innate psychic nebulae into distinct manifestations, such as the utterances of her native language as opposed to any other.
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So, with these definitions of “sense” and “intellect,” we can hopefully better appreciate the divergent perspectives in Montessori developmental psychology and “popular” theories. Jonathan, I agree with Michael that introducing the cosmic language and the cosmic awe at this young age will serve pre-school age children very well, as it (the story, the language, the tone of voice that communicates awe and wonder) all becomes part of the prepared environment that will maximize the Laws of Nature that will guide these young children’s development. They may have a conscious memory of this story, just as Madeline L’Engle retains a conscious impression of the majesty and brilliance of the stars in the night sky. Others may have no conscious memory of it; however, even these children will most certainly have an impression made on their psyche. Even if they can’t remember the point of origin, children who have had the benefit of absorbing awe and wonder from a prepared environment will almost certainly be more sensitive to these types of experiences later…and they will be more inclined to study them deeper in later years, when their intellect has grown even stronger through conscious exercise and thus can further illuminate the realities of what once were only nebulous feelings impressed profoundly in their absorbent minds. -
Betsy,
Thank you for sharing these resources with me. I’m eager to research them and see how they can support our school in our mission to maintain Montessori authenticity. It’s fair to say that I’m frustrated with our school district, but there are no surprises – getting the industrialized model of education to recognize anything other than their one-size-fits-all blueprint will always be difficult work, but my colleagues and I enjoy being Montessori crusaders…to a certain extent.
Perhaps an even more immediate challenge that we face is with Ball State, who holds our charter.
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At this point, it seems that they have lost touch with the Montessori approach to education, and all they want to see are better test scores. Last year, we eked out a short-term renewal of our charter based on a comprehensive plan that our Director and staff put together that attempted to demonstrate all of the unique and authentic ways that we assess student progress and growth. Ball State has already pulled several charters and closed down schools without much notice, so our staff all feels a certain degree of trepidation regarding our future. We have worked so hard to open this school and establish credibility in our community over the last 15 years, and now it all comes down to test scores, or so it seems from our vantage point. So, we find ourselves doing ISTEP practice and Algebra ECA prep instead of working in the garden or painting our tool shed or building a shelter house on our back four acres.
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Yes, I feel frustration, but I also feel somewhat duplicitous in trying to appease Ball State with practices that we know are not ideal. Also, I feel like the Montessori community writ large is reluctant to really throw all of their weight behind the development of more adolescent programs. So many Montessori schools end at elementary school (if they go that far), which leaves the whole third plane of development in traditional education’s hands. I feel that if there were more training programs for this level, more articles being written, more presentations than two or three at conferences, that we could actually establish a presence in middle and high school, which would go a long way toward establishing Montessori credibility at this level; the result of that would be that schools such as ours would have more leeway in demonstrating success outside the narrow and ineffective means of test scores, as we would have so many other schools to point to. As it is, it sometimes feels like we’re on an island, particularly when it comes to our status as a chartered public school.
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I realize I’ve kind of hijacked this thread, but I’ve basically been having this discussion only with my colleagues, and I guess I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to share our challenges with people outside of our community, especially people as experienced and authoritative as you and Mr. Duffy. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I am more grateful than you know. -
How exciting to see this forum making the explicit connection between Big History and Montessori’s Cosmic Curriculum. This is the most important work that needs to be done in Montessori education right now because the philosophy and practice for primary and elementary is well established and fairly consistent, but the same is not true for secondary programs. I agree that in the third plane, the shift toward personal responsibility and action must take place, but it’s important to keep in mind that especially for public Montessori high schools, Big History and Cosmic Education must inform the intellectual development of adolescents as well as their practical experiences in the “supreme reality of social life.”
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I think Montessori educators at this level (and again, most notably in a public school setting) have to remain committed to weaving together the cosmic story with the otherwise disconnected threads of isolated subjects in high school. A typical teenager in high school – even one who has had the benefit of a Montessori education in primary and elementary – can easily become myopic when dealing with the academic demands at this level, losing sight of the cosmic story that so inspired their imaginations in the second plane.
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Despite Montessori’s injunctions to the contrary, academic pressures increase immensely at this age. Many students become primarily concerned with GPAs and SAT scores, getting a high enough grade in Pre-Calculus or Physics, and making sure their transcript can hold its own in the highly competitive arena of college admissions. As educators, we also get swept away in this current, doing our best to prepare our Montessori students for their pursuits after high school.
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To counteract this tendency, and to ensure that Montessori outcomes remain predominant over standardized education’s outcomes, there needs to be a stronger emphasis on Big History and Cosmic Education in every Montessori adolescent training program. The Montessori world needs to be more candid about the reality that public adolescent programs are opening and need much more philosophical guidance in how they reconcile Montessori philosophy and state standards.
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The truth is that these public programs cannot achieve the optimum experience of a private Erdkinder program (optimum only because they are free from the mandates of state standards, but certainly not ideal in their limited socioeconomic demographics). This is not to say that we ought not strive to incorporate the Erdkinder model as much as we possibly can in a public school setting, but rather, it is to say that the academic focus in these programs – which can easily become paramount despite the staff’s best efforts – must be seen through the lens of Cosmic Education. In this way, we can ensure that even if a teenager in high school does not get to experience the valorization engendered by running a farm or building a shed or managing a hotel, they will at least experience the intellectual enlightenment that comes from seeing themselves as an integral part of the cosmos, from being reminded that they are the inheritors of every human accomplishment and innovation that has come before them, and these human accomplishments are represented by and told through the story of every subject they study in high school, from Chemistry to Language Arts, from World History to Anatomy, from Chorus to Algebra II.
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We cannot ignore the fact that our students are being made to earn credits in all of these courses, which takes an extraordinary amount of time and energy during the school day, so we must infuse all of the subjects with the grand cosmic story that holds them together and gives them deep meaning and significance. Secondary Montessori education is the next frontier in our mission to bring Montessori’s vision to fruition, and Big History as an extension of Cosmic Education can help us retain philosophical integrity in any setting, public or private, but it must become a much more prominent component of our training and programming decisions at this level. -
Rich,
I can’t imagine how swamped you must be, so I’ll just tantalize you with an excerpt from Montessori’s “Keys to the World” below. However, if I had to recommend one work of hers to you, it would be To Educate the Human Potential. This is a short book (85 pages), but it is dense, and it explores the philosophy and practice of Cosmic Education as defined and designed by Montessori herself. It was originally published in 1948 – as usual, Montessori was well ahead of her time.
“[Cosmic Education] recognizes in all creation a unifying plan upon which depends not only the different forms of living beings, but also the evolution of the earth itself…This education must take its departure and spread from one center, the cosmic plan of creation…In the universal syllabus of studies to which the new generations must apply themselves, all the items of culture must be connected as different aspects of the knowledge of the world and cosmos. Astronomy, geography, geology, biology, physics, chemistry are but details of one whole. It is their relation to one another that urges interest from a center toward its ramifications.”
I’d be happy to share more resources and information if you find a need or have the time.
Best,
Kyle -
Rich,
I am a teacher in a Montessori high school program, and two years ago, we began the process of integrating Big History into our curriculum. This app that you’re developing could very well be an integral component of how we use Big History next year. Dewey’s philosophy on education as AN Experience sounds very consonant with Montessori’s Cosmic Education philosophy. I assume you’re familiar with her work, but I’d be happy to share more information with you if you like.If you are still seeking out beta testers for your app, I have an i-Phone and would be happy to try it out and give you some feedback. Our summer has just begun, so it’s a great time for me to begin the planning process for next year. I look forward to working with you on this project.
Best,
Kyle -
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I’ve not heard of the Earth Charter before, but from what I see after poking around a bit, it appears as though it would dovetail with Big History’s “unofficial” 9th threshold, Futures. The entire curriculum of Big History leads the student to the present day, in order to appreciate where they came from, how they got here, and what their contribution can be, so as to instill a sense of custodianship of the natural world and seriously grapple with the ecological crises that beleaguer our planet (here is where the paramount objectives of Big History and Cosmic Education fall right in line – think: Cosmic Task). The Earth Charter is something I’ll have to investigate further, but prima facie it seems very well suited for use in the third plane to support Cosmic Education.
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