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Of all things love is the most potent. —Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind, p. 269. Love… it’s a complicated emotion. We can love our child, our partner, or our pet. We can love pizza, the smell of rain, or cheering for our favorite football team. We can love a good book, a walk along the beach, or sleeping in on Saturday mornings. How then, do we teach a child to love? The Greeks thought love to be so multifaceted they actually had six terms for it: eros — passionate, romantic love philia — the love between friends, or between parent and child ludus — the affectionate, playful love often seen in children or those in a new relationship agape — love for humankind pragma — longstanding love, like that of long-married couples pilautia — love of self When we look at those six types of love, we see that agape comes closest to Montessori’s vision of cosmic education. Theologians have described agape in various ways. C.S. Lewis called it “the gift” and the highest form of Christian lov...

Children construct their own characters. —Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind, p. 208. The Absorbent Mind, Chapter 20: Character Building is the Child’s Own Achievement Montessori tells us that the child’s sensitive period for character building is between the ages of three and six. This is the result of “a long and slow sequence of activities carried out by the child himself between the ages of three and six.” (Montessori, p. 208) Surprisingly, Montessori says that character building does not happen from our teachings. “At this time, no one can ‘teach’ the qualities of which character is composed.” The reason behind this is due to the fact that one’s conscience begins to function between ages 6 and 12. Up until then, children cannot understand or “visualize the problems of good and evil.” (Montessori, p. 208) Adults often use the phrase “use your words” with young children when assisting them to solve conflicts, but this is rarely helpful to the children. The idea that children know w...

It follows that the child’s character develops in accordance with the obstacles he has encountered or the freedom favoring his development that he has enjoyed. —Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind, p. 195. The Absorbent Mind, Chapter 18: Character and Its Defects in Childhood In today’s era of political correctness, to use the term ‘defect’ with children seems harsh and out of place. We think of things being defective, not people. Etymologically speaking, the term defect means a failure or falling away (desertion) rather than in reference to something being broken. When looked at in that respect, we can read Chapter 18 less defensively. In this case, the defects in character do not stem not from the child but from the behavior of the adults in the child’s life. Montessori grouped character defects in children into two categories: characteristics shown by children with strong wills “who resist and overcome the obstacles they meet,” (Montessori, p. 197) and characteristics shown by child...