Peace Education

Some Montessori companies have begun putting out a "curriculum" on peace education.

AMI does not have a specifically "Peace Education" album or specific presentations.

If the Montessori method is being fully implemented, there are rare needs for needing anything "extra" to obtain a peacable environment where children are learning conflict resolution skills naturally and deeply; however, we cannot always have the perfect Montessori environment.

Some thoughts to consider for the elementary level:
(hint: you want a "yes" answer)

Are you

• focusing on cosmic education?
• all past, present and future?
• human contributions from our ancestors - gifts to be used and passed down to subsequent generations?
• are the children doing lots of hands-on work of their own choosing and interest?
• going deep with their interests?
• getting out into the community, building connections, sharing resources?
• providing the children with natural interactions when in a conflict (more like what they will experience as adults)?
• do the materials and the human/plant/animal interactions meet the children's internal needs?
• have they learned empathy naturally (without forced empty apologies)?
• have they been learning responsibility when harm is done (caring for a person they've hurt)?

If so, then a peace education album is not necessary. 

If any of the answers are no, pick up an elementary theory album and the introductions to ALL subject areas. You might be surprised what treasures await!

Some thoughts for the primary level:

• Are grace and courtesy lessons/skits happening routinely? 
• Is the adult engaging in conversations with the children? 
• Are we exploring other cultures through the continent/culture folders? 
• Are we telling stories, having the children tell stories, reading a variety of books from various styles and resources? 
• Are the exercises of practical life including exposure to a variety of cultures through each area of EPL - including art, care of the environment, care of self, control of movement, preliminary activities? 
• Is walking on the line happening daily? All stages over time? ALL stages? Barefoot on a textured line where the children can move blindfolded and still find their way around safely and peacefully? 
• Is the silence activity happening routinely as the children are coming to a state of normalization? 
• Is there joy in the work done by the children? Are they exploring themselves or being led by the adult? Are they writing their own ideas with the movable alphabet, creating their own math problems, gaining art skills without pre-planned full-class craft projects? 

If not, go back to the theory album - go back to the foundation of each subject and get those children creating! :) 

Another Montessori Nugget on Peace Education in Montessori

Montessori and Independent Learning

Montessori is not independent learning. 

Independent learning and independent activities can be developed, even in "Montessori-style", but it is not Montessori.

These things are good - and can be wonderful - and can certainly be utilized in proper balance in a Montessori environment. But let's call them what they are: independent learning activities.


Montessori is independent, co-dependent, community, self, the world, the universe: it is SO much bigger than "independent learning activities."

Let's put Montessori into a properly sized box, shall we ;)


Montessori is cosmic education. 




Read this article from For Small Hands on Cosmic Education for another insight.

Cosmic Education is heaviest at the elementary level, but begins in infancy and pre-birth when we begin to prepare for the child's environment and life.

It continues throughout life, if we are going to support life. Life that is interconnected, interwoven - cosmic.

Education in historical context

          Why haven’t others recognized what Dr. Montessori observed in children? Why hadn’t anyone before 1907 observed what she had in children? 

Others had indeed reached similar conclusions: Aristotle said, 

“Education should be based scientifically on the observation of human nature.” 

Quintilian (a Roman rhetorician) said, 

“Children have a natural capacity to contribute to their own development if they have reasonably good guides and a healthy home environment.” 

Some ideas regarding assistance of children’s development in the ways that Dr. Montessori put forth had been around for many centuries, but had also been lost sight of. One sees this loss in particular as the result of the industrial revolution which introduced compulsory mass education. One concern: what age to begin formal schooling had a solution which varied from country to country based on when that particular culture considered the child ready to begin schooling; it could begin at 5, 6, or 7, depending on where they lived. Their determination for readiness? When they could sit still and listen. Mass education developed the concept of age division to be “fair to everyone” – one-room schoolhouses in rural areas were the exception to this. To take matters a step further, it was determined that certain amounts of information should be given at one time – doses of each subject at specific times of the day, developing into the concept of blocks of subjects. This negated attention spans and developing interests as well as connections between subjects (this has been argued, but not well enough!). The schedule, rather than the needs of the child, determined the day. 

At-home tutors, for centuries, have been doing what Dr. Montessori “discovered” only in the 20^th century: building those connections, allowing for Goings Out, hands-on exploration, instruction suited to the individual needs of the child.

          Something else was introduced into the schools: rewards and punishments, used to entice/coerce children to sit still and pay attention. Originally, recess was not as a break from the school day, but as a technique to tire out the bodies so children could sit and listen again in the afternoon, supposedly to take in more information. In neither case was physical movement associated with learning in combination (as in our Montessori settings). 

The child was lost sight of with each new development of compulsory education, setting up a conflict between what the adult set in place to run the day efficiently and the needs of the child. (Check out children on the playground - community building, own interests, etc). The adult set out the schedule and criteria for success, dosing out the information and the child is expected to passively receive it.

          Dr. Montessori was (and many of us have been), a product of that form of education. But she thought that something different had to be possible and when she had the opportunity to set up the first casa dei bambini, she set it up in a very different way.