f l ifth ecture by Maria Montessori We include the ninth chapter of Education and Peace by Maria Montessori (1949) to draw attention to the relationship between peace and sustainability. Nature is an integral part of peace studies. The education that will lead the way to a new special, specific function. Animals feed and live humanity has one end alone: leading the individual and reproduce; each one has a life-cycle that fulfils and society to a higher stage of development. This a special role in relation to the life of other species. concept involves many factors and may seem obscure, Everyone knows, for instance, that the disappear- but it becomes clearer if we realize that mankind ance of one species in a certain place upsets the has to fulfil a collective mission on earth, a mission balance, because the lives of all species are inter- involving all of humanity and therefore each and related. Life therefore can be regarded as an energy every human being. This concept may enable us to that maintains life itself. set a definite goal for our efforts. But what can this mission of humanity be? I would now like to pose a question: Does not man also have a cosmic mission to fulfil on earth? Is this mission the predominance of one nation Is it conceivable that this being who has such great over another? The power of the people? Industrial or intelligence, who is the worker par excellence, has cultural progress? And what will the individual regard no part to play in the labor of the cosmos? as his personal mission? Ensuring that he and others have the means to survive? Ensuring the possibility Human energy, too, has appeared on earth to of securing an education? It would seem that above undertake and fulfil a specific mission. and beyond these goals, which have to do with the interests of specific individuals or groups, there is It is quite evident that man has a mission. He something that involves all mankind and perhaps even has extracted hidden wealth and marvelous energies the universe itself, creation, cosmic harmony. from the bowels of the earth, and he has created a superworld, or, more precisely, a supernature. As he This ‘something’ might be considered as in- has constructed this supernature little by little, man volving a religious ideal. But what I should like has also perfected himself and made the natural man to discuss is the possibility that science may have he was into a supernatural man. Nature is a domain that a predominant role to play in helping us discover has existed for centuries, and supernature is yet another this single universal mission. domain, which man has gradually constructed. It is possible to consider the life of the creatures Contemporary man no longer lives with nature, of the earth from a single point of view, and I would but with supernature. An animal can procure its like to make a few remarks about the modern study food directly from the earth, but man is dependent of geology and evolution. on other men. How many men labor so that the bread we eat may reach our mouths! And fruit that The most interesting, and indeed almost awe- comes to us from a faraway place may represent a some, fact resulting from such study is that the vast organization of men, a formidable and strict earth is a creation of life. Life created rocks and soil, organization, that holds human society together. and it is life that sustains the harmony of the earth. Yes, the earth is the handiwork of living things. The We must be aware of this organization if we are oceans are kept in constant chemical balance by to evaluate properly certain widespread ideas that living things, and living things also maintain the find expression in a number of slogans: ‘Let us return purity of the air. to nature.’ ‘Let us become one with nature.’ All creatures who live on earth have a cosmic The life that some call ‘artificial’ is mankind’s role to play. The maintenance of life on earth de- supernatural life. Our way of life is not artificial, pends on many species, each one of which has a but rather the product of labor. If we did not make Montessori • Fifth Lecture 259 Courtesy of the Montessori Institute for the Science of Peace, www.constructingpeace.org such a distinction, we might be inclined to say that Yet he continues to pursue his irresistible mis- even the way of life of certain animals is artificial— sion, and humanity is now united as one single that of bees, who ‘artificially’ produce honey, for nation. instance. Man is a great worker, capable of creating And man, that feeble and unhappy creature, may a supernature through his labors. be cured if he so wills. He need only open his eyes, But we might now ask ourselves: if animals labor rectify his errors, and realize his powers. When we so joyously, why do men not also take delight in their say that man must intensify the means of commu- work? Man should be much happier than animals. nication and interchange available to him, we are His unhappiness is proof that there must be errors pointing to a goal that he cannot attain immediately. inherent in human society and in the supernature Humanity must first be convinced of the urgency that humanity has constructed. Man must labor of attaining this goal. Man must be educated. It is not only to support himself and his family, but also true that education can create a better kind of man, to become an instrument of something great and but this is a vast undertaking. It is a labor that may awesome—not only to serve his individual interests, well take a long time, but it will nonetheless be brief but also to serve humanity as a whole. From this in comparison with the work that man has already point of view, the history of humanity becomes very accomplished. interesting. As we study man from this perspective, The first thing that must be done is to con- we witness first his effort to explore the earth and struct an environment that answers the needs extract its riches and then his effort to explore the of young people. What has been done to date heavens and master the energies of the intangible, with regard to that period of human life that the infinite, the limitless. An enormous, immense precedes maturity? What has been done for human conquest! And yet man today considers mere children, for young people? Practically noth- physical survival a problem. ing, or at any rate very little. Unlike animals, Man is not conscious of his mission, nor of who build extensively for their young, man, the heights that he has reached. Humanity has the intelligent being who labors with his own fallen sick, like an organism suffering from a hands, has failed to build on a similar scale for circulatory disease; man is weak and unhappy. his progeny. What has the world, with its wealth 260 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 1 • Winter 2013 of great constructions, with all its comforts, to learn a trade, but because working means done on behalf of children? It is not enough to coming into contact with life, participating in love in an abstract way; we must begin to do the building of supernature. These young people something concrete, something practical—to should engage in economic transactions, learn construct the supernature necessary for the life the value of money, and take conscious part in of children and young people. productive activities. I would like to review briefly what we have Objects made carefully by hand have today been done along these lines. replaced by articles mass-produced by machines, a change made necessary by the fact that men’s We have constructed, first of all, an environ- lives proceed at a more and more frantic pace. But ment providing all the little things necessary handicrafts, which produce beautiful objects, and for the life of children. The child has not said which society is now attempting to revive, could thank you, but he has revealed to us the hidden well be entrusted to young people. Let us hope treasure of man’s soul. And this knowledge of that the art of fine craftsmanship is not lost simply the human soul, of its grandeur and power, because machines exist. May young people be given represents both a warning and a hope for us. the possibility of continuing to lovingly produce beautiful things! And the creative spirit of young Let us therefore continue our efforts! Let us people can accomplish many other things as well. construct an environment for children and young Botany, for instance, requires a keen eye and accurate people; the thanks we will receive for so doing will judgement. Young people can become passionately be the enlightenment we need to see all the errors involved in doing calm, serene, beautiful work that inherent in the supernature that we adults have cre- enables their young personalities to develop and find ated only for ourselves. We must build something worthwhile goals. If young people at a certain point new, not offer older children the same things we offer the young ones. Miniature objects and utensils no longer satisfy seven-year-old children. They need other things. The four walls of a ‘house’1 become too confining; older children need to go out and explore the world. They must have broader social horizons. Man feels a great need to make genuine efforts, so as to measure his own worth; the Boy Scout movement has partially answered this need. The idea of organizing young people is not an error. The mistake arises when the most intimate needs of the individual young person are not satisfied. It is time now to correct these errors, to bring about a great reform, to offer young people the means necessary for their development and the enhancement of their personalities. This task cannot be entrusted to private efforts alone; it is society as a whole that is called upon to fulfil it. It is of vital interest to the state to organize the life of young people. The child by the age of twelve should already be taking an active part in social life; he should be producing, selling, and working, not in order Courtesy of Scripps Montessori School, San Diego, California 1The Montessori environment for children between two and one-half and six years of age is called ‘House of the Children’. Montessori • Fifth Lecture 261 are called upon to take an active part in the life of humanity, they must first feel that they have a great mission to accomplish and prepare themselves for it. They must have the chance to meditate upon it a little. We call this period ‘the period of the desert’. Christ himself as he emerged from childhood went off into the desert before beginning his great mis- sion. The man prepared in this way will fulfil his mission faithfully and consciously. The young person today is urged to study, to buckle down, to conserve his time, to get ahead in the world. Poor thing. When he has completed his studies, he knows nothing of social life, and he feels lost and forsaken. Why should he have worked so Courtesy of Montessori de la Condesa, Mexico City, Mexico hard? Why should he have studied, if books are no longer of any importance? to seek universality until the day he dies. Man thus I cannot discuss the subject at greater length. I will prepared, conscious of his mission in the cosmos, will simply say that as we see it, man must be inspired be capable of building the new world of peace. Reprinted from Education and Peace, pages 66–70, copyright © 1972 by Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company. Clio editions of The Montessori Series are now available from Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company, http://www.montessori-pierson.com/. m 262 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 1 • Winter 2013 Courtesy of the Montessori Institute for the Science of Peace, www.constructingpeace.org Montessori • Fifth Lecture 263 Courtesy of Rusty Keeler, www.earthplay.net 264 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 1 • Winter 2013