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Montessori, Ecology and the Pedagogy of Love

Afbeelding voor Montessori, Ecology and the Pedagogy of Love
We are currently living in strange and fascinating times, where change is happening at a rate perhaps never before experienced in human history. This, of course, brings with it huge challenges, but it also presents us with huge possibilities related to our shared ability to choose the future that we all really want, rather than the one that might be predictable.

By Wendy Ellyatt, The Flourish Project

One of the key aspects of this phase is a raised human awareness of how we are all interconnected and how the things that go in one part of the world directly influence other parts. We are also becoming more aware of how our own values, mindsets and internal states have been profoundly influenced by the environments that we have uniquely experienced, and how these states then impact on others. According to the 2019 World Peace Index2, the global economic impact of violence was $14.1 trillion PPP in 2018, equivalent to 11.2 per cent of global GDP or $1,853 per person. There are deep social structures at play that are constantly shaping the emergent patterns of the future, currently with three major divides – spiritual, social and ecological.

To become more aware, we therefore need to explore both the inner and outer aspects of human societies i.e

Understanding the world from ‘Inside-out’ – how our own backgrounds, experiences, values, thoughts and emotions influence our behaviour and activities.

And ‘outside-in’ – how the external pressures and expectations of the systems that we live within (i.e., families, communities, political and religious systems and cultures) influence our thoughts, emotions, values and behaviours.

The Flourish Model promotes an understanding of the Ecological Self and is implemented as a holistic framework that shows the intimate relationship between self, others and the natural world. As a whole-systems model, the framework enables the mapping of all seventeen of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the perspective of child developmental wellbeing.

Maria Montessori’s work is currently returning to the foreground as remarkably relevant to the issues that the modern world is now facing. Much of her thinking around early human development has now been endorsed by the new Science of Early Childhood and her cosmic perspective is being recognised as highly consistent with the latest thinking on spirituality, ecology and sustainability.

Read Wendy’s full paper exploring Montessori, Ecology and the Pedagogy of Lovehere, and join us this Tuesday, 26 October at 19.00 (CEST) for a webinar which will explain the work of the Flourish Project and will show how Montessori’s thinking was ahead of its time in terms of ecological approaches and the importance of early childhood development. It will introduce the Flourish Model and show how young children are important global participants in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). You can register for the webinar, freely open to all, here.