In Montessori education, children deepen their understanding of the universe, the Earth, and life between the ages of 6 and 12. We discussed the essence of Cosmic Education.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to share your comments!
Profile
Yati Obara
Editor-in-Chief, Scientific Montessori
Based in Japan, born in 1989. CEO of Motherhand and Co-Director of the nonprofit think tank Polymath Research. Holds an M.Eng. and is an AMI-certified teacher. Focused on Montessori developmental theory and AI. Mother of two.
Hiro Obara
Publisher, Scientific Montessori
Based in Japan, born in 1990. CEO of StudyX and Co-Director of the nonprofit think tank Polymath Research. Works as a software developer and game designer. Father of two.
An educational approach grounded in the 13.8-billion-year history of the universe, the 4.6-billion-year history of Earth, and the 3.8-billion-year history of life.
Yati
Montessori education for ages 6 to 12 isn’t very well known. I’d like to talk about “Aid to Life (preparing the environment for natural development)” for this age group.
Hiro
In a word, it’s about “survival.”
Yati
What do you mean?
Hiro
Sorry to jump straight to the conclusion, but since this topic takes a while to explain, I thought I’d start with the main point. By the way, we don’t hold the international teacher certification for the 6–12 age group. What we’re discussing is based on reading all of Maria Montessori’s works and all the elementary-level texts published by AMI and AMS, combined with our own developmental theory research.
Yati
We’ve also read research papers on Montessori education from around the world. And we’ve done our own investigations into Montessori elementary graduates.
Hiro
That’s right. We know which school Larry Page attended, which school Sergey Brin attended, and about Jeff Bezos’s elementary school years. As for Will Wright’s games, I’ve probably played them more than anyone else in the Montessori community.
Yati
I actually knew Will Wright’s games before I knew about Montessori education, so I was amazed when I started recognizing the Montessori materials his games were based on.
Hiro
Personally, I was shocked that almost no one in the Japanese Montessori community knows about Will Wright. SimCity, SimEarth, and Spore.
Yati
And The Sims and SimAnt.
Hiro
When you play them, you get a window into how someone raised in Montessori elementary thinks.
Yati
For example, in Spore, we simulated 500 million years of life’s history.
Hiro
Right. It was an epic journey, starting as a single-celled organism and heading toward the center of the galaxy. We even experienced terraforming.
Yati
I remember thinking things I’d never normally consider, like “I’m really glad humans are omnivores.” And “Ideals like non-violence alone won’t make running a nation work.”
Hiro
Some of that is due to game design choices. But as an opportunity to think about problems you’d never consider in everyday life or gain perspectives you’d otherwise never have—and as materials for 6–12 elementary—Will Wright’s simulation games are unparalleled.
Yati
SimAnt is an ant simulation game, and the manual includes not just controls but an encyclopedia-like section on ant ecology. It’s a difficult game, so at first things don’t go well. When you get stuck and read the manual to understand ant ecology, you mysteriously get better at the game.
Hiro
All real knowledge is used, and it connects to reality. I heard Will Wright say in a lecture, “There are some game design adjustments to make it more fun, though.”
Yati
I played The Sims so much when I was in elementary school. It’s a life simulation game. Basically a digital version of playing with dolls, but you can see various human needs quantified, and you arrange furniture and adjust the environment to satisfy them.
Hiro
Fundamental human needs.
Yati
Exactly. It’s a major theme in elementary education, and it’s a simulation of the “preparing the environment” aspect of “Aid to Life” that we’re discussing now. From this game, I learned and resolved, “When I grow up, I’m definitely going to sleep in a good bed.”
Hiro
I see. SimCity is probably known by more people—it’s a simulation game where you become mayor.
Yati
Since it was released for Super Nintendo, many people know the game, but I don’t think they know it was created by a Montessori elementary graduate.
Hiro
Setting aside the game content, what Will Wright said about game design was: “You learn more by actually becoming a mayor than by reading a book like ‘How to Become a Mayor.’”
Yati
That really sums it up. I agonized so much over “where to put the waste treatment plant.” Now I understand how the current mayor of Morioka feels.
Hiro
Right. You start thinking about real political issues as if they were your own. Your perspective on urban planning and city design changes.
Yati
I learned that cities grow over time and that you always have to be aware of the fiscal situation. I was a notorious mayor who drove my city to bankruptcy many times. [laughs]
Hiro
When you’re too particular about things, you can’t manage effectively. [wry laugh]
Yati
And when the management target becomes the Earth, that’s SimEarth.
Hiro
First of all, it’s hard just to create an environment where life can emerge.
Yati
Starting from there. [laughs]
Hiro
“Aid to Life” really is difficult. Not too hot, not too cold.
Yati
With carbon dioxide and oxygen in the right proportions.
Hiro
Right, you have to pay close attention to atmospheric composition. The wonderful thing is that you can think childish thoughts like, “Octopuses have taken over the Earth, so should I hit it with an asteroid and reset?” and actually try it.
Yati
It makes you think about the real dinosaur extinction too. I’d love for today’s children to play this.
Hiro
Exactly. But all these games are old now, hard to find, and there are technical issues. I’d be grateful if someone would remake them. But it seems like no one will, so maybe I should do it myself.
Yati
Various people have tried, but I think you really can’t make them without understanding Montessori education and developmental theory. They’re essentially modern Montessori materials.
Hiro
Yeah. It requires knowledge plus sensitivity plus technical skill. It’s difficult.
Yati
The SimEarth manual was written by Hitoshi Takeuchi, a geophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo.
Hiro
The “Age of the Professor.”
Yati
Montessori described the 6–12 stage as the “Age of the Professor.”
Hiro
Yes. But personally, I think “Age of Survival” is more appropriate.
Yati
We’ve come back to your initial conclusion. Why is that?
Hiro
Looking at the four planes of development, ages 6 to 12 correspond to the second plane. In the first plane, it’s a phase of integrating senses and movement, and through that integration, imagination expands.
Yati
Moving from concrete to abstract.
Hiro
Then the question arises: what should that imagination be used for? Looking at what happens in the third plane, it leads to Erdkinder (Children of the Earth). That’s a program where students learn practical self-sufficiency from life on a farm.
Yati
The “Secondary” of the third plane. Secondary corresponds to a time when hormonal balance is unstable, so the idea is to calm down by working with the soil. This stage is also called the “social newborn.”
Hiro
The fourth plane corresponds to university age, a time to prepare for entering social life, but personally, I think of it as the “Age of Natural Philosophy.”
Yati
Since the first and third planes are similar enough to both be called “newborn” stages, and the second and fourth planes are similar enough to both be called “professor” stages, your interpretation seems to fit.
Hiro
Yes. So the fourth plane has a very academic feel. Elementary in the second plane is a phase of broadly and deeply learning about nature at the scale of the cosmos, Earth, and life—knowledge needed for the third plane. To do that, you need to develop literacy in numbers and language. In other words, you need to acquire real knowledge that can withstand the self-sufficiency of Secondary.
Yati
Where does the “survival” aspect come in?
Hiro
In Secondary, you’ll be dealing with many plants and animals, so you need to understand natural ecosystems. You need to understand how the Earth works. Natural phenomena and so on.
Yati
That’s true. As with Will Wright’s games, after learning at a macroscopic scale, you could approach farming and animal husbandry with new perspectives from the viewpoint of the cosmos and ecosystems.
Hiro
Rather than that, knowing “how life was created” before engaging with actual nature versus not knowing changes the difficulty level.
Yati
That connects to the SimAnt discussion.
Hiro
The organism in front of you is an Earth organism, a life form in the universe. It plays some role in the ecosystem. For example, if you know that honeybees pollinate flowers, you’d want to use fewer pesticides.
Yati
Right.
Hiro
Just because something isn’t toxic to vertebrates doesn’t mean you should spread neurotoxins that affect invertebrates in nature. On a planetary scale, that definitely has negative impacts.
Yati
Tracing the 3.8-billion-year history of life would inspire reverence for life.
Hiro
Absolutely. It’s a desecration of all life. I think it stems from ignorance of that miraculous history.
Yati
You mentioned atmospheric composition earlier. There’s lots of nitrogen in the air, and there are microorganisms in the soil that can convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms plants can use. Ignoring that and spreading chemical fertilizers should also feel wrong.
Hiro
Mycorrhizal fungi. In short, I think people who think they’ve learned just by memorizing right and wrong answers from static textbooks can’t grasp nature’s dynamic equilibrium. The real test comes in Secondary, where you find out whether what you’ve learned actually works in nature.
Yati
That’s harsh. Nature passes judgment.
Hiro
Current mainstream education keeps moving further from the real thing. It’s like a simulation of a simulation of a simulation.
Yati
There’s no real work.
Hiro
Spending lots of time there won’t make you wiser. I feel like the fundamental things that should be learned aren’t being learned. Being good at entrance exams isn’t really an essential measure of intelligence.
Yati
I know of overseas Secondary examples where they also function like universities. Teachers act as facilitators, bringing in university professors for opt-in lectures. They also encourage internships at companies. Since students can already do university-level work, being good at entrance exams isn’t really the point.
Hiro
Right. They normally use university research labs too.
Yati
Teachers also teach how to read academic papers, and the children conduct research in agriculture and natural sciences. They also do activities like designing and building cabins. They do real work and learn the knowledge needed for it.
Hiro
Elementary is the preparation period for that, so students need to gain as much real knowledge as possible. The curriculum that provides an intuitive understanding of the roles of humanity, language, and numbers from the grand perspective of cosmic, Earth, and life history exists only in Montessori education. We want to steadily evolve and spread it.
Yati
I’ll continue the research.
Hiro
Having the foundational knowledge that civilization was built from the beginning of the universe, through galaxies, the solar system, Earth, and life—learning various things with that background versus without it changes both learning efficiency and the conclusions reached in discussions.
Yati
That’s right. Though spreading this isn’t easy.
Hiro
It’s not that difficult. If you know history, you realize we’re just following the law of inertia, moving in a certain direction. Once you notice that, it happens quickly.
Yati
Children might be more receptive since they have fewer prejudices.
Hiro
Exactly. World peace begins with children.
