The Natural Child
by Molly O’Shaughnessy
2013 International Congress: Guided by Nature
“This force that we call love is the greatest energy of the
universe.”—Dr. Maria Montessori
Anthony, the father of a five-year-old boy, is moved to tears by his
son’s commitment to peacefulness. His hope is that his son will
remain peaceful and whole. Anthony has changed as a parent
because of his son. His heart is full. The deep emotion he feels
moves us as well, for we know the purity and power of the young
child. We know Anthony’s son will continue to grow and develop in
this manner if he is not prevented from doing so. We know his
spirit is the true spirit of humanity, one that we long to recapture.
We know he is born with the drive to connect with, love, and
cherish all that his human environment has to offer. We know that
love is the humanizing need and what makes us most human.
Montessori looked deeply into the nature of love, particularly as
part of the nature of children. She said we must study love and use
it. It is a gift that has a specific purpose. She states, “It must be
treasured, developed and enlarged to the fullest possible extent…
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It holds the universe together because it is a real force, and not just
an idea” (Absorbent Mind, 259).
The love Montessori spoke of is not simply a sentimental kind of
love, but “a love of the intelligence which sees and assimilates and
builds itself through loving” (Secret of Childhood, 99). And this
powerful kind of love that we witness in the child allows him to
engage with the environment in an intense, observant, and
meticulous way. He has the power to see things no longer visible to
us.
The novelty of the world intrigues him; its beauty and graciousness
inspire and comfort him. With an open heart and mind, he fully
embraces it, longing to know everything about it. Just as when we
newly fall in love there is a spotlight, to the exclusion of everything
else, on the object of our desire, for the child, the object of his
desire is all the details of this new world, and he wants to know
about everything. There is a spotlight on the world for the child
that illuminates all its splendor.
This intense love of the environment within each child is “the
secret of all man’s progress and the secret of social evolution”
(Education and Peace, 106).
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Montessori says we adults have lost much of what the child has.
Children are here to remind us, if we are open to it, that “There is
another life, that you have forgotten. Learn to live better” (Secret of
Childhood, 103). Children renew us. Anthony’s son renewed him.
We must all learn to live better. And children can show the way.
We can take one line from The Secret of Childhood as the
foundation of our work, allowing all that we do to flow from it:
The whole labor of life, which fulfills itself subject to its
laws and brings beings into harmony, reaches
consciousness under the form of LOVE.… [The child’s]
self-realization comes about in him through love. (99)
Life, says Montessori, “… fulfills itself subject to its laws.” This is the
key—subject to its laws. These laws require our knowledge and our
deep protection.
The laws of nature are immutable. Just as we cannot go into the
womb and form the child, we cannot form the child once he is born.
This is his creative work. The child loves whatever he takes in,
absorbs it into his life, and uses it to create himself.
In light of the theme of this congress, I share John Stuart Mill’s
insightful metaphor about the laws of nature:
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Human nature is not a machine to be built after a
model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it,
but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on
all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces
which make it a living thing.… A person whose desires
and impulses are his own—are the expression of his
own nature, as it has been developed and modified by
his own culture—is said to have a character. (On
Liberty, 34–35)
The laws of nature must be our guide. The duty of adults is to
protect children. To borrow a line from the song “All Love Can Be,”
we must tell each child, “I will guard you with my bright wings, stay
till your heart learns to see all love can be.”
The creative process has vast implications for achieving a new
world. Each child born is an adventure into a better life and
represents an opportunity for change, invention, innovation, and
creativity. Each child has a deep longing to understand what it
means to be a human in this universe and what his or her
contribution might be to the whole. A failure to nurture the child’s
tendency to create is not just an omission; it is an obstruction of
the laws of nature. Such an obstruction may lead to malformation
and improper adaption of the human being—a shutting down of
the most potent gift available to humans, causing a profoundly
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negative consequence on all of society, worldwide. Montessori took
it a step further and called it a “diseased humanity.”
Our Montessori environments inherently support the creation of
minds and spirits capable of self-transcendence, wills capable of
acting intentionally for the ethical and responsible advancement of
humanity. Freedom to develop the mind to its fullest creates a new
level of perception, resulting in new mental structures capable of
thinking in more profound ways. Through this advancement, the
child becomes the renewer of a new world order.
Unless constrained or obstructed, the human being energetically
seeks to transcend the observable and predictable, discovering the
universe as a source for creativity. To protect these boundless
energies, each period of development requires conscious and
intentional care and cultivation. Montessori metaphorically states,
“The life of man is whole in its length, like a cord” (To Educate the
Human Potential, 116).
As we move along the continuum of life, we incarnate the elements
that surround us, weaving the cord of life with all its delicacy and
intricacy. Each season, unique unto itself, contributes to the unity
of the being. As the primary characteristics of one season fade and
the next one evolves, all that was previously created is securely
woven into the cord, and “if touched in one part, the whole length
vibrates” (To Educate the Human Potential, 116).
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Sustaining the unity of the person throughout development must
be a primary goal. Real learning incorporates what it means to be
human in all dimensions, enhancing all energies—intellectual,
spiritual, and moral—in an undivided form. And as Montessori
tells us, if we “satisfy the constructive energies of man, the rest
follows” (“Moral and Social Education”).
This is what is possible—but what is our reality?
Many of today’s environments, both educationally and socially,
unconsciously obstruct and impede the natural process within
each child. And tragically, one of the most influential
environments, nature, is increasingly missing in the lives of many
children. The patterns of interaction children establish with nature
throughout childhood influence their actions throughout life—
thus, the loss of the natural world puts development at great risk.
As John Sawhill, former CEO of the Nature Conservancy, concludes,
“In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create
but by what we refuse to destroy.”
Somewhere, as we navigate life, we drift off course, forgetting to
collaborate with nature and instead becoming repressed by
overwhelming negative societal forces of
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poverty—both financial and spiritual—violence, inattentiveness,
stress, and so forth. We lose the enchanted world of childhood, the
wonder of cloud formations, the comfort of a gentle breeze upon
our face. We become more serious, analytical, suspicious, and
closed-minded.
A book I read ten years ago continues to inspire me. If I Get to Five,
by pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Fred Epstein, was inspired by a fouryear-old girl named Naomi, who had a life-threatening brain
tumor. Dr. Epstein decided she needed two surgeries if she had any
chance of surviving. She recovered from the first and in a feisty
voice told him, “If I get to five, I am going to learn to ride a twowheeler.” She intuited that it was an “if,” not a “when.” He found
himself drawing courage from Naomi. He states,
[Children] inspire us to dig deeper for the strength to
do what feels the hardest, what’s scariest.… People tend
to think of children as weak and vulnerable, as fragile
little people. In my experience, they are giants. They
have immense and open hearts. Their minds can
expand to encompass any reality. Their bodies and
souls are amazingly resilient. (3–4)
Twenty years after Naomi, Dr. Epstein had his greatest life lesson
through a letter from the grave. He was at the top of his game. His
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success had made him arrogant enough to perceive technology as
an end in itself. Then a grieving mother sent him a poem.
Chris, a seventeen-year-old who had been a patient of his, had
written this poem two weeks before he died:
I have for many useless hours contemplated eternity.
I have prayed in the night
By the cold and lonely side of my bed
For the peace and strength of our living God.
And I still wonder: Will I be saved?
I wait with hope in my heart.
I am struggling, O Lord, to stay alive
I am losing sacred strength
I am living a life of confusion
And death is very near.
I ask you, reader, whoever you may be,
Take my trembling hand and warm it with care and sympathy.
I believe that love is the sole purpose of man’s life.
And without love life is sterile and without meaning.
But with love life has wonder.
With love life has color and beauty.
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Reading it “demolished” Dr. Epstein. He laments, “I had done
everything I could to save his life, but I had ignored his deepest
emotional need—to feel love.… I hadn’t heard his plea until it was
too late” (If I Get to Five, 15).
As a result of this experience, he created, from the ground up, a
different kind of healing environment, “a pediatric unit where
emotional intelligence mattered as much as technical expertise”
(16). It totally transformed the experiences that families, children,
and medical staff had with these gravely ill children. This is just
one example of someone who went back to the life he had
forgotten. Just imagine if there were thousands more.
Montessori made an ardent and passionate plea for the child. She
advocated on behalf of all children at so many levels and in so
many ways. Until all segments of society advocate as fiercely, it will
be difficult to reach our goals.
Montessori said two things need to be accomplished to ensure
healthy development according to the laws of nature: first,
constructing suitable environments and second, “bringing a new
attitude toward children on the parts of adults” (Education and
Peace, 91).
Prepared environments cannot be limited to educational
environments. They must include homes, hospitals, museums, and
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the natural world—just to name a few. Many of these environments
currently do not support the needs of children. Prepared
environments, permeated with the optimal conditions for
development, have the capacity to heal—to make whole again.
They become an “oasis of peace,” where children are
unencumbered, free to explore in a haven of endless time.
In particular, the natural environment has the capacity to heal,
inspire, and keep us whole. Unfortunately, children are too often
given artificial outdoor spaces instead of natural landscapes—
sterile, cold, and uninteresting. Yet we know that a child’s
exploration of unspoiled nature stimulates his powers of
observation, develops patience, fosters creativity, and instills a
sense of calm and connectedness.
Although designing and creating physical environments for
children has certain challenges, creating healthy psychological
environments is a far greater challenge.
Too many children are suffering in the world, suffering from the
obstacles they face—physical, psychological, or cultural—while
striving to follow inner directives. We must attempt to remove
these obstacles if we are to support a new humanity. We must be
committed to creating environments congruent with life. In this
effort we become both a protector and an “interpreter” for the
child.
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A negative, ill-prepared psychological environment can have dire
repercussions. It can manifest itself in violence and aggression, or
more subtly, as passivity. Such an environment is often created
unconsciously, due to lack of understanding, rather than out of
malice. Both external and internal factors repress children’s
natural instincts.
A repressed person cannot develop normally, so we see a variety of
malformations. And when children act out at home or in school we
ask, “What’s wrong with you?,” when the correct question is “What
happened to you?”
In Childhood Under Siege, Joel Bakan describes the “New
Curriculum of Childhood” as infested with violent images, media
sexualization, addictive use of technology, and a culture that
“works to pry them loose from us,” making it harder for us to
connect with and safeguard children’s natural energies in a healthy
way (37).
To counteract these negative influences, we continue to perfect
what Montessori calls the “technique of love” (“The Three levels of
Ascent,” 1) in our approach with children. It is a revealing term to
use. Technique implies rigor, order, and structure, while love adds
empathy, compassion, and reflection. Without love, the technique
is rendered meaningless. Many of our educational woes today may
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exist because our systems are developed as “techniques,” not
necessarily rooted in love. Love is the motivating factor and is the
most potent source of unity. From this central virtue, all other
virtues flow.
Over a hundred years ago, Dr. Montessori told us that the truths
she had discovered about children should concern us not only as
educators, but as a society as well.
She impressed upon us that change could not come about through
theories or through the work of a few energetic organizers, but
would evolve slowly with the emergence of “a new world in the
midst of the old—the world of the child and the adolescent” (Secret
of Childhood, 225). And if tended to, “normal life of society would
gradually evolve”(225).
What continues to lag is a focus on the inner presence of the child.
Most of the work being done under the name of “educational
reform” has primarily to do with curriculum and standards,
worrying more about the future child than the present child.
Metaphorically, if we try to force-feed children whose digestive
systems are not matured, it will make them sick. Just as we know
that chewing very slowly helps the digestive enzymes break down
the food more effectively, yielding more nutrients for the body, we
know that perception, knowledge, and insight take time and
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unlimited attention and focus.
There is an old Polish saying, “Sleep faster, we need the pillows,”
which reminds us there are some things that just will not be
rushed. Studies demonstrate that “the brain is designed to work
most efficiently when it works on a single task and for sustained
rather than intermittent and alternating periods of time” (Restak,
The New Brain, 58).
Every child is unique in his process of learning, and each needs to
be honored. Montessori’s understanding of the need for rest,
reflection, and silent mediation in the process of learning is more
countercultural now than ever, as she writes:
We must therefore turn to the child as to the key to the
fate of our future life … to learn from him the practical
secret of our own life. From this point of view the figure
of the child presents itself as powerful and mysterious,
an object of meditation, for the child who holds in
himself the secret of our nature becomes our master.
(Secret of Childhood, 227)
It takes deep reverence for the child to be able to embrace him as
our master, recognizing him as the source of love, and our greatest
hope for both personal and world renewal.
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References
Bakan, Joel. Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets
Children. New York: Free Press, 2011.
Epstein, Fred, and Joshua Horwitz. If I Get to Five. New York: Henry
Holt, 2003.
Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. 1859. London: Longmans, Green, 1913.
Montessori, Maria. The Absorbent Mind. 1949. Madras, India:
Kalakshetra, 1982.
Montessori, Maria. To Educate the Human Potential. 1948. Madras,
India: Kalakshetra, 1975.
Montessori, Maria. Education and Peace. 1949. Trans. Helen R Lane.
Madras, India: Kalakshetra, 1972.
Montessori, Maria. “Moral and Social Education.” Lecture,
Edinburgh, 1938. AMI Communications 1984, no. 4: 15–19.
Montessori, Maria. The Secret of Childhood. 1936. Trans. Barbara
Barclay Carter. London: Orient Longmans, 1985.
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Montessori, Maria. “The Three Levels of Ascent.” Around the Child 7
(1962): 1–3.
Restak, Richard. The New Brain. New York: Rodale, 2003.
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