By Tanesia R. Hale-Jones, Head of School
For animals, wintering is about remaining in place during the coldest, darkest time of the year. Perhaps in hibernation or as birds do, flying toward warmer locations or, when they do remain, finding shelter where they can. Wintering, for humans is a time to turn inward, to pause. The darkest time of the year can be unsettling for some, but it does offer us an opportunity to be present with the potentiality of what could be; after all the quiet dark is the source of so much fertility. I appreciate that across cultures and time people have gathered during the darker, quieter months around sources of fire and light to share stories, to reflect and celebrate together.
At Escuela there are many ways we attune children to the dynamics of being in community with others. At our International Day of Peace celebration, Mr. Casey invited students to share definitions of peace – ‘calm,’ ‘no war or conflict,’ ‘harmony’. All of these are accurate, but the truth is, in a community there will be mistakes, there will be conflict and confrontation, there will be opportunities to grow and to figure ourselves out. What we need are not punishments for trying to communicate or for being messy, but ‘loving corrections’ that guide us ever closer to our ability to be interdependent.
I am continually reflecting on the bigger vision of our work in the world. The bigger vision of Montessori education as it endeavors to meet the needs of diverse communities around the world. Dr. Montessori believed that children and adolescents were the key to a more just and reformed world. At the center of her work was the reality of the world she was living in: war, colonization, fascism, and the violence of power and possession. She bore witness to how empire shaped the world children and adolescents grew up in, and would inherit. Montessori is not a utopian pedagogy, but Dr. Montessori was vehement that true peace isn’t about the absence of war, but the intentional cultivation of morality between people, which is to say, the cultivation of a society that values human contribution and human thriving and seeks to eliminate the constraints that do not allow for each person to seek and find freedom and fulfillment.
In Education and Peace, Montessori writes, “An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves the spiritual development of [people], the enhancement of [their] value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live” (27). For Montessori, the human does not develop in isolation, does not learn or grow solely for the sake of being a ‘rugged individualist’ but seeks, as is our ancestral calling, to be with others in service to others. To be in the world and to use the material gifts of the world toward the building of a more just and equitable society. Her most sincere offering is that we see the hope of this in our children and adolescents.
As our semester comes to a close and we prepare for our own personal and familial ‘wintering,’ I invite you to take time to consider our role in our communities and the many ways we can continue to contribute toward the aims of ensuring human dignity for all. At Escuela del Sol Montessori, we are in service of this. This work includes the building up of young people, of sustaining one another and communing in service of something more just, something that centers joy and play and delight.
Rest well. Be well. We’ll see you in the new year!
Resources, References and Inspiration
loving corrections by adrienne maree brown
Education and Peace by Maria Montessori
Wintering by Katharine May
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