Reflection on reading: Silence
"One day I entered the classroom holding in my arms a four-months-old baby girl that I had taken from her mother in the courtyard. ... She was so still that her silence impressed me greatly and I wanted the children to share my feelings. ... To my great surprise I saw that the children were looking at me with an extraordinary intensity. they seemed to be hanging on my lips and to be feeling keenly what I was saying. "Notice," I continued, "how soft her breath is. None of you could breathe as silently as she." Surprised and motionless, the children began to hold their breaths. At that moment there impressive silence. The tick-tock of the clock, which was not usually heard, began to become audible. It seemed as if the little girl had brought an atmosphere of silence into the room which is never found in daily life. No one made the least perceptible movement. They were intent upon experiencing the silence and reproducing it." (The Secret of Childhood, P. 123-124)
Dr. Montessori describes in The Secret of Childhood how she discovered the ability of the child to make silence, and to delight in the releasing of spirit. She brought a four month old sleeping baby into the classroom and asked the children to observe how very quiet she was. They couldn't even hear her delicate breathing. Dr. Montessori challenged the children to become as quiet as the baby. Willingly, the children obliged. Soon they were aware of drops of water falling outside in the courtyard, and of the song of a bird in a distant tree. The children each silenced their own movements and produced a collective quiet that was for them a profoundly spiritual experience.
This meditative quiet creates a fourth state of consciousness. It is a liberation. Montessori thought of the silence lesson as a means for bringing children to this level of spiritual awareness. True meditation takes over the whole man, because it places him before Eternal Truth. It calls upon the faculties of intellect, affection and emotion. This experience of willingly and consciously sublimating oneself to the group will release within the children a deeper knowledge of their own capacities.
The Silence Lesson is a group lesson. In regard to the group, it is respect for others. It can be prepared for by many small exercises in listening. Through these exercises children can learn that silence is the cessation of every movement. To achieve silence requires effort and the attention of the will, and maximum control of self-the inhibition of every movement. This silence of movement suspends normal life, and raises the person to another level-conquest of self.
The Silence Lesson should never be played to calm chaos or disorder. Children who might be a disturbing influence can be sent into the garden or another room to do something special.
There are many ways of inviting the children to silence. The teacher can whisper the word "Silence" very softly or turn over a prepared sign that says "Silence" in very beautiful lettering. At first just a few children are aware of the spreading quiet, but soon all the children are quieting their movements and making the collective quiet.
"One day I entered the classroom holding in my arms a four-months-old baby girl that I had taken from her mother in the courtyard. ... She was so still that her silence impressed me greatly and I wanted the children to share my feelings. ... To my great surprise I saw that the children were looking at me with an extraordinary intensity. they seemed to be hanging on my lips and to be feeling keenly what I was saying. "Notice," I continued, "how soft her breath is. None of you could breathe as silently as she." Surprised and motionless, the children began to hold their breaths. At that moment there impressive silence. The tick-tock of the clock, which was not usually heard, began to become audible. It seemed as if the little girl had brought an atmosphere of silence into the room which is never found in daily life. No one made the least perceptible movement. They were intent upon experiencing the silence and reproducing it." (The Secret of Childhood, P. 123-124)
Dr. Montessori describes in The Secret of Childhood how she discovered the ability of the child to make silence, and to delight in the releasing of spirit. She brought a four month old sleeping baby into the classroom and asked the children to observe how very quiet she was. They couldn't even hear her delicate breathing. Dr. Montessori challenged the children to become as quiet as the baby. Willingly, the children obliged. Soon they were aware of drops of water falling outside in the courtyard, and of the song of a bird in a distant tree. The children each silenced their own movements and produced a collective quiet that was for them a profoundly spiritual experience.
This meditative quiet creates a fourth state of consciousness. It is a liberation. Montessori thought of the silence lesson as a means for bringing children to this level of spiritual awareness. True meditation takes over the whole man, because it places him before Eternal Truth. It calls upon the faculties of intellect, affection and emotion. This experience of willingly and consciously sublimating oneself to the group will release within the children a deeper knowledge of their own capacities.
The Silence Lesson is a group lesson. In regard to the group, it is respect for others. It can be prepared for by many small exercises in listening. Through these exercises children can learn that silence is the cessation of every movement. To achieve silence requires effort and the attention of the will, and maximum control of self-the inhibition of every movement. This silence of movement suspends normal life, and raises the person to another level-conquest of self.
The Silence Lesson should never be played to calm chaos or disorder. Children who might be a disturbing influence can be sent into the garden or another room to do something special.
There are many ways of inviting the children to silence. The teacher can whisper the word "Silence" very softly or turn over a prepared sign that says "Silence" in very beautiful lettering. At first just a few children are aware of the spreading quiet, but soon all the children are quieting their movements and making the collective quiet.