Instituto Internacional Montessori - AMI

PRSENTING the UNIVERSE, Cosmic Education Lecture 5 Kodaikanal
To awaken interest, we address the imagination of the child.
We do not start by giving the basic ideas of a subject merely to make
them understand. Instead, we begin with loftier notions of a philosophical
nature and present them in a way that follows the psychology of the
child. Accordingly, we can make comparisons with fairy tales which will
lead the children to grand ideas, but not the ones that end in fantasy.
For example, we can offer the layers of the earth and speak of the
three states of matter: the solid, the liquid and the gaseous. Then we can
look further at another enclosure, the one that contains life and includes
parts of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the surface of the earth,
all together called the biosphere. These outer layers of the atmosphere
can be compared to the fur of an animal, the tiger for instance, whose
body covering forms a living part of the animal. This is how we must
consider life. Life did not suddenly appear on earth because of the suitable
environment provided. Rather, life is a crucial component of the layers
of the Earth, just as much as the skin of the animal is an essential part
of the animal. Pages 138-139 from the book Cosmic Education. https://montessori-pierson.com/products/cosmic-education;

FROM SENSORIAL TO ABSTRACT
While the younger child seeks comforts, the older child is now eager to encounter challenges. But these challenges must have an aim. The difference between a schoolteacher who takes children on a hike and an organization of this nature may be noted here. It is true that the former makes the children come out of the closed environment of the school and causes them to use their feet in walking and to see sensorially that which surrounds them. But this in no way increases the dignity of the child, who is still kept in a restricted circle. One may well multiply the number of hikes without changing anything, because the child’s acceptance is passive. On the other hand, if the children consciously leave the school having a definite and freely chosen aim in mind, it is quite a different matter…
…As in the first period: We seek the child’s consent to receive a lesson given. The lesson is now abstract when earlier it was sensorial. In the second period there exist, then, possibilities superior to those we used to know in the child. Only, these possibilities are subordinate not to the command of someone, but rather to the command of the child’s own conscience. Page 8-9 from the book From Childhood to Adolescence https://montessori-pierson.com/products/from-childhood-to-adolescence-vol-12; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/de-la-infancia-a-la-adolescencia-vol-12 ; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/van-de-kinderjaren-naar-de-adolescentie

THE HELP OF NUMBERS FOR PAINTING THE IMAGINATIVE PICTURE
Life is a cosmic agent. How shall this truth be presented to the children so as to strike their imagination? Perhaps the child is likely to be most impressed by size, and the tremendous extent and magnitude of life on the globe may easily be introduced, because he already has in his possession the power of numbers. He may be given the figures of the human population in every country, these being easily obtained, before we pass on to life in the depths of ocean, which are known to be incalculable. First we deal with those impressive giants of the sea, the whales, which must logically, from their size, be much fewer in number than the smaller fish. Whales live in herds in the northern seas but swim in the cold season to the warmer regions, where they are joined by other groups, such as s***m whales, from the Antarctic. Their herds can then be counted not by hundreds, but by thousands of hundreds, so we can imagine the rest of the life of the sea, consisting of myriads of swarms of lesser creatures. We need the help of numbers for painting the imaginative picture, Page 18 from the book: To educate the human potential: https://montessori-pierson.com/products/to-educate-the-human-potential-vol-6; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/la-educacion-de-las-potencialidades-humanas-vol-6; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/opvoeden-voor-een-nieuwe-wereld-en-onderwijs-en-het-menselijk-potentieel

THE HANDS HELP THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTELLECT
The hands help the development of the intellect. When a child is capable of using his hands, he can have a quantity of experiences in the environment through using them. In order to develop his consciousness, then his intellect, and then his will, he must have exercises and experiences. It is not that man must develop in order to work, but that man must work in order to develop. The work of the hand is the expression of psychic growth.
We must realize that we must encourage children from the beginning. No one has yet done this consciously – though many have done it unconsciously. Education has never said, ‘Work in order to grow.’ Instead it has said, ‘Wait until the child is well developed, intellectually strong and obedient, then we can teach him.’ We must learn to look at reality. The child must grow through the experiences he has in the environment, not because he is conscious of a duty and not because he is willing, but because the horme of nature urges him. We must facilitate the realization of this energy which leads to normal development. We must encourage children and give them the means, because without them they cannot make these great acquisitions. Page 126 from the book The 1946 London Lectures: https://montessori-pierson.com/products/the-1946-london-lectures-vol-17 ;https://montessori-pierson.com/products/las-conferencias-de-londres-en-1946-vol-17

The 2026 Montessori Congress is just a week away! Today, we’re sharing another presentation from last year’s AGM, by AMI 6–12 Trainer Allan Nguyen.

With a background in both Montessori and IT, Allan approaches AI as one of the most significant challenges and opportunities of our time. In his presentation, ‘AI and the Supra Mind: A Cosmic Perspective on Human Collective Intelligence’, he poses a central question: will AI serve as a bridge - expanding knowledge and uniting humanity -, or become a deviation, reinforcing division and inequality?

Watch Allan’s presentation here: https://youtu.be/2xsuBsWNaCo