Words I come back to
again and again:
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"The moral defect which arises in us and prevents our understanding a child is anger. . . .
"Indeed, anger in its simplest form . . . shows itself as a reaction so some open resistance on the part of the child. But in the presence of the obscure expressions of the child's mind, anger and pride [in the adult] are inter-penetrated in a complex mass, assuming the precise, tranquil and respectable form which is called tyranny.
An oppression which is not disputed places the tyrannous person in an impregnable stronghold of authority and recognized rights. Just because he is an adult makes him right to the child. To discuss this question would be to make an attack on a state of sovereignty which is recognized and sacrosanct. In the society of adults, a tyrant used to be recognized as the elect of God. But to the child a grown -up person represents God Himself. it is beyond discussion; in fact the only person who could discuss it is the child, and he remains silent. He accommodates himself to everything, believes everything, pardons everything. When he is punished, he does not try to justify himself, and willingly asks the pardon of any angry person, forgetting to inquire how he has given offense.
Sometimes too the child will do something to defend himself. This defense is hardly ever a direct reply to the act of the adult, but a vital defense of its own "psychic" integrity, or the reaction of a repressed spirit.
It is only when the child is growing up that he begins to direct his defense with discernment against tyranny; but then the adult finds reasons to justify himself by entrenching himself more and more behind his camouflages. Sometimes he even succeeds in convincing the child that it is for his good that the teacher becomes a tyrant.
"Respect" is only paid by one side; the weak respects the strong. An offense on the part of teacher is legitimate; he can judge the child unfavorably, openly speak ill of him, even go so far as to strike him. The needs of the child are directed and suppressed by the teacher at will and any protest on the part of the child is an insubordination which would be dangerous to tolerate. . . .
[The teacher] in his pride has convinced himself that he has created everything that is in the child; he makes him intelligent, good, religious. That is to say; it is he who has prepared the way necessary to put the child in communication with his surrounding, with man and with God. . . .
What is called for is an act of humility. We must pluck from our hearts a rooted prejudice, just as the priest before ascending to the altar recites his Confiteor. . . .
The charity which helps people to become teachers of little children is that which shows itself in the child, the goodness which the child itself succeeds in showing. Teachers and all those engaged in education, however are more inclined to see evil, so that they may check it at once in the most effective and thorough way. It seems rather as if in that alone consisted all the essentials of a moral education. In the way the roots of good which are beginning to sprout in the children's soul may remain unrecognized and denied.
[A teacher] might often believe that it was he who had sowed the seed of good in the child's soul, and be blind to many delicate and childlike expressions of goodness, just as one who suffers from daltonism is blind to certain colors.
A sensibility capable of seeing good wherever it may be found, even if it is something quite small and hidden away, is allied to the perfect love of which our Master, Christ, was the exemplar. And that love, which lights up everything, we call "charity."
We must not confuse this charity with vague forms of optimism. It does not make us regard all existing things as good, but only what is really good and on that account to be clearly distinguished from evil . Thus the eye of a great artist recognizes at once a really precious object, even if it is small and mixed with many ugly and vulgar things while on the contrary an uneducated person, insensitive to beauty, might regard the ugly things as pleasing and be blind to the beauties of a real work of art.
The kind of goodness to which everything seems good, and evil non-existent, is, therefore, something totally different from the charity which is needed in good teachers of the young."
~ Maria Montessori
The Child in the Church
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"The moral defect which arises in us and prevents our understanding a child is anger. . . .
"Indeed, anger in its simplest form . . . shows itself as a reaction so some open resistance on the part of the child. But in the presence of the obscure expressions of the child's mind, anger and pride [in the adult] are inter-penetrated in a complex mass, assuming the precise, tranquil and respectable form which is called tyranny.
An oppression which is not disputed places the tyrannous person in an impregnable stronghold of authority and recognized rights. Just because he is an adult makes him right to the child. To discuss this question would be to make an attack on a state of sovereignty which is recognized and sacrosanct. In the society of adults, a tyrant used to be recognized as the elect of God. But to the child a grown -up person represents God Himself. it is beyond discussion; in fact the only person who could discuss it is the child, and he remains silent. He accommodates himself to everything, believes everything, pardons everything. When he is punished, he does not try to justify himself, and willingly asks the pardon of any angry person, forgetting to inquire how he has given offense.
Sometimes too the child will do something to defend himself. This defense is hardly ever a direct reply to the act of the adult, but a vital defense of its own "psychic" integrity, or the reaction of a repressed spirit.
It is only when the child is growing up that he begins to direct his defense with discernment against tyranny; but then the adult finds reasons to justify himself by entrenching himself more and more behind his camouflages. Sometimes he even succeeds in convincing the child that it is for his good that the teacher becomes a tyrant.
"Respect" is only paid by one side; the weak respects the strong. An offense on the part of teacher is legitimate; he can judge the child unfavorably, openly speak ill of him, even go so far as to strike him. The needs of the child are directed and suppressed by the teacher at will and any protest on the part of the child is an insubordination which would be dangerous to tolerate. . . .
[The teacher] in his pride has convinced himself that he has created everything that is in the child; he makes him intelligent, good, religious. That is to say; it is he who has prepared the way necessary to put the child in communication with his surrounding, with man and with God. . . .
What is called for is an act of humility. We must pluck from our hearts a rooted prejudice, just as the priest before ascending to the altar recites his Confiteor. . . .
The charity which helps people to become teachers of little children is that which shows itself in the child, the goodness which the child itself succeeds in showing. Teachers and all those engaged in education, however are more inclined to see evil, so that they may check it at once in the most effective and thorough way. It seems rather as if in that alone consisted all the essentials of a moral education. In the way the roots of good which are beginning to sprout in the children's soul may remain unrecognized and denied.
[A teacher] might often believe that it was he who had sowed the seed of good in the child's soul, and be blind to many delicate and childlike expressions of goodness, just as one who suffers from daltonism is blind to certain colors.
A sensibility capable of seeing good wherever it may be found, even if it is something quite small and hidden away, is allied to the perfect love of which our Master, Christ, was the exemplar. And that love, which lights up everything, we call "charity."
We must not confuse this charity with vague forms of optimism. It does not make us regard all existing things as good, but only what is really good and on that account to be clearly distinguished from evil . Thus the eye of a great artist recognizes at once a really precious object, even if it is small and mixed with many ugly and vulgar things while on the contrary an uneducated person, insensitive to beauty, might regard the ugly things as pleasing and be blind to the beauties of a real work of art.
The kind of goodness to which everything seems good, and evil non-existent, is, therefore, something totally different from the charity which is needed in good teachers of the young."
~ Maria Montessori
The Child in the Church
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