2020 (#220) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

many things that happen cannot be known ahead of time.
Something will start to grow inside the child and
suddenly what is happening in the school will move
in that direction. Sometimes what happens starts
inside the adults. School can never be always
predictable. We need to be open to what takes place
and able to change our plans and go with what
might grow at that very moment both inside the
child and inside ourselves.

(Malaguzzi)

The Mighty One, God, Adonai, is speaking,
summoning the world from east to west.
² Out of Tziyon, the perfection of beauty,
God is shining forth.

(Tehillim 50:1-2)

We must free childhood from repression that weighs upon it.

(Montessori)

Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows his nature. What can repression accomplish?  

(Bhagavad Gita)

Creativity seems to find its power when adults are less tied to prescriptive methods, but instead become observers and interpreters of problematic situations.

(Malaguzzi)

Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.

(Tao Te Ching)

When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.

(Bereshit 8:11)

Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people…, and then within the child. This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher [mental] functions originate as actual relations between human individuals.

(Vygotsky)

He whose mind is deluded by egoism thinks: “I am the doer”.

(Bhagavad Gita)

They must decide between presence and absence, here
and there, what reveals and what conceals itself.

(Derrida)

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,^[l] your whole body will be full of light.

( Mathew, Mattityahu, gift of Yahweh 5:22)

2020 (#219) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

Imagine the school as an enormous
hot air balloon. The hot air balloon is on the ground
when the parents bring their children in the
morning. Some parents think the balloon is going to
rise up and fly around during the day. Others
would really prefer that the balloon remain on the
ground because that way they are sure their children
are safe and protected.

(Malaguzzi)

Great is Adonai
and greatly to be praised,
in the city of our God,
his holy mountain,
^3 (2) beautiful in its elevation,
the joy of all the earth,
Mount Tziyon, in the far north,
the city of the great king.

(Tehillim 48:1-3)

But the children want to go
up and fly and travel everywhere in a hot air
balloon, to see in this different way, to look at things
from above.

(Malaguzzi)

The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

(Bereshit 8:10)

The Master gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.

(Tao Te Ching)

By thy grace I remember my Light, and now gone is my delusion. My doubts are no more, my faith is firm; and now I can say ‘Thy will be done’.
(Bhagavad Gita)

God, within your temple
we meditate on your grace.

(Tehillim 48:10)

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

(Luke 6:37)

it is the future which is at issue here, and the archive as an irreducible experience of the future.

(Derrida)

2020 (#218) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

Sometimes the teacher will find
himself without words, without anything to say; and
at times this is fortunate for the child, because then
the teacher will have to invent new words.

(Malaguzzi)

For God is king of all the earth;
sing praises in a maskil.

(Tehillim 47:8)

Education then acquires a new dignity, a new authority,
because education will then tell society : ” These are
the laws of life. You cannot disregard them and you
must act in this way.”

(Montessori)

God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

(Bereshit 8:1)

Such difference without presence appears, or rather baffles the process of appearing, by disclosing any orderly time at the center of the present.

(Derrida)

and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

(Bereshit 8:4)

Return is the being
of becoming itself, the being which is affirmed in becoming. The
eternal return as law of becoming, as justice and as being.

(Deleuze)

To realise the Eternal is to become the Eternal, the whole, the universe, with all it contains. Every event is the effect and the expression of the whole and is in fundamental harmony with the whole. All response from the whole must be right, effortless and instantaneous.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

(Mathew 18:5)

2020 (#217) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

What we so often do is impose adult time on
children’s time and this negates children being able to
work with their own resources.

(Malaguzzi)

They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.

(Bereshit 7:19)

Observation has been carried out by us with a view of discovering what are the laws of life, because if we wish to help life the first thing we must do is to know the laws governing life. Not- only this, because if it were
merely knowledge that we sought then we would remain
in the field of psychology ; but if we are concerned
with education our action cannot be limited merely to
knowledge. This knowledge must be spread, for all
must know what is the psychic development of the child.

(Montessori)

Heraclitus had taken a deep look, he had
seen no chastisement of multiplicity, no expiation of becoming, no
culpability of existence. He saw no negativity in becoming, he saw
precisely the opposite: the double affirmation of becoming and of the
being of becoming – in short the justification of being.

(Deleuze)

God goes up to shouts of acclaim,
Adonai to a blast on the shofar.
^7 (6) Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our king, sing praises!

(Tehillim 47:6-7)

At the intersection of the topological and the nomological, of the place and the law, of the substrate and the authority, a scene of domiciliation becomes at once visible and invisible.

(Derrida)

The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.

(Bereshit 7:20)

There must be love in the relation between the person who says ‘I am’ and the observer of the ‘I am’… It is only when the observer (‘vyakta’) accepts the person (‘vyakti’) as a projection or manifestation of himself, and so to say, takes the self into the Self, the duality of ‘I’ and ‘this’ goes and the identity of the outer and the inner, the Supreme Reality manifests itself.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

(Mathew 18:4)

Yah is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.
This is my God: I will glorify him;
my father’s God: I will exalt him.
(Shemot, Names 15:2)

2020 (#216) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

We teachers must see ourselves as researchers, able to
think, and to produce a true curriculum, a curriculum
produced from all of the children.

(Malaguzzi)

Adonai-Tzva’ot is with us,
our fortress, the God of Ya‘akov. (Selah)
^9 (8) Come and see the works of Adonai,
the astounding deeds he has done on the earth.

(Tehillim 46:8-9)

The discovery of the fact that the child is endowed
with an absorbent mind has brought about a revolution
in education. Now it is easy to understand why the
first is the most important amongst the periods of develop-
ment. The creation of human character takes place
within its span ; and once we have understood this, it
also becomes clear that we must help the child in his
creative work. For there is no age in which the child is
more in need of intelligent help than in this period.

(Montessori)

The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.

(Bereshit 7:18)

Neither ordinary, nor extra-ordinary. Just being aware and affectionate — intensely. He looks at himself without indulging in self-definitions and self-identifications. He does not know himself as anything apart from the world. He is the world.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.

(Daniel 17:13)

With each divine impulse the mind rends thin rinds of the visible and finite, and comes out into eternity, and inspires and expires the air.

(Emerson)

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

(Mathew 18:3)

The archivist produces more archive, and that is why the archive is never closed. It opens out of the future… it is the future which is at issue here, and the archive as an irreducible experience of the future.

(Derrida)

2020 (#215) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

We need to define the role of the adult, not as a
transmitter but as a creator of relationships —
relationships not only between people but also
between things, between thoughts, with the environment.

(Malaguzzi)

There is a river whose streams
gladden the city of God,
the holy habitation of ‘Elyon —

(Tehillim 46:5)

What is the conception of education that takes life
as the centre of its own function ? It is a conception
that alters all previous ideas about education. Education
must no longer be based upon a syllabus but upon
the knowledge of human life.

(Montessori)

¹⁷ For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.

(Bereshit 7:17)

and this openness opens the unity, renders it possible, and forbids it totality. Its openness allows receiving and giving.

(Derrida)

The Master gives himself up

to whatever the moment brings.  

(Tao Te Ching)

The soul looketh steadily forwards, creating a world before her, leaving worlds behind her. She has no dates, nor rites, nor persons, nor specialties, nor men.

(Emerson)

It is the absolute in you that takes you to the absolute beyond you — absolute truth, love selflessness are the decisive factors in self-realization. With earnestness these can be reached.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

“Nothing will be impossible for you.”

(Mathew 17:20)

2020 (#214) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

Children get to
know each other through all their senses. Touching
the hair of another child is very important. Smell is
important. This is a way children are able to understand the identity of themselves and the identity of
others.

(Malaguzzi)

Just as a deer longs for running streams,
God, I long for you.
^3 (2) I am thirsty for God, for the living God!
When can I come and appear before God?

(Tehillim 42:2-3)

One who neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities is known to be always wise. Such a person, liberated from all dualities, easily overcomes material bondage and is completely liberated

(Bhagavad Gita)

¹³ On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

(Bereshit 7:13)

For if “I” or “he” continued to tell what he has told, he would end up endlessly returning to this point and once more beginning to begin, that is to say, to begin with an end that precedes the beginning.

(Derrida)

“To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things.”

(Mathew 17:11)

2020 (#213) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

We have to understand that they are moving
and working with many ideas, but their most important task is to build relationships with friends. They
are trying to understand what friendship is. Children
grow in many directions together, but a child is
always in search of relationships.

(Malaguzzi)

But may all those who seek you
be glad and take joy in you.
May those who love your salvation say always,
“Adonai is great and glorious!”

(Tehillim 40:17)

To those who are ever in harmony, and who worship me with their love, I give them the Yoga of vision and with this they come to me.

(Bhagavad Gita)

from within or from behind a light shines through us upon things , and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.

(Emerson)

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

(Bereshit 7:11-12)

through a process of transformation you will be able to follow, which stops to explain itself periodically, from quarter to quarter, sometimes fixing its mutations and reversals in some new schema.

(Derrida)

Forgive and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:37)

2020 (#212) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

The interaction between children is a
very fertile and a very rich relationship. If it is left to
ferment without adult interference and without that
excessive assistance that we sometimes give, then
it’s more advantageous to the child.

(Malaguzzi)

I have proclaimed what is right in the great assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, Adonai, as you know.
^11 (10) I did not hide your righteousness in my heart
but declared your faithfulness and salvation;
I did not conceal your grace and truth
from the great assembly.

(Tehillim 40:10-11)

he will reveal himself
as the greatest marvel of nature. We shall be confronted
by a child not as he was considered before a powerless
being an empty vessel that must be filled with our
wisdom. His dignity will arise in its fullness in front of
our eyes as he reveals himself as the constructor of our
intelligence, as the being who, guided by the inner
teacher, in joy and happiness works indefatigably, follow-
ing a strict time-table, to the construction of that marvel
of nature : MAN.

(Montessori)

There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the light that shines in our heart.

(Chandogya Upanishad)

… perfect in every hour … the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one.

(Emerson)

What is your happiness worth when you have to strive and labour for it? True happiness is spontaneous and effortless.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

The question has been asked

As though an immense natural bridge had been

Strung across the landscape to any point you wanted.

The ellipse is as aimless as that,

Stretching invisibly into the future so as to reappear

In our present. Its flexing is its account

(John Ashbery)

this sense of the continual fertility of the mother-site (an androgynous mixture of stars and sky).

(Derrida)

“Courage, daughter! Your trust has healed you.”

(Mathew 9:22)

—–

2020 (#211) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!”

We have to let children be with children. Children
learn a lot from other children, and adults learn
from children being with children. Children love to
learn among themselves, and they learn things that
it would never be possible to learn from interactions
with an adult.

(Malaguzzi)

you have given me open ears;
^8 (7) so then I said, “Here I am! I’m coming!
In the scroll of a book it is written about me.
^9 (8) Doing your will, my God, is my joy;
your Torah is in my inmost being.

(Tehillim 40:8-9)

It is as though
nature had safeguarded each child from the influence of
human intelligence in order to give the inner teacher that
dictates within, the possibility of making a complete
psychic construction before the human intelligence can
come in contact with the spirit and influence it.

(Montessori)

I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call my own.

(Emerson)

²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

(Bereshit 6:22)

they do not ask the question; they stage it or overflow this stage in the direction of that element of the scene which exceeds representation.

(Derrida)

The bars had been removed from all the windows

There was something quiet in the way the light entered

Her troussaeau. Wine fished out of the sea — they hadn’t known

We were coming relaxed forever

(John Ashbery)

The real is beyond. The witness is the door through which you pass beyond.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

“Go; let it be for you as you have trusted.”

(Mathew 8:13)