Peace Be With You

Our Pre School and Kindergarten just commemorated World Peace Day last Thursday. It got me thinking that Montessori curriculum stresses peace and even 100 years after Maria Montessori put her curriculum into practice, this concept is still so relevant and timeless. 

Will we ever have peace? I tend to think we will always live in a world without true peace. If this will continue to be the norm, then I love that the Montessori method provides an exception. Peace begins at home and the classroom becomes an extension of that through the respect provided to the children, each other and the classroom environment. The goal is to have everyone work together as a child develops, so the child progresses.

In a Montessori classroom, children are taught important executive function skills like; how to wait, how to watch, how to interrupt politely, how to take care of their belongings and the classroom, how to plan, and how to solve conflicts peacefully. This focus provides opportunity for perseverance and tolerance.

Last Thursday, as I watched the children sing and sign, "Light a Candle for Peace", I was struck by their excitement and innocence. There is a level of trust that knows no boundaries. It is up to us to stoke that trust, creating a solid foundation that can lead the children to perhaps, a different, better outcome. If the children are our future, then it is up to us to give them the tools to be successful and peacefully prosper toward adulthood.

As Maria Montessori said, “This is education, understood as a help to life; an education from birth, which feeds a peaceful revolution and unites all in a common aim, attracting them as to a single centre. Mothers, fathers, politicians: all must combine in their respect and help for this delicate work of formation, which the little child carries on in the depth of a profound psychological mystery, under the tutelage of an inner guide. This is the bright new hope for mankind.” (The Absorbent Mind, p. 15)

Wishing you all "Peace"-

Kathy :)