Cosmic Education and the Seven Great Lessons for 2023?

By Dane Peters

As a loyal follower of Dr. Montessori, I would love to speak to her. If I could speak to her today, I would ask her about the fantastic Cosmic Education and the Five Great Lessons she assembled back in 1940 and pose the question, how do we build upon those lessons going forward in 2023? Here is some background information on where she was when she developed the Five Great Lessons: “Her 70th birthday request to the Indian government — that Mario [Dr. Montessori’s son] should be released and restored to her — was granted, and together they trained over 1500 Indian teachers. Still under house arrest, the Montessori's spent two years in the rural hill station of Kodaikanal, and this experience guided Maria Montessori’s thinking toward the nature of the relationships among all living things, a theme she was to develop until the end of her life and which became known as Cosmic Education, an approach for children aged 6 to 12.” 1

What is so brilliant about her thinking and work is that these Five Great Lessons were impressively accurate and laid the foundation for how humanity got to where it is today. They were written such that children are stimulated to ask questions, gain perspective on how the earth happened, and become better acquainted with how humanity came about and evolved over time.

For a quick review, here are the Five Great Lessons:

1. “The First Great Lesson is usually referred to as ‘The Creation of the Universe and Coming into Being of Earth.’

2. The Second Great Lesson is ‘The Coming of Life.’ It tells the story of life on earth and introduces the children to the study of biology.

3. The Third Great Lesson ‘introduces human beings and their unique endowments: intellect and will.’

4. The Fourth Great Lesson is ‘The Story of Communication in Signs.’

5. The Fifth Great Lesson is ‘The Story of Numbers.’ Its introduction emphasizes how human beings needed a language for their inventions, so they could convey measurement and how things were made.” 2

Reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and 21 Lessons for the 21 st Century by Yuval Noah Harari heightened my curiosity about the Five Great Lessons. Much like Dr. Montessori, he begins at the very beginning with the evolution of humanity. His Timeline of History notes, “Years Before the Present: 4.5 billion – Formation of planet Earth; 3.8 billion - Emergence of organisms and the beginning of biology; 200,000 – Homo Sapiens evolves in East Africa. The Cognitive Revolution. Emergence of fictive language.”

What instigated my desire to talk with Dr. Montessori now is my concern regarding humanity’s future and the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) that is emerging — at now, breakneck speed. Here are some examples of AI:

• Manufacturing robots

• Self-driving cars

• Healthcare management

• Automated financial investment

It is essential to consider how AI affects each generation, especially the youngest generations — generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) and generation Alpha (those children born in 2016). Particularly with these two generations in mind — the children themselves and the parents raising them — here are some more AI experiences to think about:

• Texting

• Social media and entertainment— Facebook, Netflix, etc.

• Google navigation

• Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft

• Smart cars/self-driving cars

• Banking and financing

• Smart personal assistants, e.g., Siri and Alexa.

For a detailed presentation on these AI examples, go to the online article “13 Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Daily Life.” (See link below.) Also, it was helpful to gain more AI perspective by watching Nick Bostrum’s TED Talk, “What happens when our computers get smarter than us?” (Link on the next page)

For the older generations—Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millennials—to gain some perspective, consider how life changed when the following items emerged in humanity: cameras (1816), telephones (1876), electricity (1880s), computers (1890), flying (1903), automobiles (1908), televisions (1927), Global Positioning System (GPS) replacing paper maps (1995), and computers on smartphones — BlackBerry (2002) and iPhone (2007). And, consider what they have done to alter humanity’s way of life and its future (dates were gathered via Wikipedia — not an encyclopedia). It is crucial to think about pending changes instigated by present and future generations. Based on a 2016 statistic presented by the National Association of Independent Schools — “Ten thousand Baby Boomers will retire every day through the year 2030 . . .” 3 — we see Baby Boomers turning their generation over to the GenXers, Millenials, and GenZers . . . during the next 10-30 years.

The use of the iPhone by adults and young people has become so prevalent in our lives, in particular, texting, social media, online shopping, Google searching, games, etc. Now that many schools permit iPhones in common areas like cafeterias, playgrounds, waiting for rides, etc., we see children and teachers with heads bent, staring at and using their phones. In his TED Talk, “What explains the rise of humans?” Harari touched upon what humans are faced with today regarding AI . . . “As computers become better and better in more and more fields, there is a distinct possibility that computers will out-perform us in most tasks and will make humans redundant. And then the big political and economic question of the 21st century will be, "What do we need humans for?" or at least, "What do we need so many humans for?" 4 The “interference” of iPhones and computers has been exacerbated over the past three years by the Covid pandemic and what they have done to school environments, teaching, and children’s learning.

In 1940, Dr. Montessori’s Great Lessons gave humanity, especially children, an idea of how humanity worked its way through communication, numbers and how human beings needed a language for their inventions so they could convey measurement and how things were made. Now, 82 years later, I would ask Dr. Montessori about AI. Given what we know about it and are experiencing — good, bad, and how it is taking over the evolution of humanity — how do we have to focus on its impact on the lives of children? Also, how can they be supported in a positive way in order to build their and future generations to use AI to support humanity? Can we add to your Five Great Lessons? What would you think of including these two new lessons for our children today?

6. The Sixth Great Lesson “The Advent of Artificial Intelligence” and how children can use it in the best ways possible.

Might this extend Great Lesson Three — “The Third Great Lesson introduces human beings and their unique endowments: intellect and will?” When we look at where humanity is today, we have to consider the use of AI for one another and how children can use it in the best ways possible.

7. The Seventh Great Lesson “Highlighting love within humanity to help quell dissension, greed, and class systems.”

An important aspect of distinguishing humans and how they behave under the Great Lessons is eloquently presented in the classic book Montessori Today when Paula Polk Lillard talks about teachers telling stories to children to help them think about early humanity and humanity in later years. “The teacher encourages the children to think about their own minds and about all the things that they can think of in their daily lives. They discuss the first human beings on earth and what they could feel and see and think about.” 5 The critical word she injects is “love.” “The children discuss how they can love their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, families and friends. The teacher might continue, ‘This very different ability to love involves caring about people that we cannot see and may never know. We want all people on earth never to be hungry or sick or in need.’ ” For me, love is what differentiates the difference between humanity and AI and is critical in how we help children with their understanding.

Finally, I would thank Dr. Montessori for her time and the brilliance she has shared with humanity, especially our children.

References

Harari, Yuval Noah, (2014), Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harari, Yuval Noah Harari, (2015), TED Talk: “What Explains the Rise of Humans?,” https://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_what_explains_the_rise_of_ humans.

“13 Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Daily Life,” (2020), Digitology website, https://blog.digitalogy.co/best-examples-of-artificial-intelligence-in-everydaylife/.

Bostrum, Nick, (2015), TED Talk “What happens when our computers get smarter than we are?” https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_bostrom_what_happens_when_ our_computers_get_smarter_than_we_are.

Lillard, Paula Polk Lillard, (1996), Montessori Today.

Footnotes

1 American Montessori Website “Biography of Maria Montessori”. https:// montessori-ami.org/resource-library/facts/biography-maria-montessori

2 Montessori Today, pages 60 - 66

3 NAIS BULLETIN September 21, 2016

4 TED Talk: “What Explains the Rise of Humans?” (5:12), Harari

5 Montessori Today, pages 67 - 68

Dane Peters: Right after college, Dane served as a Captain in the U. S. Marine Corps, and 40 years later, he retired as head of Brooklyn Heights Montessori School (BHMS), a toddler through eighth-grade school in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to heading BHMS for eleven years, he served as head of Mooreland Hill School in Connecticut for eleven years. He recently completed his service as the administrator for the New York State Association of Independent School’s (NYSAIS) Experienced Leaders Advising Schools program. He is currently teaching and serves on the Advisory Committee for the American Montessori Society’s (AMS) Emerging Leaders Fellowship program.

Dane has written over 100 articles that have appeared in 30 different publications. His first book, Independent by Design , was published in 2014. His second book, Design for Independence, Inspiration, and Innovation: The New York State Association of Independent Schools at 70 , was published in 2017. You can read many of his articles on his blog ( www.danesedblog.blogspot.com ).