Indeed, Maria Montessori recognized that repetition is the basis of learning, and that it leads to attaining the perseverance that aids the evolution and establishment of a scientific mind. The quiet and peace of the Montessori classroom shelter these almost meditative activities. In our classrooms, children are allowed to repeat an activity until mastery –not boredom- renders the activity “finished”. And yet there’s an additional, and underlying, purpose to this.
I blissfully watch the intensity with which “my children” build a tower, the authentic glee with which they make it crash down, and then, the scientific accuracy with which they erect it again. They build a city of two hundred wooden blocks for the sole pleasure of wiping it out and rebuilding it immediately. The sand castle that takes half a morning disappears in two seconds bare, just to be born again…
Without regret or second thoughts, the work of the children acknowledges the wisdom that we -adults- seem to forget we once had, and yearn to acquire again: Nothing is permanent; life is a flux, a constant give and take; win and lose.
Children recognize without a problem that life is nothing else but a never ending cycle in which patience and the joy of the labor itself are the means and the goal. The peace of the work accomplished starts with the work itself.
Many years ago, while accompanying my mother in her fight with lymphoma, I had the chance to visit a Buddhist temple where I watched the painstaking labor of the monks creating a sand mandala for days, and then carefully- but in minutes- destroy it. I was dazed with astonishment, in my mid 20s I was already old enough to lack the innate wisdom of childhood, but yet still too young to understand the profound lesson involved in the creating and destroying of the mandala. 20 years later, and after spending many hours in the company of my ever wise preschoolers, it is crystal clear why.
Knowledge, success, money, academic and professional prowess… of all the reasons why someone should be educated, one should be paramount, detachment of the “end”, character-building through patience and tenacity, and the inalienable and self-built confidence that yes, you can do this -again and again- and enjoy each and every time. If we could just live each day and work each day with this attitude…
So, if you ever need a moment to gather your thoughts, catch your breath, or sooth your soul, come build a tower with us; joy guaranteed.