Cover
story Montessori program aims at peace in a world of violence
By DOROTHY VIDULICH
NCR Staff Mount Rainier, Md.
A few miles from the White House and in the shadow of the Catholic
University of America is the incorporated town of Mount Rainier, Md.
The population of 8,000 is for the most part middle class and
multicultural. This is a friendly, close-knit town with a thrift shop, food
co-ops and family stores. Like all closed-in suburbs of major U.S. cities,
though, it is also threatened by violence, drug-dealing, muggings -- even
murder.
How, then, to safeguard the children, to prepare them for living
in a time when the Cold War has receded but their hometown streets have heated
up with the domestic conflicts of the late 20th century? One approach that has
evolved here is a school that educates children from the earliest years in
religious principles and nonviolence.
"Many Mount Rainier parents were graduates of Catholic University
or had resided at nearby religious houses of study -- for a significant number
of them were married priests, former women religious and brothers," explained
Kate Collins, public relations coordinator for the Center for Children and
Theology and a Montessori school catechist.
"Sixteen years ago," said Collins, "meeting as a prayer community,
they struggled with the problem of creating a school that would provide their
children with a good education and a strong faith commitment that would
emphasize values of justice and human rights."
Those meetings occurred in the home of Catherine Maresca, whose
Montessori background led them to "dig deep" and raise $10,000 to hire a
Montessori teacher. The Christian Family Montessori School for children from 3
to 9 became a reality in 1981 when classes began in the Maresca household.
"Coincidentally, as Providence would have it," said Collins, "at the moment
they decided to found a Montessori school, Rebekah Rojcewicz returned from two
years' study in Rome with Sofia Cavalletti, a student of Gianna Gobbi, who had
studied with Maria Montessori."
Cavalletti's method, the catechesis, or instruction, of the Good
Shepherd for children 3 to 12, draws heavily on the "self-teaching principles"
of Montessori, especially in the use of materials, the prepared environment and
the structure of the student's time with the catechist. And Rojcewicz became
the first Montessori teacher and catechist in the Mount Rainier school. The
school is now located in St. James Catholic parish classrooms and offers
religious education to 70 children as part of a regular Montessori school.
After-school classes are held for students from other schools.
Maria Montessori (1870-1952), an Italian physician and pioneer
educator, said Collins, developed her teaching method with great respect for
the "inner teacher" of the child, allowing herself to be guided by the children
in their choice of how and when a child can learn something. In Cavalletti's
adaptation, the catechist's role is to make presentations that "call forth" the
child's response about relating to God rather than to "pour in" information,
explained Collins, who recently returned from a study program with 80-year-old
Cavalletti in Rome.
In Good Shepherd catechesis, after a theme has been presented, the
child is free to go to the atrium, a private place for her or him to work at an
activity that will make possible "the inner dialogue with Jesus."
Montessori catechesis is concrete. "You don't have a child sit at
a desk and write down answers," said Collins. "Children learn through doing.
Visuals, things that a child can hold and manipulate are essential. We use
parables geared to young people, such as the Good Shepherd, and they can handle
three-dimensional sheep, a shepherd, sheepfold. We are there to wonder with
them as they talk about Jesus, about God."
Maresca, now director of the Center for Children and Theology,
said, "Montessori education in its great respect for each child is inherently
nonviolent. We try to bring together the themes of gospel nonviolence in our
work with children to explore how it is communicated to them."
Maresca said that because Mount Rainier is so close to Washington
and there is so much violence around them, by age 9 children have the pieces in
place for a discussion. They begin to apply what they know of Jesus' teaching
to daily news events.
What needs to be done at that age, however, said Maresca, is not
"discussing" the TV and radio news but presenting in the religious education
program some foundational principles they can work at, primarily the constant
supportive love of God and the image of the Good Shepherd that applies to the
events being considered.
Maresca recalled catechist Rojcewicz's experience with a 9-year
old boy who, she said, broke into a strange sort of smile as he reflected on
the maxim "Love your enemies." He said, "This isn't possible because if we
love, then we don't have enemies." He submitted his own version of the maxim:
Love your enemies until they become your friends.
For additional information, contact: Center for Children and
Theology, 3628 Rhode Island Ave., Mount Rainier, MD 20712, phone: (301)
927-1680.
National Catholic Reporter, May 16,
1997
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