Editorial

It has been a pleasure to work with Joke Verheul and Brenda Striegel Fox from the AMI office, Harald Ludwig, my Co-Editor, and Alexander Henny, until April, 2008 chair of the Communications Board Committee. He was responsible for AMI’s publications during that time. He was instrumental in the decision to transform Communications into an academic journal and to create a News Bulletin for general matters. The cooperation among them and the entire Editorial Board has made all of our jobs easier. I want to thank the people that I have interviewed about Communications. You have helped me to conceptualize new ideas about planning for our academic journal.

We have agreed that there should be a place for more voices to make suggestions and to interact with the Editorial Board. We would welcome that kind of feedback. Surely there are ideas and clarifications that our readership can make that will be of benefit to everyone’s thinking. We would like to introduce a section of “Letters to the Editor”. We want your ideas about the journal articles and your ideas about what more you would like to read. Your voice in response to articles will generate more interest in the topic. Your questions stimulate deeper thought. The success of this new section, however, depends on having letters from you, the AMI members, and others who read Communications. Please do send your letters with comments and questions to the AMI office.

There is something else that the AMI office would like to receive. Historically many people sent a copy of their thesis or dissertation. For some reason this practice has not continued. We ask our membership to help us restore this endeavour and keep our archives growing. If you know of dissertations that are about some aspect of Montessori education, would you request that the author send notice to the office? The notice could be in book form, but that is expensive and takes up space. With digital storage it is possible to send and receive the work in an efficient manner. In addition we would appreciate a summary of the dissertation, written in English by the author. These works from around the world may also enrich what we are able to find to print for you in Communications.

The Table of Contents has a new organization. We hope that this feature will help our busy readers to ascertain which articles will be of the most interest to them. The articles appear grouped by theme to facilitate the flow of information.

The theme of this issue is Cosmic Education. The current and ongoing organization of Montessori’s pedagogical archives has identified a number of lectures on Cosmic Education. The one chosen here is the third lecture in a series of six on this topic—part of the winter holiday extension of the 21st International Course, given in London in 1935. In this lecture Montessori expounds on the cycle of water, chalk, the sea, the living beings that build reefs and shells, and purify the sea, and the construction of continents. She argues that we might call this ‘a mission of cooperation between living beings.’ Montessori indicates that this particular subject of sea life will yield many captivating examples that will rouse and sustain the children’s interest in the concept of Cosmic Education.

In “A Science of Peace” Annette Haines addresses the full spectrum of man’s development, from birth to adolescence, with additional emphasis on “Man as Cosmic Agent.” This lecture was specifically written for the Centenary Year to celebrate Maria Montessori’s message of peace—one of her main topics, and one she advocated most strongly and was fervent in promoting. She believed that a peaceful society cannot be built on a foundation that does not seek to integrate body, mind and spirit. Montessori claimed that the right kind of environment would allow children to manifest in their work phenomena which, taken together, constitute a hope and a promise for mankind.

In Theory and Practice Ginni Sackett expounds on our principal teaching technique: the presentation of materials. She argues that there is an economy of movement in Montessori presentations, eliminating superfluous or redundant movements not essential to it, and the distraction of words, as Montessori states, is kept to the barest minimum. The demonstrated activity is specifically structured to offer movements which are matched to the child’s neuro-physiological potential—not necessarily the most efficient means of accomplishing the task by adult standards, but a set of movements within the emergent sensory-motor capacities of the child.

Mary Caroline Parker presents the second part of her work with parents teaching them how to observe their children with joy. Ms Parker was inspired by the question of how schools can help parents experience joy in observing their children and this led to a quest to identify experiences that can contribute to the awakening of consciousness. Workshops, surveys, discussion, and interviews yielded data that led to some unexpected conclusions about sources of personal transformation. Teachers, administrators, and parents alike will be interested in the outcomes.

In the Historical section Victoria Barrès takes a very broad view in her article, linking the history and the origin of Montessori's commitment and drive, her deeply felt concern for the underprivileged, to the present state of our world—where she identifies still many needs for democratization and emancipation. One of the items Ms Barrès discusses is that 'without peace, both “outer” and “inner” peace for children during their developing years, human development cannot occur on the scale necessary.’ She calls for support for the “Creating a Culture for Peace” Campaign, explaining that peace is at the start of our lives, when we learn skills to become harmonious and responsible people.

In Accounts from Academia there are book reviews and descriptions of current investigative research in Montessori theory and practice. These articles are in keeping with the thrust to make Communications an academic journal. I think you will enjoy them.

In the next issue, my colleague Harald Ludwig will be filling these editorial pages. We have some excellent articles in the pipeline.

Finally, let me remind you to read this issue with an idea that you might write us a letter!