MCS would like to wish our community a Happy Earth Day. What a lovely opportunity to celebrate the beauty of our miraculous earth. Montessori is known as a method that advocates environmental education and invites children to become stewards of the earth. Maria Montessori herself said that “children are inspired with a feeling for nature” and believed that nature plays a most important role in the development of the whole child.
Unconstructed play and exploration in nature foster creativity and independence. Students learn the value in community and their interconnectedness as they begin to recognize and care for living things. Richard Louv, author of ‘Lost Child in the Woods’ and proponent of the need for nature in education noted, “multisensory experiences in nature help to build the cognitive constructs necessary for sustained intellectual development.“ At present, electronics have an overwhelming presence in society and in the development of the child. Research indicates that this presence has the ability to hinder children’s overall development. So what do they need to counter all this visual stimulation? Outdoor experience! Time and effort in nature gives children the opportunity to experiment with cause and effect and avoidance of immediate gratification, which they experience so frequently with electronics.
One of the most unique principles of Montessori programs is the Cosmic Curriculum, an overall Montessori approach to education that involves helping children develop an awareness that everything in the universe is connected and interdependent and forms a harmonious whole and that they themselves are part of and contribute to that whole. The Cosmic Curriculum lends itself to exploration and appreciation of nature. Environmental education is a curriculum that encourages children to explore the wonders of nature; including botany, zoology, preservation of the earth, and other scientific concepts that are present in Montessori such as the study of the earth, water, weather and the universe as a whole. These subjects come alive with hands-on experience.
And so, in honor of this world wide celebration, we offer thanks to Maria Montessori and all those who join us in bettering our children’s future as we share insights to miracles of the universe through education of the child.
“When the child goes out, it is the world itself that offers itself to him. Let us take the child out to show him real things instead of making objects which represent ideas and closing them in cupboards.” Maria Montessori
Read more about our environmental education here.