There is a chapter in Maria Montessori’s Book To Educate The Human Potential, called “The Six Year Old Confronted with The Cosmic Plan”. This is where she lays out her vision of Cosmic Education: beginning with the biiiiiiig picture (the Big Bang and the whole universe) and then filling in details over time. The idea is to plant as many “seeds” as possible, understanding that not all of them will grow and bear fruit, but they will all be there, waiting.
I think this is such a powerful idea about education. We shouldn’t stick with the little, easy to grasp ideas, but start exposing children to the big, grand, wondrous ideas of life and human culture. To that end, on Friday, I read the children a beautiful little book called Infinity and Me. Then, I asked them what questions they have about infinity. Here are some of their questions:
Does it really go on forever?
Does it stop at the end of the galaxy?
Why is it called infinity?
How many animals are in the wild? Is that infinity?
When Buzz Lightyear says “To Infinity and Beyond,” it makes me think, is there a second infinity? Is there anything beyond infinity?
Is infinity a circle?
Is infinity a color?
What beautiful questions! And insightful ones. Georg Cantor also wondered whether there was anything beyond infinity. (Answer: yes). Some might complain that not all of these questions are mathematical, but who cares? This is Cosmic Education; there is no reason to arbitrarily divide one subject from another. If, at some point, I think it’s important that the children be able to recognize mathematical ways of thinking, we will take this list of questions and together divide it into mathematical and non-mathematical questions.
Some of these questions I can answer right now, i.e. does it really go on for ever? Some I’ll be able to help them answer later, i.e. is there anything beyond infinity? And some are poetic questions that they will only be able to answer for themselves. Does infinity have a color? I have no idea.
I bring up this story in part to share something beautifully cosmic, but also to continue the post I wrote last week about children not coming to lessons. Lessons can be this simple. Sometimes, they involve no direct teaching at all. I read a book with the children, and then I asked them for their questions. It didn’t look like much, but in this conversation, but I’ve planted the seed of infinity in their minds, and I’ve let them know that their own questions about infinity have value. I’ve given them permission to ask.
If you are having trouble getting your child to sit down for lessons, ditch the materials for a while. Read, explore, wonder, and ask questions together. When the questions are ripe, the right material will be just the thing to help answer it. Part of leading from wisdom is surrendering yourself to wonder.
I’ll leave you with a thought from Maria Montessori herself:
“The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core.” —To Educate The Human Potential, Chapter 2
Please share what you and your children wonder about!