“Humanity
today” . . . “resembles an abandoned child who finds himself lost in a wood at
night, and is frightened by the shadows and mysterious noises of the night. Men
do not clearly realize what are the forces that draw them into war, (or the
need for guns), and for that reason they are defenceless against them.” Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, E.
M. Standing, p. 81.
She
goes on to say that, “there must be something radically wrong with our
civilization that it should be threatened in this way from within. The vast majority of human beings on this planet do
not want war; yet wars come. The causes of war, she would have us believe, are
not those which appear on the surface and immediately precipitate its outbreak.
They lie deep down in the collective subconscious of humanity.
“The real reason”
. . . “is that something was wanting in the building up of our civilization. A
vital factor has been left out: and that is, the child as a creative social
factor,”. . . “we have only taken into account, “adult values of life.”. . . “regarding
childhood merely as a stage through which the individual has to pass in order
to become an adult”. . .“from the individual’s point of view.”
Childhood
is more than this Maria tells us. Childhood is an important entity of its own .
. . “the other pole of humanity.”
When
we hold a babe in our arms, look into the eyes of a toddler, enjoy watching
their play, do we imagine or see them with guns or at war? Don’t we see and
feel a sense of hope that they will live in peace without guns? Isn’t Christmas
a time to foresee a world of peace?
Maria
tells us, “The child and the adult are two distinct parts of humanity which
must work together and interpenetrate with reciprocal aid,”. . . “not only the
adult who must help the child, but also the child who must help the adult.”
More next week.
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