Secrets of Childhood

“Those who contemplate a rare and excellent object are pleasantly surprised by the astonishment and admiration they experience at the first sight of the object, even before they recognize in detail the particularities of the subject they are contemplating” (pg 114). And this seems to become the weakness for the soul but it actually becomes the strength and energy. The soul gets its strength from its weakness, elevating itself to a higher standard or greater light. Due to the sacred mystery of Incarnation we are touched by the great importance of this and we, according to the author, believe that we have to lift ourselves to God and praise him in the unique work of his and to take in the secrets and the depth of the mystery. In the same way, we leave the earthly things and contemplate the “true sun of the world” the one that enlightens us. “For the sun is the image of God, the Father of nature, the universal source of life.” (pg 115). And through this Jesus is his image in both natures divine and humanity. The sun was formed in the midst of days set aside for creation. The sun became the source of light for both heaven and earth similar to the eternal

We have now come to the fourth and final book of Mere Christianity. In this book, the author takes us to the place in our Christian growth where we begin to rely more heavily on the power of God and less on ourselves to become the being that God originally intended for us to be — a son of God. He begins with an explanation of the difference between “making” and “begetting.”

On May 1940, German forced invaded France; by June 14th German troops successfully marched into Paris. The French government did not give into exile but rather signed an armistice agreement that allowed Germans to divide France into two parts: occupied zones and unoccupied zones. The French government was located in Vichy, France; leaders were subordinate to the German’s rule. Between September 1940 and June 1942, the German occupation of France caused the Vichy Government to pass many Anti- Jewish laws: including expanding the category of who is a Jew, forbidding free negotiation of Jewish-owned capital, confiscating radios in Jewish possession, executing and deporting Jewish members of the resistance movement, establishing a curfew,

We have now come to the fourth and final book of Mere Christianity. In this book, the author takes us to the place in our Christian growth where we begin to rely more heavily on the power of God and less on ourselves to become the being that God originally intended for us to be — a son of God. He begins with an explanation of the difference between “making” and “begetting”.

Wright (2000) explores two complementary approaches to learning, both of which are essential for the establishment of spiritual literacy. An effective spiritual education, he suggests it must be equally committed to education as nurture and education as critique. The book focuses on the process of spiritual nurture, defending the thesis that spiritual education ought to consciously and intentionally ground students in a specific spiritual tradition, as identified, articulated and owned by the school

Some reasons why childhood has changed during the past generation are the crimes surged from the 60’s through the early ‘90s, stories of abducted children appeared constantly in the news and this created fear in many parents. The society changed, people seem to have more malicious and that is why parents started to be more cautious.

Childhood has its own ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling which are proper to it/ child’s mind considered as a blank state to be inscribed by experience: the infant is often compared to a ‘white paper’ to be written over or to a plastic substance (wax) to be molded

Maria Montessori founded an education system which is called Montessori and still bares her name, her system is based on belief in the child’s creative potential, (Douglas, n.d.). Her first Casa Dei Bambini (Children’s house), where Maria was using her approach of teaching was opened in 1907 in Rome. She was great educator who believed that children are learning through their personal experience at their right time and their own pace. (Ridgway, 2007). Children rather than learning largely from what the teachers and the textbooks say, learn from “doing”,(Douglas, n.d.). To provide for children an effective, independent learning process, and that they become a competent and confident learner, Teacher had to provide for children a healthy, clean, well-prepared and well organised environment in which children could develop. Maria Montessori came up with idea that if children have to work and play independently, they have to be comfortable and need appropriately sized tools and items that fit their small hands (Mooney, 2000). Montessori believed that children learn through sensory experiences. Teacher has a responsibility to provide wonderful sights, textures, sounds, and smells for children. Sensory

Childhood: Growing up in a family that was ripe with mental illness lent me an unique perspective on the idea of social norms that allowed me the personal freedom to explore life to the very limits of my morality.

DR Maria Montessori’s main discovery was the reality of a child’s true nature WHICH IS the NORMALIZED CHILD. She described the

There is no set level that all children must follow; they learn when they explore by themselves. This method leaves children with freedom where they can learn self-discipline in a place designed specifically for their developmental needs. Teachers would have a part in the education of children though even though 80% of it was up to the children. Teachers are to make sure that children are presented with the right extent of material at the right time. In other words, if a child is too advanced for one activity, a teacher would present a new one to fit them, and vice versa. Maria believed if her methods were applied to public schools the results would be even better than the traditional method results. Since the government didn't let her, she started to work with poor daycare children. She doubted that her methods would work under these conditions but she had shocking results. She discovered if the children were in an orderly place to work, they will respect that and care for it. They are able to learn longer and better than in an everyday setting. In Montessori preschool, five areas make up the prepared learning environment. These areas include practical life, the sensorial area, mathematics, and cultural activities. In the elementary program, areas include integration, presentation of knowledge, presentation of the formal scientific languages, the use of visual aids, mathematic curriculum, Montessori trained teachers, emphasis on open-ended research and

Dr. Maria Montessori is the creator for the Montessori Education Method for a new world who devoted her life to improve children’s education excellence. Her educational method is widely used in schools or at home for children 3 t0 6 years old. Maria Montessori lived through one of the traumatic time eras of the world history, which changed everybody’s lives including children. It was the time of anxiety, cruelty, death, family separation and children facing starvation. Maria Montessori felt the best solution to overcome endless, war, violence and poverty is education. Therefore, Maria Montessori believed educating the next generation will improve children’s live and future of the

It is accepted that there is Reality and Nature in the classroom. This is because Maria Montessori wanted the child to be in touch with real, comprehensible things in his environment. She didn’t believe in obscuring the child’s sense of reality by introducing him to a fantasy world. This was to enable him to think appropriately by interacting with and re-acting to the world around him. Make-believe situations close the mind of the child. “Nature” in classrooms is necessary for him to be able to communicate with his environment and categorise his perception of his imagination. Reality and nature in the classroom helps the child develop his imagination and powers of creativity. With “real” things around him, his imaginative play is revealed through the cluster of suggestions and anticipations that gather about the things he uses. For e.g. the classrooms have many real objects such as real jugs and glasses

Dr. Maria Montessori was a keen observer of children. She used her observational and experimental proclivities from her medical background to develop, what we might today call, a Constructivist understanding of the process of learning. She studied them scientifically. If she saw some unusual behavior in a child, she would say,”I won’t believe it now, I shall if it happens again”. She studied the conditions in which the children would perform those actions.

During the observation of children at Casa Dei Bambini, Dr. Maria Montessori discovered that children prefer work to play. They were able to achieve a self integration through this work. She found that the aggressive and destructive children became calm and peaceful after working with the materials. She concluded that through work the child seemed to get fulfillment of some internal need which made him normalized.