by Sharlet J. McClurkin
(Presented to the Centennial Celebration in Beijing, China, on January 7, 2007.)

What if Dr. Montessori's ideas had never been given to the world? What if she had continued in her medical career, rather than becoming an educator? What if there had been no Montessori influence upon education today? Who would have been the advocate for the sensate learning needs, or of the need of respect, for the child? One hundred years after her first school opened in Rome, Italy, on January 6, 1907, it is time to examine her place in the lives of young children, and adults, around the world.

Public education leaders may not realize it, but Montessori's materials and even some of her ideas pop up here and there, in materials catalogs, in "math their way," in "open classrooms," in group learning. I am old enough to remember sitting at a desk all day, desks in four rows, from front to back. My last name began with "s" so that meant I was usually toward the back. I didn't find out until I was thirteen that the reason I couldn't see the blackboard was that I needed glasses. (While waiting in line for my eyes to be checked at school, I memorized the eye chart so that I would not make a mistake.) "Learning" was excruciatingly boring without any "manipulatives" in the 1940's!

I remember speaking with Nancy Rambusch, the founder of the American Montessori Society, a few months before her death. In her lecture in Chicago, she stated that AMS was founded by a small group of Catholic mothers who wanted something better for their own children than traditional education. Then she said that Montessori was a "charisma" of the 20th century. I later asked her what that meant, and she said that it means "a gift", a grace beyond necessity, given to humans. Being first an historian, then a Montessori teacher, I often think of this and the anachronism of Montessori's sensate learning in the age of the computer. Would children have forgotten to run and play, even more so than they have today, if it were not for Montessori? Would children, from toddlers to high school students, spend their entire days at the computer, growing long, bony fingers and huge, bulging eyes?

As my husband and I land in a new country to speak about Montessori education, I often think, "We are coming to free the children…to bring them independence." Even though the domination of the adult is usually benevolent, nevertheless it is not freeing. Maria Montessori's pervasive and foundational philosophy of respect for each individual child is based upon her mentor of 2,000 years before, Jesus Christ, who said, "Let the little children come to me, do not stop them (let them be free), for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."

What if...no one was thinking about Montessori's unique idea of the polarity between the child and the adult? Adults often say to a young boy, "Don't cry! Be a man!" when the boy is not a man. He is a child, and thinks and feels like a child. This is a great burden, laid upon the child, by unthinking adults. But Montessori said, "Adults and children are at opposite 'poles' of humanity." We cannot use our logic to understand children because we no longer think as they do. We have forgotten how children think, so we must wait for children to reveal themselves to us. Imagine, the 21th century adult cannot use his mind to discover the truth about children! He must wait and observe the child to gain knowledge. This is a humbling experience for the human being who, using his intellect, can send a man to the moon!

• What if...there were no young children who truly enjoy learning for its own sake, and they all began wanting rewards?
• What if...children began "playing" and learning like adults, for a purpose, not a process?
• What if...even young children never moved and became "glued" to desks and paper and pencils?
• What if...adults never knew about the child's sensate need to learn, and his natural absorbency to knowledge?
• What if...no one knew that there are times in the child's life when she learns something the most easily and best?
• What if...no one discovered that a child's environment is his world and that its orderly structure fits his mind?
• What if...adults always chose for the child and she became a stunted, misshapen robot?
• What if...we adults could never see the beauty of the young child, concentrating on his work?
• What if...the child ignored the beauty of nature and lived only in his fantasy world?
• What if...there was no quiet environment for children to think and reflect?
• What if...no children ever developed to normalization or obedience?
• What if...adults could never see the child's thirst for spiritual things?

In 2007 let us take time to reflect upon the gift that Maria Montessori was to the child, and to the adult.

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