The essence of knowledge

When we teach children, it is important to focus their attenion on essentials and to present materials, activities with one difficulty at a time so that the mind can take in what is needed for development. It is not an easy task to simplify, divide in little steps/parts everything what we want to share with children.
Constantin Brancusi,an artist, who possessed the amazing ability of capturing in his works the essential qualities of people and animals. He could isolate the qualities and incorporate them in his work.
Brancusi explained: 'When you see a fish, you do not think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through water ... If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement and hold you by a pattern, or a shape of reality. I want just the flash of its spirit.'


Photo of Fish 1926 Poisson by Constantin Brancusi

Man-made gardens to explore...

A skillfull attempt to express emotions stirred by nature. Magnificent water gardens created by Keiko Mukaide are a place of countless spiritual adventures.

Cot or Cage

I have been showing different pictures during language activity to 4-year-old boy. One of the pictures was a cot. When I asked him what is it, he said:"Cage". Interesting, isn't it? Experiencing the world from behind the bars doesn't seem to me like the best start...

The Age of Stupid

The Age of Stupid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjsJdokC0s

Are we ignorant? Because according to dictionary definition it means: "uninstructed, untaught, uneducated". Does it mean that we know to little about our planet to love it or not enough to protect it?


"As long as the 1940s, Maria Montessori was aware of the social crisis confronting us today. Se described in powerful language human helplessness in the face of the forces of progress. Man himself, she wrote, had unchained these forces by his own creative action, but he had not been able to keep pace with them in terms of adaptation and development." Mario M. Montessori Jr. "Education for Human Development: Understanding Montessori"

Ella Jenkins - The First Lady of the Children’s Folk Song

She has an amazing voice and creates children's songs which are loved by adults.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQuoSlsUbsM

A Caterpillar

A Caterpillar

A caterpillar,
this deep in fall--
still not a butterfly.

Matsuo Basho

Imagining Peace

How does peace look like? Is it green? Does it look like waves? Is it bird singing? Or maybe it is just something that is not a war?


"What is generally meant by the word peace is the cessation of war. But this negative concept is not an adequate description of genuine peace. Most important, if we observe the apparent aim of a war, peace understood in this sense represents, rather, the ultimate and permanent triumph of war." Maria Montessori, Education and Peace

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

When I was a student at Montessori Course, we had in our classroom a reproduction of this painting(John Singer Sargent "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose"). I looked at it so many times and i couldn't help but wonder: does it show the real Secret Of Childhood?

Little explorers penetrating garden...Lanterns, scent of flowers, warm light of dusk, thicket of plants... The lanterns reval the exquisite grace and elegance of soft petals.

Real pleasure for senses.