What should we be doing in the classroom in response to news about hate crimes and mass shootings in our society?

There is room to argue that, for our youngest students, a direct discussion about the events themselves might be inappropriate and a bit too much for them to handle emotionally. Older students, such as upper elementary students, are usually aware of news events and can have meaningful discussions about them.

But we shouldn’t ignore elements in our own Montessori curriculum that address the issues behind such events. One area that lends itself to this is the series of lessons on “Fundamental Human Needs.”  While not listed among the “five great lessons” of the Montessori tradition, it is certainly one of the most important series of lessons in the context of Cosmic Education, where unity within division is such a key theme.

Starting with a “Robinson Crusoe” experience of being stranded on an island, children can be led to identify the things most necessary for survival – such as food and water, shelter, clothing to protect against the elements, defensive weapons against wild animals, and all the things that come to their imagination. The classic Montessori chart of fundamental needs divides them into material and spiritual needs, with the latter more specifically human and notable as children grow older. Note that smart phones, video games and the like don’t make the list.

Once we have established a list of these “fundamental” human needs, it becomes clear that ALL human beings in every TIME and PLACE have these same needs to survive, and we just meet them in different ways depending on the time and place where we live. This influences the food we eat, the type of clothing we wear, and the materials we use to make our shelters, to name just a few things. 

Eventually, this type of discussion can lead to the conclusion that all human beings have the same needs, and we just meet them in different ways. And that’s the richness of the human species. How boring our world would be if we all ate the same kind of food, if we all made the same kind of music, if we all had the same dance moves, we all had the same kind of art, or even if we all had the same religious beliefs!

Maria Montessori, in a 1946 lecture in London, noted the amazing ability of humans, in contrast to other species of animals, to adapt to the environment by constructing their own way of life. “Geographically speaking, there is a great variety of human beings. So the behaviour of man is not determined by heredity... He must construct his own adaptation and behaviour in the world.” (The 1946 London Lectures, p. 82). 

Instead of fearing or discriminating against those who are different from us, we should celebrate those differences as a source of richness for the human race. That spirit of tolerance, or even celebration of our differences, would help future generations avoid the kind of hate (essentially rooted in fear of people different from ourselves) that has surfaced in so many mass shootings and hate crimes in our American society in recent decades.

Discussions about respect for those who are different from us in their dress, their preferred food, their religious beliefs and, yes, their skin color are important topics for children in the second plane of development as they seek to find their place in a more social world. These are not conversations we should avoid, but rather ones that we should feel compelled to have with our students within the context of Montessori’s vision for a better world.

If we have done a good job of building a classroom community and delivering the heart of Cosmic Education to our students, there will be no need for us to lecture about respect of others – our students will come to that conclusion on their own. However, it is our job to create time and space in our day for these important conversations. 

This is the route to world peace that Maria Montessori advocated!