Many of us can not resist putting the important things in life on a schedule. And this includes the education of a child. Now the more material something is, meaning that it is more limited to its activity in terms of space and time, the more one can figure out its schemes of recurrence, and […]
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Natural Concentration: Sustained wonder
Concentration in a child is amazing to observe. Most of the world thinks that children cannot concentrate on anything but video games. But in reality, concentration is quite natural and necessary for proper human development. And the view that children cannot concentrate is rising to new heights because of the way we are using digital […]
Following the imagination of 4-5 year old boys
I have notice a fact for a long time but only recently given it the attention that it deserves. Many boys around the age of 4 or 5, though arguably they start earlier, have a deep inner need to roam and explore a larger world of immediacy. They want to not only find things, but […]
More on Substance
Philia de Humanitas As I continue to hear more about how young people can no longer objectively distinguish between virtual worlds and reality, or at least do not have a significant apprehension of import of the real world as opposed to the virtual world, I thought I should say a bit more about substance. By […]
Developing New Materials for Discovering Substance
by David Fleischacker One of the areas that children naturally discover is that of substances or unities. A substance–to use an ancient definition–is that to which one predicates properties and experiences. It is that identity or unity to which belong colors and shapes, or that which is involved in activity and change. With the advent […]
Off for August
FYI — I will not be posting blogs during August, 2017.
Light and Darkness
by David Fleischacker Light in the physical world is the closest analogy to the human mind that is found. Aristotle recognized that sight is the most liberated of the senses and the sense that is closest to the nature of the human mind, especially what he called the Agent Intellect which translated what Plato called […]
Why self-correction is so important in the materials and activities of a natural atrium and classroom
by David Fleischacker It is key that all materials and activities in the Montessori world assist the child in self-correction. The explanation for this is intrinsic to the nature of the child. Interiority reveals this in questions. The questing spirit of a child continues to press forward until there are no further relevant questions about […]
Why INSIGHT is a key in an atrium or classroom.
by David Fleischacker Though the modern educational world has developed thousands of techniques for dealing with this or that situation in the classroom, there is something central that has never changed in the core of education. That unchangeable reality is that true education generates insights, and all insights spring from patterned images or what Saint […]
Phyllis Wallbank: Her Dream Classroom
By David Fleischacker One day some years ago, Phyllis Wallbank and I were sitting in her living room looking across the pond in her back yard (this is the picture that is the backdrop for this blogsite), and we were talking about the unity of all things in creation. She then in her spontaneous […]