Reviving This Social Movement

Molly O'Shaughnessy on the Challenge of the 21st Century

By Molly O'Shaughnessy

Maria Montessori's undying commitment to a social movement built around the child has brought about the single largest pedagogy in the world. Today more than 8,000 schools operate on six continents.

Her discoveries began a revolution in education. A sudden, radical and completely different worldview of childhood and human nature emerged in many parts of the world as a result of her work. Her vision has also led us to pursue and commit ourselves to other ventures supporting the innate rights of children.

And yet, this revolution, by its very nature, remains unfinished and unknown on a multitude of levels.

Although many of Montessori's ideas have been absorbed into the educational mainstream, some very fundamental ones have not. For example, the protection of the child's mind to develop fully and creatively has not. In recent times, at least in the United States, the educational focus surrounds informational or "mechanical" knowledge, rather than nurturing the growth of creative, original, flexible, and innovative thinking.

We have honored the closed mind-"utilitarian intelligence" and information-gathering knowledge that can never transform society.

As Montessori educators, we know of the other "minds."

The attuned mind is inspired by the world, by the aesthetics embedded in all aspects of the universe, including science, mathematics, technology, literature, and so forth.

The inspired mind is attuned to the interconnectedness of all things and develops a moral and ethical responsibility toward the whole of civilization.

The creative and flexible mind produces appropriate action.

These are the minds that inform the heart. Only an intelligent heart is open to a new worldview, capable of the courageous risk-taking required to challenge closely held beliefs that interfere with healthy progress in the world.

Montessori used the words "messiah" and "the hope and promise for the future" when she spoke of children. Now more than ever, we need to focus on the goodness of humanity. Children embody the fullest dimensions of hope and can lead us down a new path, but this requires faith on our part.

As an international movement, organization of the effort sometimes appears daunting. The loftier and more overarching a vision is, the more challenging the execution can be. As Montessori reminded us, "There never was a social question as universal as this. No social question was ever called upon to solve the problem of such widespread and indiscriminate oppression as that which weighs upon the child. the social question of the child . knows no limits of caste, race, or nation."

Education in its fullest dimensions goes well beyond mere schooling. In reality, it is a spiritual and social revolution of the highest magnitude. It represents a transformation of humanity as we know it today.

Wherever our efforts require us to go-be it political, economical, or social-it must always revolve around the question, "How are the children doing?"

Clergyman/author Jim Wallis reminds us that in every arena of society-be it educational, medical, social, or economic-if this question can be answered in the affirmative, we will be traveling the path toward reconstruction and healing.

"How are the children doing?"

As advocates for the child's work of building a "new humanity," we must fight for justice built upon freedom for the child's mind and spirit to develop.

Our Montessori prepared environments inherently support the creation of minds and spirits capable of self-transcendence, minds capable of coping with a rapidly changing world, minds capable of acting intentionally for the ethical and responsible advancement of humanity. The vision of the child as the renewer of a new world order, of a new society, is enormous in its scope.

Sustained intellectual development, sound organizational systems and genuine dialogue deepen our ability to protect the child's right to develop his innate genius and spiritual characteristics. Without this protection, the vision becomes unattainable.

Our collective effort cannot be confined to classrooms.

Our collective journey requires reaching out beyond the safety of our Montessori communities. Facilitating partnership opportunities with colleagues in the human rights field, with policy-makers, with business and corporate leaders, and with philanthropic organizations will increase the social impact of our work at all levels.

Sharing our vision with these and other organizations of like mind strengthens the viability of our work as an agent for change.

Vision can die if people forget their connection to one another. The spirit of connection is fragile. It is undermined whenever we lose our respect for one another and for each other's views.

Without connections, without a feeling of community and unity, we will not be called to act. Inspired action of the mind and heart leads to inspired concrete action, mobilizing society step by step around the social question of the child.

It is essential to our unfinished revolution that we be insatiable intellectual explorers throughout our lives.

Through our continued learning, we, once again, like the child, become enthralled with the world, becoming more mindful of the childlike qualities required for transformation. We begin to see in ourselves glimmers of the "new personality" that Montessori spoke of, and we embrace "ways of being" that allow us to become leaders and spokespeople for the child and the Montessori movement of the 21st century.

We must work from both the inside and the outside. As we make a concerted effort to expand the availability of quality schools, teachers, and teacher trainers throughout the world, we must also forge partnerships with others working on behalf of children. In adoption homes, children's museums, the United Nations, hospitals, child advocacy law firms, orphanages, tenement houses, refugee camps, and so forth-the mission for the evolving Montessori paradigm can be found anywhere.

We have to become social entrepreneurs, the people described by Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, an organization that financially supports social entrepreneurs, as actors who "are not content to just give a fish, or to teach how to fish; they will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry."

The spirit of the social entrepreneur is not dampened by the enormity of the task. Rather, he embraces the challenge with a tenacious drive to do whatever it takes to get the job done; he is driven by clear vision and passion.

We are the keepers of the vision and have a tremendous responsibility.

Our work is an individual and collective journey, a spiritual quest. We represent a global community with a shared vision around the child. The nature of what constitutes community has changed dramatically in the last hundred years, since the first Children's House. As the world grows smaller, we have increased opportunities to work together in meaningful ways.

I invite you to think about our work from a new perspective. I invite you to think about the vision as your responsibility, each and every one of us responsible for this movement, mindful that we cannot do it all at once, but as Dr. Montessori said, piece by piece, "sowing seeds, sowing seeds of hope."

Molly O'Shaughnessy is director of the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota and an officer of AMI-USA.

This article is adapted from a paper delivered at the 25th International Montessori Congress in Sydney, Australia. The full paper, and many others, can be viewed at http://www.montessori-ami.org/congress/2005Sydney/papers.htm