When you begin working with children in the
morning, you must, as adults, pose questions about
the children, such as: “When are these children really
going to begin socializing?” And at the same time
the children will pose questions to the adults: “When
are the adults really going to begin socializing?” This
is a dialogue that needs to be continual between the
adults and the children. The adults ask questions
from the world of adults to the children. The
children will ask questions to the adults. The expectations that the children have of the adults and the
adults have of the children are important. We must
spend some time talking about these expectations.
The family — mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents — is also involved in this questioning.
they need to ask: “What is this child doing in the
school?”
(Malaguzzi)
This is the marvellous part. In the life of man the
first period is one of the greatest psychic activity. It is
then that the accumulation of impressions is made upon
which intelligence builds itself afterwards.
(Montessori)
let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
(Mizmor/Tehellim/Psalms 5:11)
Of course, many things that happen in school can be
seen ahead and planned beforehand. But 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)
These first two years of life furnish a new light that
shows the laws of psychic construction. These laws
were hitherto unknown. It is the outer expression of the
child that has revealed their existence. It shows a type
of psychology completely different from that of the adult.
So here begins the new path.
(Montessori)
For Adonai gives wisdom;
from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
(Mashal/Proverbs 2:6)
Each one of us needs to be able to play with the
things that are coming out of the world of children.
Each one of us needs to have curiosity, and we need
to be able to try something new based on the ideas
that we collect from the children as they go along.
Life has to be somewhat agitated and upset, a bit
restless, somewhat unknown. As life flows with the
thoughts of the children, we need to be open, we
need to change our ideas; we need to be comfortable
with the restless nature of life.
(Malaguzzi)
It is not the professor who
applies psychology to children, it is the children them-
selves who teach psychology to the professor. This may
seem obscure but it will become immediately clear if we
go somewhat more into detail : the child has a type of
mind that absorbs knowledge and instructs himself.
(Montessori)
The root of situational constraints upon a child lies in a central fact
of consciousness characteristic of early childhood: the union of motives
and perception. At this age perception is generally not an independent
but rather an integrated feature of a motor reaction. Every perception is
a stimulus to activity. Since a situation is communicated psychologically
through perception, and since perception is not separated from motivational
and motor activity, it is understandable that with her consciousness
so structured, the child is constrained by the situation in which she
finds herself.
But in play, things lose their determining force. The child sees one
thing but acts differently in relation to what he sees. Thus, a condition
is reached in which the child begins to act independently of what he
sees. Certain brain-damaged patients lose the ability to act independently
of what they see. In considering such patients one can appreciate
that the freedom of action adults and more mature children enjoy is not
acquired in a Hash but has to go through a long process of development.
(Vygotsky)
Let man then learn revelation of all nature and all thought to his heart; this; namely; that the highest dwells with him; that the sources of nature are in his own mind, if the sentiment of duty is there.
(Emerson)
The ability to enjoy relationships and work together
is very important. Children need to enjoy being in
school, they need to love their school and the interactions that take place there. Their expectations of
these interactions is critical.
It is also important for the teachers to enjoy being
with the other teachers, to enjoy seeing the children
stretch their capacities and use their intelligences, to
enjoy interactions with the children. Both parts are
essential.
(Malaguzzi)
Let God work in you, give the work to God, and have peace. Don’t worry if He works through your nature or above your nature, because both are His, nature and grace.
(Meister Eckhart)
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[a] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
(Mizmor/Tehellim/Psalms 19:2-5)
All of this pushes us to produce a higher level of
observation. We must move beyond just looking at
the child to become better observers, able to penetrate into the child to understand each child’s resources
and potential and present state of mind. We need to
compare these with our own in order to work well
together.
(Malaguzzi)
The child of two speaks the language of his parents. The
learning of a language is a great intellectual acquisition.
Now who has taught the child of two this language ? Is it
the teacher ? Everyone knows that that is not so, and
yet the child knows to perfection the names of things, he
knows the verbs, the adjectives etc. If anyone studies
the phenomenon he will find it marvellous to follow the
development of language. All who have done so agree
that the child begins to use words and names at a certain
period of life. It is as if he had a particular time-table*
Indeed, he follows faithfully a severe syllabus which has
been imposed by nature and with such exactitude that
even the most pains-taking school would suffer in com-
parison. And following this time-table the child learns
all the irregularities and different syntactical constructions
of the language with exacting diligence.
(Montessori)
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world
(Mizmor/Tehellim/Psalms 7:19-1-4)
We need to know how to recognize a new presence,
how to wait for the child. This is something that is
learned, it’s not automatic. We often have to do it
against our own rush to work in our own way. We’ll
discover that our presence, which has to be visible
and warm, makes it possible for us to try to get inside
the child and what that child is doing. And this may
seem to be passive, but it is really a very strong
activity on our part.
(Malaguzzi)
It is not merely a question of
recognising what it is around us or understanding and
dealing with our environment. It is the whole of our
intelligence, our religious sentiment, our special feelings of
patriotism and caste that are built during this period of
life when no one can teach the child. 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)
In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.
(Proverbs/Mashal 15:9)
a good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving
(Tao Te Ching)
It’s a constant value for the children to know that the
adult is there, attentive and helpful, a guide for the
child. Perhaps this way of working with the child
will build a different understanding of our role than
we have had before. Clarifying the meaning of our
presence and our being with children is something
that is vital for the child. When the child sees that the
adult is there, totally involved with the child, the
child doesn’t forget. This is something that’s right for
us and it’s right for the children.
(Malaguzzi)
In front of our eyes arose a new figure. It was not
a school or education. It was Man that rose ; Man
who revealed his true character as he developed freely ;
who showed his greatness when no mental oppression
was there to restrict his soul. And so 1 say that any
reform of education must be based upon the develop-
ment of the human personality. Man himself should
become the centre of education.
(Montessori)
2 “Thus says Adonai the maker,
Adonai who formed [the universe]
so as to keep directing it —
Adonai is his name:
3 ‘Call out to me,
and I will answer you —
I will tell you great things,
hidden things of which you are unaware.
“This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
(Jeremiah/Yirmeyah 33:2-3)
2 Thus saith Hashem the Oseh (Maker) thereof [of the Earth], Hashem the Yotzer who formed it to establish it: Hashem Shmo;
3 Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee gedolot (great things) and unsearchable things, which thou knowest not.
(Jeremiah/Yirmeyah 33:2-3)
There are many things that are part of a child’s life
just as they are part of an adult’s life. The desire to
do something for someone, for instance. Every adult
has a need to feel that we are seen/observed by
others. (Observing others is also important.) This is
just as true for children as for adults. Therefore, it’s
possible to observe, to receive a lot of pleasure and
satisfaction from observing in many different ways.
When the child is observed, the child is happy — it’s
almost an honor that he is observed by an adult. On
the other hand, a good teacher who knows how to
observe feels good about himself because that person
knows that he is able to take something from the
situation, transform it, and understand it in a new
way.
(Malaguzzi)
man starts his development from birth and before
birth. The greatest development is achieved during the
first years of life, and therefore it is then that the
greatest care should be taken. If this is done, then the
child does not become a burden ; 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)
Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Thus says God, Adonai,
who created the heavens and spread them out,
who stretched out the earth and all that grows from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “I, Adonai, called you righteously,
I took hold of you by the hand,
I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people,
to be a light for the Goyim,
7 so that you can open blind eyes,
free the prisoners from confinement,
those living in darkness from the dungeon.
(Isaiah 42:5-7)
Observing in this way offers tremendous benefits. It
requires a shift in the role of the teacher from an
emphasis of teaching to an emphasis on learning,
teachers learning about themselves as teachers as
well as teachers learning about children. This is a self-learning that takes place for the teacher and it
enables the teacher to see things that are taking place
in children that teachers were not able to see before.
(Malaguzzi)
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Mathew 6:19-21)
6 “How blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness!
for they will be filled.
7 “How blessed are those who show mercy!
for they will be shown mercy.
8 “How blessed are the pure in heart!
for they will see God.
9 “How blessed are those who make peace!
for they will be called sons of God.
(Mathew 5:6-9)
Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
(John 7:17)
For whoever does the ratzon Hashem, this one is my brother and my sister and mother.
Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.
(Markos 3:35)
May our eyes see the good. May we serve him with the whole strength of our body. May we, all our life, carry out his will. May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.
(Prashna Upanishad)
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
(John 10:11)
Don’t be afraid; just believe.
(Mark 5:36)
Moreover I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house.
(I Chronicles 17:10)
There is happiness when agreeable things are presented to the mind. It is the happiness inherent in God, and there is no other happiness. And it is not alien and afar. You are diving into God on those occasions which you consider pleasurable and that diving results in self-existent bliss. But the association of ideas is responsible for foisting that bliss on other things or occurrences while, in fact, that bliss is within you. On these occasions you are plunging into God, though unconsciously. If you do so consciously, with the conviction that comes of the experience that you are identical with the happiness which is truly God’s Love, the one reality, you call it realization. I want you to dive consciously into the Will of God, that is the Heart.
(Sri Ramana Maharshi)
Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.
(John 13:31-32)
retiring to solitary places, and avoiding the noisy multitudes: A constant yearning to know the inner Spirit, and a vision of Truth which gives liberation: this is true wisdom leading to vision.
(The Bhagavad Gita)
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”[e] When he had said this, he breathed his last.
(Luke 23: 44-46)
eternity is In the split moment of the now. We miss it because the mind is ever shuttling between the past and the future. It will not stop to focus the now. It can be done with comparative ease, if interest is aroused… By keeping your mind clear and clean, by living your life in full awareness of every moment as it happens, by examining and dissolving one’s desires and fears as soon as they arise… Once you are well-established in the now, you have nowhere else to go what you are timelessly, you express eternally.
(Sri Nisagadatta Maharaj)
A person can receive only what is given them from heaven
(John 3:27)
45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[d] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.
(John 6:45)
Just as the living God sent me and I live because of God, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
(John 6:57)
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. —
(Mathew/Mattityahu – gift of YAHWEH)
I and the Father are one.
I and My Father are one.
I and my Father, We are One
(John 10:30)
The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with everyone who has been born from the Spirit.
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
(John 3:8)
Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Mark 10:14
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
(Mathew 6:9-10)
mark forshee 