Children are the

Nancy Bradtmiller, Upper Elementary 2 Teacher

In Upper, we feel a great responsibility to our students knowing that “children are the future”. Dr. Montessori thought that education was the key for the development of citizens capable of coping with a changing world. Education is the result of interest and involvement in the world. Personal experiences during childhood determine the role a child will play as an adult. Cosmic Education cultivates good humans with gratitude and who participate in the improvement of humanity. Montessori said, “One of the normal traits of happy humans is the desire to use intelligence and endless curiosity to know, to explore, and to discover new things or new ways of using familiar objects”.

The elementary child yearns to understand “who am I?” and “why am I here?” Cosmic Education brings the world, in fact the universe, to our students and helps them find answers to these important questions. Great Lessons tell a story in a deliberate and dramatic fashion; calling upon upper students’ sense of reason and imagination to help them understand. They spark students’ curiosity and birth questions that drive their study and understanding. This follows the Montessori pattern of “story then study”; these stories connect the past with the present. Students come to appreciate the early accomplishments of our ancestors, considering them “unsung heroes”. We reflect on all the challenges they overcame and the “firsts” we now take for granted. Students realize that with the aid of imagination and intelligence, humans have the power to create new possibilities. Montessori declared that, “Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his utmost core”.

Upper’s lessons extend beyond our classrooms’ walls. Lessons offered in the indoor environment are awakened as students gain a broader view of the world and for the order of things. Students have the chance to observe what the Chart of Interdependence illustrates, life’s dependence upon the sun, land, air, and water as well as the relationships that exist between organisms; including human’s reliance upon one another. Montessori pointed out that every organism has a Cosmic Task, the unconscious contribution made to an ecosystem by an organism in the mere act of survival. Each takes something from the environment, but gives much more than it takes.

Dr. Montessori’s son, Mario Montessori, said of Cosmic Tasks, “Realization of this makes one appreciate the