2021 (#181)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

(John 1:1-5)

There are hundreds of different images of the child.
Each one of you has inside yourself an image of the
child that directs you as you begin to relate to a child.
This theory within you pushes you to behave in
certain ways; it orients you as you talk to the child,
listen to the child, observe the child.

(Malaguzzi)

The Lord formed me from the beginning, before he created any-
thing else. …I was there when he set the clouds above, when he
established springs deep in the earth. …And when he marked off the
earth’s foundations, I was the architect at his side. I was his constant
delight, rejoicing always in his presence. —

(Proverbs 8:23-30)

The environment you construct around you and the
children also reflects this image you have about the
child. There’s a difference between the environment
that you are able to build based on a preconceived
image of the child and the environment that you can
build that is based on the child you see in front of you
— the relationship you build with the child, the
games you play.

(Malaguzzi)

“The friend” is the one who approves, acquiesces, affirms the ineffaceable necessity of psychoanalysis, that is, above all, of its future-to-come, but who is also interested in the problematic, sometimes artificial, artifactual, and therefore deconstructible and perfectible character of the relations between psychoanalysis and its right, as between its theory and its practice, between the necessity of knowledge and its institutional inscription, between the public space of psychoanalysis and the absolute originality of its “secret” place…

(Derrida)

An environment that grows out of
your relationship with the child is unique and fluid.

(Malaguzzi)

13 I am putting my rainbow in the cloud — it will be there as a sign of the covenant between myself and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth, and the rainbow is seen in the cloud; 

(Bereshit 9:13-14)

The quality and quantity of relationships among you
as adults and educators also reflects your image of
the child.

(Malaguzzi)

By the same fire, vital, consecrating, celestial, which burns until it shall dissolve all things into the waves and surges of an ocean light, we see and know each other and what spirit each is of.(

(Emerson)

Children are very sensitive and can see and
sense very quickly the spirit of what is going on
among the adults in their world.

(Malaguzzi)

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

(Mathew 5:14-16)

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:25-27

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

2021 (#180)

The principle and idea today are too much directed
towards self- perfection, . If we understand
the real aim of movement this self-centralization cannot
exist ; it must expand into the immensity of space. We
must, in short, keep in mind what might be called the
4 philosophy of movement ‘. Movement is what distinguish-
es life from inanimate things. Life, however, does not
move in a haphazard fashion, it moves with a purpose
and according to laws.

(Montessori)

It’s a constant value for the children to know that the
adult is there, attentive and helpful, a guide for the
child. 

(Malaguzzi)

The Lord formed me from the beginning, before he created any-
thing else. …I was there when he set the clouds above, when he
established springs deep in the earth. …And when he marked off the
earth’s foundations, I was the architect at his side. I was his constant
delight, rejoicing always in his presence. —

(Bereshit/Genesis)

To divide and particularise is in the mind’s very nature. There is no harm in dividing. But separation goes against fact. Things and people are different, but they are not separate. Nature is one, reality is one. There are opposites, but no opposition.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as God knows me and I know God — and I lay down my life for the sheep.

(John 10:14-15)

Clarifying the meaning of our
presence and our being with children is something
that is vital for the child.

(Malaguzzi)

If Eros and Philia are indeed movements, do we not have here an inverse
hierarchy and an inverse dissymmetry? Prime Mover or pure Act, God sets
in motion without Himself moving or being moved; He is the absolute
desirable or desired, analogically and formally in the position of the beloved,
therefore on the side of death, of that which can be inanimate without
ceasing to be loved or desired (apsukhon).

(Derrida)

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

(John 17:24)

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)

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,^m

for they will be called children of God.ⁿ

(Mathew 5:9)

He who meditates on the three syllables A, U, M, as upon God, is joined to the light of the sun.

‘When rivers mingle with the sea they lose their names and shapes and people speak of the sea only

(Prashna Upanishad)

Immobilization is impossible, the world would become
a chaos if movement ceased or if living beings moved
without purpose. Nature gives a useful purpose to each
living being. Each individual has its own characteristic
movements with its own fixed purpose. The creation of
the world is a harmonious co-ordination of all these
activities with a set purpose.

(Montessori)

7 Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.^j

(Mathew 5:7)

If we have a vision of the cosmic plan in which
every form of life in the world is based on purposeful
movements, having their purpose not in themselves alone …

(Montessori)

a wind from God sweeping over the water — (

Bereshit/Genesis)

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

(#179)

For the female spirits of the dead, pining in bonds of

religion,

Run from their fetters reddening, & in long drawn

arches sitting,

They feel the nerves of youth renew, and desires of an-

cient times

(William Blake)

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.( (John 1:12-13_

… of Mount Moriah, over the ‘here I am’ of Abraham or of Ibrahim before the extreme ‘sacrifice’ demanded of him, the absolute offering of the beloved son, the demanded putting-to-death or death given to the unique descendant, repetition suspended on the eve of Passion.

(Derrida)

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 (Atman), the duality of ‘I’ and ‘this’ goes and the identity of the outer and the inner, the Supreme Reality manifests itself.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

honor your father and mother.’

(Mark 10:19)

Good fortune in turning upside down, seeking nourishment. The one above sheds light.

(I Ching)

Concerning the meanings, we have seen how much sucking
acts vary according to whether the newborn child is hungry and
tries to nurse, or sucks in order to calm himself, or whether in a way he plays at sucking.It seems as though they have a meaningfor the nursling
himself. The increasing calm which succeeds a storm of crying and weeping as soon as the child is in position to take nourishment and to seek the nipple
is sufficient evidence that, if awareness exists at all, such awareness is from
the beginning awareness of meaning. But one meaning is necessarily
relative to other meanings, even on the elementary plane
of simple motor recognitions.

(Piaget)

teachers learning about themselves as teachers as
well as teachers learning about children.

(Malaguzzi)

If you send out your breath, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.

Tehillim 104:30

And we give fullness

To the dream. The table supports the book,

The plume leaps in the hand.

(John Ashbery)

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)

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.

(Mathew 6:9-10)

2021 (#178)

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.

(Malaguzzi)

to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.

(Tehillim 136:4)

What we want to do is activate within children the desire and will and great pleasure that comes from being the authors of their own learning.

(Malaguzzi)

Creativity becomes more visible when adults try to be more attentive to the cognitive processes of children than to the results they achieve in various fields of doing and understanding.

(Malaguzzi)

2021 (#177)

In a small child of three years that mysterious
teacher which urges the child to work is still active
within him ; and when we speak of a free child (i.e., with
inner freedom) we speak of a child free to follow the
powerful guides of nature within him.

(Montessori)

The Lord has done great things for us,
    and we are filled with joy.

(Tehillim 126:3)

[Our goal is always] to put everything together, to try to widen the power of our intelligence through the possibilities of relationship

(Malaguzzi)

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,

Tehillim 130:5

It arches over them like a temple, this unity of thought in which every heart beats with nobler sense of power and duty, and thinks and acts
with unusual solemnity. All are conscious of attaining to a
higher self-possession. It shines for all.

Emerson

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