Maria Montessori and peace education

“Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education.“ Maria Montessori

If you have not heard of this wonderful woman run (don’t walk) to the Wikipedia article about her.  You might note in particular that through her pedagogical methds some of her “special ed” kids actually did better than “normal” kids on the Italian state exams!  That is amazing!  She had to be on to something.

What is of particular interest to us, is that she included dimensions of peace education from early on, and the various Montessori organizations have developed them in a wonderful way.  Look at this page, for instance.  The whole explanation is very informative, but here is one passage that I think gives a sense of how they approach peace ed.:

“As children become more aware of their inner peace and learn to relate harmoniously with others, they begin to develop sensitivity and awareness for people of other cultures and the global environment”

As you go through this document, you begin to see that a sense of inner peace is infused early on into children, which is then drawn upon to help them learn ways to foster outward peace in social relations.

Here is an overview of an actual Montesorri School’s peace education curriculum.  Again, it becomes clear that personal fulfillment is inseparably tied to inner and outer peace, and more broadly to living in harmony will all aspects of creation.

Here is a great page of links on the subject, including information about Gandhi’s visit with Maria Montessori.

IGbarb says:  check it out!