Entering Into Newness

    Well here we go again – entering into newness. Together with our children we are stepping into a new year and a new decade of this new century -- welcome 2011! Traditionally it is fitting time for us to take a look back, make some resolutions, and then with some wisdom and with our arms linked as colleagues bravely step forward into tomorrow’s tomorrows. My job is to develop the wisdom needed by you, the parents, children, and educators, to live the life given us successfully, happily, productively. I am the resident philosopher committed to present you with the Montessori principles that have shaped and refined our school as a learning environment fitting the developmental needs of children who are preparing themselves for a meaningful personal life within the 21st century.

    This year that has just ended has been physically trying for me as my body has begun to show the wear and tear of age, and though this has limited my mobility, it has been a blessing for it has caused me to focus on those values both good and natural that while expressed by the physical aspects of our bodies are most essential to being a person and are beyond mere physical matter and the disabilities of aging. There is that within you and me that is revealed by the expression of our faces, by the genius of our creativity, and by the kindness of our actions – like the beauty we see in nature and hear in music and feel in loving kindness – an eternal reality beyond mere physicality. You and I have been living into this reality of goodness together. I like that communion greatly! Let’s go on confidently, happily.

    I resolve to continue scooting around in my red rocket telling stories and giving philosophy seminars to your children for I know that doing such helps develop virtue in them – and virtue is the most practical of all our learning since it touches the very center of personal life. Becoming virtuous is both existential and sacred because it relates to how we with our personal beings interact with and change our real world for the better. History has taught us that it is not enough to merely be taught skills. We must at the same time deeply learn the value of positive human relationships. Our personal decisions and actions have immediate and global effects. These effects can be plainly seen and have real worth.

     As parents and educators we have the responsibility to evaluate the developmental progress of our children. Testing for the growth of academic skills is routine -- done and recorded and reported daily. How do we evaluate this deeper development? How do we discern the presence of virtue within the children given to our care? In my training lectures I suggest the observational criteria that Dr. Montessori used. She pointed out that children were beings of nature just as plants growing within our gardens. We as “gardeners of the human potential” must discern whether this child is evidently “thriving, wilting, or stunted” there before our eyes. The thriving child displays energy, interest – and is smiling as he or she goes about the daily living in our learning community. The wilting child is tired looking, bored -- seems glum. The stunted child at first glance appears to be engaged but really is spinning wheels and going nowhere, not involved wholly – a statue just there.

    When we see a stunted child we must find some way to awaken interest by fresh enthusiastic presentations that fit and inflame. Responding to the wilting child is most critical since that learner is in a down spiral and requires immediate remediation – often some consultation to uncover the physical or emotional cause of such an un-normal state of being. Ah, but the thriving child is as welcomed as a sunny day and being strong in self-direction needs us only to match the sunshine of his or her smiling face measure for measure with our own smiles as we present new challenges.

    Yes, virtue means inner strength, the health of one’s inner being, and is made very evident to us by a smiling face. Can you imagine my joy as I sit there by the front door in my red scooter and am greeted with so very many smiling faces each morning and throughout the school day? Virtue abounds here, and all is good with this our world. Happy New Year!

Peace,

Paul

January 3, 2011 · Paul Czaja